Page 26

ABI
Colter and I sit silently in the back of the same car he forced me into back when my life here hadn’t completely fallen apart. The guy who clasped a hand over my mouth and dragged me to it is driving us away from the shadier part of town toward a more esteemed neighborhood. The one Colter lives in. The partition is up, so it’s only Colter’s presence I feel.
Currently, he’s typing away on his phone. How someone could be important enough to take precedence over what just happened is beyond me.
I need to say something. One of us has to, and I hope he knows I can’t go home with him. I need to get home to Zeke,now.
And then we need to get the fuck out of town.
“I’m sorry,” Colter says. I startle, his voice the last thing I expect to hear, let alone his apology. I face him and stare blankly at his hardened state, no phone in hand. He doesn’t look sorry. He looks pissed.
“If I had thought there was a chance you weren’t the one who fucked everything up, I would have waited to seek you out until I knew for sure.”
Since I met him, he’s terrified me to no end. He reminds me too much of Devin. Too vengeful, too much power. But now I don’t feel fear, not from him. Now I feel anger.
I can’t help but scoff, and his head finally turns my way. He pins me with a glare, and I glare back. “The one who fucked everything up?You’rethe one who fucked everything up. For me, for yourself, and for my son. Take some personal responsibility, and then do me a favor and go to hell.”
“I just saved your life back there, do you realize that?”
“You’re the reason they took me in the first place.”
“Really? Did I invite you up to my bedroom? DidIfuckyouunder false pretenses?”
My cheeks go red, and it’s a tossup as to whether it’s from anger or embarrassment. I face forward and cross my arms over my chest.
When he doesn’t say anything else, I grit through my teeth, “I need to go home.”
“You can’t,” he says without even considering it. “Not until we sort this out.”
“What is there to sort out? I’m leaving town.Now. Tell them we broke up, or tell them anything you want, I don’t care, just take me home.”
“It doesn’t work that way.” He spits out the words like I’m an idiot for not knowing how mobsters do things.
I swing my head toward him and scowl. “What way does it work then?”
He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair, disheveling it. It’s the first time I’ve seen it unruly, not slicked back with every strand in place. I hate him for it, but he looks even more handsome this way.
“We’ll have to let this thing play out for a little while. Once the election is over, they won’t be monitoring my every move. Then you can leave.”
“You want me to pretend to be your fiancée for amonth?”
“I want you to do whatever you have to to keep us both alive.”
At that, my anger cools. I’m still hot, like water poured on coals, but every second that goes by, the fear seeps in more. The danger of the situation hits me again with full force, and I don’t realize how rigid I’ve gone until Colter’s fingertips touch my shoulder. I jerk away from his touch automatically, and my muscles wind tighter.
“Why do you do that?” he asks, curiosity in his voice more than anything else.
“Do what?” I straighten my shoulders and shift so I’m not pressed against the door. I do my best to relax my shoulders so they don’t bunch.
“Freeze up like that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes you do.”
I give him a pointed look and then stare at my reflection in the shiny blackness of the partition.
“Who are you running from, Abi?”