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I chuckle. “Good luck with that. You’re fucking delusional if you think he’ll let you get close to him for even a second.”

Callum turns to me, and I finally look at him again, seeing a sparkle in his pale blue eyes.

“He let you come here all by yourself, didn’t he? How smart could he be?” He casually reaches into his own coat and puts his hand inside, slowly revealing the butt end of a gun.

I roll my eyes. “You’re gonna shoot me in broad daylight, in a park?”

“I’ve done worse, kid,” he insists. “I don’t care who sees. Convincing them you attacked me first would be easy as pie.”

I lean back against the bench and extend my arms to either side, one behind him.

“There’s just one problem,” I tell him.

“What’s that?” he asks, looking far too smarmy.

I nod my head to the side he isn’t paying attention to. “I didn’t come alone.”

He blinks and looks to the right. Three armed security guards dressed in civilian clothing are standing by a “no off-leash dogs” sign, chatting while clearly looking at us.

“I would’ve come alone, but Pops insisted they follow me around,” I say.

“He’s that afraid of me?” Callum asks, his hand gripping the gun tighter. I see the anxiety in his eyes, but it hasn’t convinced him not to mess with me yet.

“Nah. They’re mostly here for your sake,” I whisper as I lean in closer. “You’re awfully cocky for a seventy-year-old man who brings a gun to a fight I could win with one hand tied behind my back.” I toss the letter at him and stand up.

The guards shift their stance, on edge, but I wave casually. “All good, boys. I’m heading to dinner.” I look at Callum again, who has concealed his gun. “Make sure you read that.”

Not another word is said as I walk away from him and back to my car, feeling Callum’s glare on my back the whole way.

I need to see Ethan again.

Another week has gone by with nothing but seeing him from a distance. My family has kept me busy, but so has school. My father is up my ass about actually trying, and I have a feelinghe talked to all my professors, because they’re all suddenly as invested in raising my grades as Wilkam.

I’m going crazy thinking about Ethan and wondering what would happen if he just let himself do what he wanted to do.

If I let myself do what I wanted to do.

I see him at the coffee shop alone, and I think…I could go in there. Sit with him. Drag him back to his apartment and strip him of all the lies, all the pain…and provide him with a different kind of pain, pain and pleasure mixed together perfectly. God, I want to shove my cock down his throat until he chokes and fuck his tight ass until he’s crying out while spraying his cum all over himself. I need to hear his perfect little whimpers.

I want to make him beg me not to stop, beg me to stop, beg me for everything.

But then I see him with Lena, holding hands. Smiling. Talking. Close. I see him with Nathan. I see how comfortable they are with each other; I see how much he doesn’t need me in his life. How much I would fuck him up.

And I want to end him, just so I can stop these maddening thoughts.

I could crush him so easily beneath my hands.

Yet the idea of him being gone is like a hole in my chest.

How can I feel all this shit for a guy I don’t even know?

I can’t take wondering anymore.

I want to see him.

Ineedto see him.

So, knowing exactly when he’ll be getting home tonight after his last class, I park in the back of the lot and wait.