Page 64 of Entangled

“Wh-What?” I stutter. “No, he didn’t touch me. I would have given him a face full of gasoline if he tried and been in a decidedly less calm mood when I arrived. Who is he?”

Jace’s eyes flick to Zane’s and I turn my head, seeing the tense looks on his and Andrea’s faces. Watching the silent conversation play out between the two guys that has Jace’s jaw clenching.

“Jace, who is he?”

He brings his uncharacteristically serious eyes back to mine, unclenching his jaw. “How did he know you’re my girl?”

“I don’t know!” I burst, nerves riding me hard and done with his non-answers. “He said that he had seen me around town with you. Now who is he?”

“Fuck,” Jace mutters the word, brows pulling down as he stands. He turns toward the ocean and raises his hands to grip the back of his head. “Fuck!”

I dart my eyes to Andrea and see her cringe but when she and Zane offer no answers, I stand. Walking around to where Jace stands, I see the way his chest is rising and falling at a rapid pace, tension locking up his whole body.

“Who is he?” I ask him quietly.

He keeps his narrowed eyes on the water. “My past catching up with me.”

“I’m going to need you to explain that one, Dawson.”

He drops his eyes to me and I see the concern and fear radiating out of them. “It’s complicated.” He pauses. “I don’t want to involve you, it’s… fuck you’re already—”

He cuts himself off, heaving a breath as he looks back to the ocean and I realize something in that moment. He may be scared for me, or about involving me, but I am done having any kind of secrets between my bedmates and me. I am learning and I won’t make the same mistakes I did last summer. I won’t allow someone close again without knowing their first and last name, past and present address of residence, whole freaking family tree, and everything in between. I foolishly believed I was invulnerable before, that I could weather any storm, and I won’t be that stupid again. If he wants to keep winding tendrils through my walls then he can very well explain.

I cock my head at him, copping an attitude and crossing my arms. “Well uncomplicate it for me.”

He waits a beat and then drops his eyes to me again, lips pulling up into a small, fake-ass smile. “Just stay away from him, okay?” He reaches up and tugs at my hair like he didn’t just freak out. Trying to smooth things over and appease me. “Promise me if you see him, you’ll call me?”

Uh, no. Sorry, Dawson. You may be clever but you would be shit at poker.

“Um, yeah. No.” I take a step back and narrow my eyes on him. “Trust me, I’m definitely not inviting them over for Christmas but you’re going to need to explain—”

“Them?” he cuts me off, face dropping back into that tense, freaked-out expression again. “You didn’t say anything about them before.”

I roll my eyes at him in irritation. He’s going to give me fucking whiplash. “I don’t know! There was another guy in the car but I didn’t get a good look at him.”

“Fuck,” he mutters, bringing a hand up and running it down his face. Totally zoning out as he looks away from me.

Yeah, screw this.

“You know what?” I take a step back and move to walk around him. “When you get over your freak-out and feel like explaining, come find me.”

He darts his hand out and snags my elbows, eyes bleeding his panic all over me. “You can’t just leave by yourself. Not after—”

He cuts himself off again and I rip my elbow out of his grasp, throwing him a mocking look. “I can do whatever I damn well please until you explain to me why the fuck that’s not the case.”

I take off up the beach, ignoring Andrea and Zane when they call out to me, anger fueling my fast pace as I march through the sand.

“Fuck!”

Jace’s curse sounds through the air behind me but I don’t stop, despite the twinge of pain in my heart. I may have fought Coop at the beginning, but in the end, I trusted everything he said implicitly, and maybe he was telling the truth. Who knows? Not me. That’s the worst part. The not knowing whether it was real or not. But I do know I can’t let myself be dragged into something blindly again. Let myself fall so hard like I did before when, at the end of the day, I really didn’t know anything at all. I wouldn’t survive it a second time.

But seriously… fuck this day.

Chapter 17

One Year Ago

The soft sound of waves crashing pulls me from my sleep and I crack my eyes against the light spilling in from the open folding glass doors. My gaze lands on Coop’s tattooed back where he leans up against the side of the house, phone to his ear, a loose pair of black basketball shorts slung low on his hips. His voice is hushed, too quiet for me to hear what he’s saying over the sound of the waves, but from the way his shoulders are tight with tension I’d wager he’s not too happy about whatever the conversation is. I flip over to snag my camera from the nightstand where I left it last night after snapping pictures of sea turtles returning to the ocean and pause, eyes landing on the neatly folded piece of paper sitting atop it.

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