Page 89 of Burn

Finally, she sits up and sees the boy. “He’s so cute.”

The boy notices Jacey and walks inside our apartment to fucking sit next to her on the couch.

Confused as to why we have a child inside the apartment with us, I grab my cell phone ready to call Kellan and report a missing child. “Do you think he’s lost?”

“I don’t know.” Jacey wraps her arm around him. “Ask him.”

Scratching the side of my head, I sit on the other side of him. “I don’t think he talks.”

Jacey gets up, goes into the kitchen and grabs him a cookie, and then gives him a blanket and holds him.

I stare at her, blankly. Suddenly she’s mothering him? “We can’t keep him. Stop making him comfortable.”

She actually looks sad. “Why can’t we?”

“Are you serious? He’s someone’s kid. And at some point, us having him in here would be considered kidnapping.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“Am I?” I raise an eyebrow. “Do you want to go to jail?”

The boy looks from me to Jacey, and then back to me.

“Not really,” Jacey says. “Maybe you should call Kellan.”

Just as I’m about to, Mila walks in with two bags of takeout, sets them on the counter and then looks at Jacey, me, and then the boy.

“Who’s he?”

I smile and wrap my arm around the boy. “My son. Sorry I didn’t tell you.”

Mila’s eyes widen, and Jacey shakes her head, mumbling something indecipherable. “Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“Oh, okay.” And then she takes out the food like he’s no big deal that I kept something as monumental as a child from her for the last two weeks. Given we’re only fucking but still, wouldn’t something like that really piss a woman off?

The four of us, the boy included, are halfway through eating and I’m positive we’re all going to jail for kidnapping, when we hear a frantic mother screaming in the hallway, “Logan! Where are you?”

I look at the boy who has a mouth full of rice. “Is your name Logan?”

He doesn’t say anything.

The screaming gets louder and the mother’s knocking on doors. “Logan! Come to Mommy’s voice!”

I nudge the boy. “I think she’s looking for you, dude.”

Jacey goes to the door and lets the mother in. “Oh my God!” She grabs her chest, gasping. “Logan honey, you scared Mommy! Don’t ever go outside without telling me.”

Turns out Logan’s deaf and he didn’t understand a word we said to him.

His mother glances at the food and his shirt that’s covered in sweet and sour sauce he drank. “Did you feed him?”

I point to Jacey. “No, she did.”

Jacey kicks me but doesn’t say anything.

The mother leaves and Mila’s shaking her head and twirling noodles around chopsticks. “You’re such a liar.”

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