Page 92 of Keep Him Like Secrets

True, his ‘help’ had never been free.

But up until this point, it had never been violent.

That said, he’d been unraveling for years.

There’d been a time when his arrest would have gutted me.

All I felt when it had happened, though, was relief.

It was all finally over.

Until his name was on my screen.

I should have known better than to celebrate too early.

Alen Hakobyan was like nonstick cookware. Toxic as fuck. And so slippery that nothing ever stuck to him. Especially not charges. He had one of the best criminal attorneys around.

I would know.

It was my money that paid for her.

“Good then. I’m on my way. Wouldn’t you rather meet somewhere else? Somewhere we could get some food or a drink?”

Anywhere but at the club where Saff might see him and call the cops. Or, worse yet, investigate herself.

My stomach twisted hard at that thought.

I never wanted her to know about Alen. Not any more than I’d already told her about the friend who gave me a place to stay and a leg up.

The Alen that I had known when I was young.

Not this one.

“No, I think this is the perfect place for the conversation,” he said, his tone cold. It made a sliver of ice slip into my bloodstream.

“Alright, man. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

“Good,” Alen said, and there were more shuffling sounds in the background. What was he doing? Moving shit around? “Because I’m trying to play nice right now.”

“Play nice?” I repeated, confused.

“Yeah, with Blue here. But she’s a feisty one. I might not be so nice for too much longer.”

I felt like the world fell out from underneath me.

Like I’d been sucked into some void.

Saff.

He had Saff.

My stomach churned so hard I was sure I was going to be sick.

I pressed the phone to my chest.

“Calvin. Fuck the red lights and speed limits,” I said, watching his eyes find mine in the rearview. There was an intensity I’d never seen there before, like he understood perfectly well that the shit had just hit the fan.

He nodded and wove into the next lane to a chorus of horns.

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