Page 74 of Rules of Association

“Bye—Oh, Connor.” Ox stopped, turning back to me just after they’d started toward the back entrance of the coffee shop. “Have you seen my sister around anywhere?”

Ice ran through my veins at the sound of that question. I narrowed my eyes, and Tine flickered a confused look up at his face. The guy just continued to look at me, seeming unbothered and unalarmed by our strange reactions.

I cleared my throat. “Which one?”

“The one that’s been missing,” he answered pointedly.

Flicking a look at Tine, I blinked. And then forcing myself to get it together, I made myself shrug. “Um, I think Alta works out at the same gym as me sometimes. But that’s about it. Why, is something up?”

Ox stared at me and I don’t know if it was just my guilty conscience or his intense nature, but it felt like he was staringthroughme. Then, like a bubble, the menacing demeanor popped and he shrugged, looking down at his wife with a loving closed lip smile. “Well, I thought I’d give it a shot. She missed dinner this week, so if you see her, tell her we’re worried about her.”

I didn’t take the bait and agree. He purposely didn’t specify who “her” was for a reason. To see what I knew and how much. Which did nothing to tell me whatheknew and how much.

But as I said goodbye and raced back down the coast to the very same girl he was looking for, it was clear he knewsomething.

Chapter Nineteen

CECI

“What’s wrong with you?” Nina asked a couple of Thursdays later as the three of us were picking up popcorn residue from the third consecutive movie night in a row. I didn’t look up from my attention on the broom and dustpan, but the silence that followed pulled my attention upward.

“You’re talking to me?”

“Yes, you!” Christine snorted from her corner of the room. “Who else has been moping around here silent all day? Directly after missing work last week, mind you.”

“You guys are aware I don’t work here, right?” I asked, less as a joke than normal. The lines seemed like they were starting to blur lately. Sort of like they were with everything else.

They waved me off.

“Stop avoiding the question,” Nina said, popping a hip out. “What is wrong with you? Did something happen?”

I bit my lip. Something had definitely happened. I’d learned from everyone’s concern including Paulo’s when he’d confronted me for my recklessness last week, and now my family’s growing suspicion at my continued absence, that something was definitely happening with me. I stopped denying it, but did I really want to rehash it with these women who saw and heard about so much worse on a daily basis? I wasn’t sure.

The way Nina's eyebrows pulled down in her trademark expression for her listening face and how Christine outright dropped her broom and dustpan where she stood and rushed over to me to grab my hands, softened me up a bit. It made me want to confide in them, if only to tell someone.

I knew I could tell my family. I also knew I had Connor in my corner. But it was different with both.

On one hand Connor somehow experienced that terrible night with me. He had this fierce protection of me that wouldn’t allow him to admit that I’d done anything wrong. I mean, he wasn’t stupid, he knew that I shouldn’t have been walking by myself. That I probably should have called the police rather than calling him. But he kept saying I did all that I could do and there was no reason for me to feel any type of guilt about it.

And that just wasn't true.

My family, on the other hand,shouldstay in the dark. Telling them would only cause a fuss. One that could last foryears. I would probably have a bodyguard until the day I got married, in which a contingency of that marriage would be that I must be guarded at all hours of the day. I didn’t want that.

So yes, maybe telling these girls would garner me something other than what I was getting, yet still I hesitated.

But in the end it was the seriousness morphing their faces that got me talking. The concern of friends.Myfriends.

With a breath that pained my chest, I let the words trickle out. “The other night when I left here, someone followed me.”

“What!” they both borderline screeched.

“Shh!” I stepped toward them, gesturing for them toshut up. Looking over my shoulder, I flipped my gaze around the room to make sure there were no stragglers around to overhear. The last thing I wanted to do was trigger anyone who was going through something worse.

“What happened, Selena?” Nina asked, calm enough to at least keep it together. Christine, on the other hand, was pacing the large square room with her hands on her forehead and her breath huffing out fast. I chased her down first, pulling her hands from her braids and holding onto them in mine.

“Do not do that, Christine,” I hissed. “I don’t want to freak out any of the women here. And I don’t want to make a big deal out of it.”

“Is it a big deal?” Nina asked. “Like, what happened? Did you get away from them?”

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