Page 47 of Cruel Betrayal

“Fine, then I wanted to talk to you about the training schedule you have with all these fights coming up.”

I settle onto a bench, stretching my legs out in front of me and pulling out a tattered copy ofDraculafrom my pocket. “Sure, talk about it all you want, but I think the one I sent you is goingto have to be good enough with everything else I have going on this month.”

“If you’re only sticking to training five out of seven days, you’re going to get your ass handed to you.” Tyson shuffles something around. “And I know you think that it’s enough, but two of those five days, your training is allegedly just running a couple miles and jumping some rope. You and I both know that’s not going to be enough.”

“I have other matters that I have to attend to.” I flip to the page I was last on, smoothing out the dog-eared page.

Tyson lets out another irritated noise. “Ezra, you need to get serious about this.”

I glance up from my book, scanning the windows until I see Jade walking by. She’s talking to a woman beside her, laughing like she’s known the woman for some time, but I did my research into the class. Jade doesn’t know a soul in there.

She’s going to have to push past her boundaries if she’s going to make a friend and borrow a phone to call whoever it is she’s going to call.

I’m not stupid enough to think she isn’t going to call anyone.

I know her too well. Besides, it’s the first thing I would do in her position too.

She doesn’t know that I’m watching her, though. And that’s going to make this game of cat and mouse all the more fun.

Tyson huffs. “You’re not even listening to me.”

“I told you that I have other things to do today. If you want to talk about this, then we can talk about it later.”

“Ezra!”

I end the call, uninterested in listening to more. For now, life is about watching my love and waiting for her next plan to escape.

The doors swingopen around lunchtime, and Jade jogs down the steps. She at least looks for me, but I can tell she doesn’t see me. If she did, she wouldn’t keep walking toward the street like it’s her mission in life to get away without looking too panicked.

I push off the tree I’m leaning on, tucking away my book and following behind her.

I keep my distance, head down, hands in my pockets, and hood up.

We weave through the students walking down the street, heading around the corner.

I pause, stepping into a doorway when she looks over her shoulder.

The moment she turns back around and keeps going, I continue to follow her.

She’d almost be good at this escaping thing if she could figure out there’s a tail on her. I would’ve thought that her family trained her better than this.

At least it makes hunting her down easy.

She steps into a coffee shop and orders something at the counter. She’s sitting down at the table with her latte—becausegod forbid she try anything a little stronger—when Haven walks in.

I lean against the brick wall across the street, opening my book and facing slightly away. Jade won’t be able to see my face if she looks this way, but from the corner of my eye and the reflection of the blacked-out shop window in front of me, I can see everything she’s doing.

She leans closer to Haven, whispering something before leaning back. The two of them start laughing as they settle down and have lunch together.

I wait for more Lyndes to swarm the area, but none of them do. Not from the moment Jade sat down until the moment she gets up and hugs Haven tight.

There are tears in Jade’s eyes as she heads back to school.

Interesting.

She and I need to have a little conversation at the end of the day.

“How wasthe first day of being a chef?” I ask as Jade slides in the car after her last class is done.