Page 284 of Hide and Keep

“The usual. He just…wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“That shouldn’t be the usual,” he says, probably referring to his own experience as well.

“It shouldn’t,” I agree.

“How far did he get?”

“Not as far as he wanted.”

“Did he hurt you or not?”

“He hurt me, but using the moves you taught me, he wasn’t able to rape me.”

“Is that why you wanted me to teach you them?”

I nod. “The word ‘no’ is a powerful man’s top allergen, and Mallory is—”

“A nobody. I had to look him and his dad up. They own some kind of hydrogen plant. That’s it.”

I wait for him to expand on that but he doesn’t. At all.

“Umm, well, power isn’t earned. It’s assumed. If Mallory believes he’s powerful, then he is.”

“You have a rich daddy. You have an aversion to the word ‘no.’”

“I don’t like whenyoutell me ‘no,’” I argue.

“Are you powerful?”

“That’s…” I shake my head. “No, that’s different.”

“How?”

“I’m a woman.” Duh.

“But same logic applies. If you believe you’re powerful, then you are.”

“I have no powers.”

“You fly.”

I can only scoff.

“Okay, fine. What do you call what you’ve done to me?”

“Bribery?”

Crue’s sudden burst of laughter triggers my own.

“You never gave me any money,” he says.

“Only because I don’t have any of my own.”

“You can make it.”

“How? I don’t have a lot of skills.”

“Then you focus on the skills you do have. Like, uh… You can teach art. Or coach cheerleading.”

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