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“Well, that’s fucked.”

“Right?” I stare at the splinters in my knuckles. Well, that was fucking stupid. Just one more dumbass thing she made me do. This really is all her fault.

“Fuckin’ women.” Reaper’s low chuckle breaks the tension.

I laugh. He may be filled with darkness, but he does have a way of making me laugh from time to time. It’s rare, but it happens.

“She doesn’t know anything about me. I mean, I told her a little bit.”

“About that?” Reaper stabs a finger toward the mansion.

“Yeah.”

“How much does she know?”

“I told her about the day Blackstone took me to his house. A bit about that night. But no real details.”

“Why not?”

“Why not?” I look at him like he’s nuts. “You know what we went through. If I tell her all that stuff, she’ll run for sure.”

“If you don’t want her around, why not give her the whole story?”

“Have you told anyone about it other than us?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s mine. No one needs to know.” Reaper’s face darkens.

“Exactly. Why the fuck would I tell her any more than I already have?” I ask.

“You like her.”

“What? No!” I want to stop my foot like the four-year-old kid I was when I first got to Blackstone’s.

“If you didn’t like her, you’d get rid of her.”

“I wouldn’t kill her.”

“Not what I meant.” He shakes his head at me as if I’m an idiot.

He’s not wrong. When it comes to Julia, I’m at a total loss for how to deal with her. I’ve never encountered anyone like her before. I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t know what the hell to do with all these feelings, theseurgescoming from my heart.

“Have you ever wanted to keep one of your women?” I ask.

“Keep?” He cocks his head to one side as if this is a completely foreign concept.

“Like, I don’t know, maybe make one of them your old lady?”

“No,” he says.

“Yeah, me either.”Until now.

Our phones ping. I grab mine and look at the message from Matrix. He knows we’re here because of the cameras. He wants us to reposition one on the other side of Blackstone’s mansion. Apparently, a wild animal knocked it out of alignment. I text back and let him know we’re on it.

“Should we hike over or ride?” Reaper asks.