Page 149 of A Dirty Business
I gritted my teeth, tasting my own tears, and fuck him. Fuck them.
I didn’t move, hearing whoever came toward the bed.
They didn’t touch the bed. They didn’t touch me, but it was Ashton. “Leave Trace alone. After this, when you go back, don’t see him. Don’t call him. Don’t show up anywhere he’ll be. You’re fired from the nightclub.”
God.
He was gutting me alive. That’s how it felt.
“Trace has no idea about any of this, and he won’t because you’re not going to tell him. You proved tonight that you can’t separate him from what he does.” He turned, going for the door. The floor creaked underneath him until I heard his pause again. “You’re not the snitch, but you’re not far from one either.”
I held my breath, my heart pounding against my sternum, until he went all the way downstairs.
I could hear conversation beneath me.
There were voices from outside.
Then, more voices outside, and a door shut beneath me. It was loud enough to shake the house.
I didn’t dare move. I couldn’t. Not yet.
A car started.
Car doors were opened, then shut.
Tires moved over gravel.
Then silence.
Nothing.
I bolted for the bathroom, falling into the shower as my bladder released at the same time I vomited, emptying out everything that was inside of me. Including me.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
JESS
A month later
My phone started ringing as I was balancing a box in my arms, stepping onto the front porch.
Molly came over, pulled my phone out of my back pocket, and showed me the screen.
Trace calling.
“Ignore it.”
She hitdecline, put the phone back in my pocket, and opened the door for me.
Of all the places I was moving into, yeah. I couldn’t begin to explain it.
“That’s like the third call he’s made just today, and I’ve only been around you for an hour.”
I gave her a look, taking my box into my mom’s kitchen.
Yes. My mom’s house. The joke was on me, in so many ways.
She looked around the house, noting the musty smell. “Your mom’s where again?”
