Page 60 of Hunted Innocence

Hale drivesme to my apartment, but he doesn’t just drop me off. Instead, he climbs out of the car and follows behind me.Stopping at my front door, I expect him to say goodbye and move along back to his car.

He doesn’t.

Rather, he follows me into my apartment, closing the door behind him. Spinning around, I arch a brow as I take him in, silently wondering what the fuck is going on. He smirks down at me, his eyes searching mine.

“Figured you’re here to get some shit to take back to Grayson’s,” he says.

I start to protest and explain that I am here to stay when he walks farther into my apartment and begins examining the place, almost as if he’s sizing it up.

“Hale?” I ask.

He looks over his shoulder at me, his lips curving up into a grin as his gaze dances around. I don’t know why, but he seems almost excited before he asks me a question. I can’t imagine what he’s going to ask.

“You in a lease?”

“For another year,” I say.

He hums, then shifts his attention back around and walks over to the window. “I can take it over for you.”

“You can take it over for me?”

Hale turns around to face me again, and something flashes in his eyes. I can’t describe what it is, but something is working in his mind. I open my mouth to ask him, but then snap my lips closed because I know that it’s not my business.

“Yeah,” he says. “I can take it over for you so you can move in with Grayson.”

Standing in front of him, I blink, then clear my throat, mainly because I’m not sure what I should be saying here. “Hale,” I begin, “I’m not moving in with Grayson.”

His smile doesn’t even twitch, it doesn’t fade, and it doesn’t falter. Instead, I think it might actually grow at my words. Hetakes a step toward me, then another, stopping when he’s about six feet away.

“Honey,” he mutters. “Yeah, you are.”

And as if he’s summoned Grayson himself, with just those words, the door flies open behind me. Spinning around, I see Grayson standing in my doorway. I’m sure Hale told him that he brought me here, or maybe it was Theron. It doesn’t matter because he appears to be pissed off. Red-faced, vein popping out in his forehead, pissed off.

Oh no.

But also… why does he look so hot?

Chapter Twenty-Six

GRAYSON

Hale slipsout of Nadine’s apartment without me having to tell him to, which is good, because I can’t speak right now. Staring at her standing in the middle of her living room, her eyes wide with surprise, her lips parted with awe, her chest rising and falling with her breaths, it’s almost enough to send me over the edge.

But then I watch as her nostrils flare, and that’s it.

I’m over the goddamn edge.

Slamming the door closed behind me, I flip the lock into place and slowly stalk toward her.

“What are you doing here?” she breathes.

“Funny,” I say. “I’m wondering the same thing.”

We stare at one another in silence for what feels like a lifetime. I take one step closer toward her, then another, repeating the move until I’m close enough to touch her. I don’t, though, not yet.

“It’s time for me to move on,” she whispers.

I blink, unsure that I’ve heard her correctly. “Move on?” I ask.

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