Page 44 of The Casualty of Us (Philosophies of the Heart Duet #1)

I needed to see it.

No one understood that.

Not even Ollie. He would have me sealed in a vault right now if he could.

No one understood how necessary it was.

So I went a little over the edge.

I tore the note out of Jack’s hand despite the fact we’d just met about an hour prior.

Grabbed the lighter off the fireplace and ran my ass straight for the front yard.

Kicking Ollie dead in the thigh when he made a grab for me along the way and finally, finally making it to the front porch to light that fucking note on fire for all the world to see.

It seems stalkers made me a little savage. Weird.

But if I didn’t get to read it, no one did, and once that was understood…they stopped coming. Making everyone furious but me right.

Because it meant he’d been watching.

He wants to play with me, and as sick as it fucking is, I understand it.

The rules here.

I gasp as we come around the loop for the fifth time, legs having gone from burning to numb sometime around the fourth pass but still functional enough for me to keep going.

Knowing I need at least another thirty minutes out here for it to be effective.

But when the break in the sidewalk comes around the next corner and a head of messy black hair across the street catches my eyes…

my gaze whips to the side out of instinct, eyes searching for—

There.

I spot the guy in his mid-thirties just as he picks up the little boy running his way, and my stomach plummets with the realization that it’s not him.

Heart trying to find its regular rhythm again at the letdown even while I’m still pushing it.

I go to turn my head back, determined to ignore it, when a crack in the sidewalk snags on the tip of my sneaker and sends me crashing to the ground.

Fuck.

I blink at where my hands are suddenly laying against the pavement, saving me from what definitely would’ve been a bad look but still stinging enough to have me gasping out loud this time. “Fuck.”

A hand on my shoulder has me whipping my head around to see Talan staring at me with concern, and he lifts his other hand to his ear, motioning for me to take out my earbuds.

I nod vaguely at him while pushing myself back onto my ass to comply, knees making their complaint over my fall known and spotting a few cuts on my hands when I lift them.

Definitely choosing to ignore the Doubtful Souls song coming on as I pop my earbuds out and shove them down into my pocket quickly.

“You good?”

Talan holds out a hand with the question, and I swallow down my pride enough to take it, letting him haul me up while sighing heavily. “Yeah.” I scan my eyes around the park to double-check. “Just thought I saw something.”

But he’s on the other side of the world right now.

Talan immediately lets go of my hand, and I look back in time to see him going into soldier mode with his hand moving to the small of his back.

“Nothing like that.” I roll my eyes, noticing he isn’t even sweating and immediately wanting to repeat the motion at that. “Just a friend.”

“A friend?” His gaze jerks back to mine, brown eyes immediately suspicious. “You’ve never mentioned a friend.”

“I do have friends, Talan.” I snort, the spasms starting up in my calves forcing me to start walking again and knowing that if I don’t cool off right now, then I’m going to regret it when I’m right back here tomorrow.

“I’m shocked.” Talan slides into step next to me with the mocking words, and I glare at him. “That you would think anyone worthy enough, that is.”

I narrow my eyes at him while coming up on the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial and grumbling, “I’m still deciding if he is.”

Knowing that I’m lying to him.

“ He ?” His whole face fills with delight at the pronoun. “Wait, it’s gotta be one of the kids we cleared from your school then.”

“You’re fired.”

“Ha.” He laughs loudly. “You can’t fire me.”

And fuck if I can’t. Apparently that falls under the unrealistic expectation column despite what my father said.

Bastards. Lying bastards at that.

“We’re not having this conversation.”

He grins widely as we loop around the memorial. “So you do like him.”

“Shut up, Frogman.” I come to a stop with an irritated sigh, grabbing for my foot to stretch and frowning up at him. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“What?” He gives me a confused look, stopping a little ways in front of me to go down into a lunge. “What do you mean?”

“You have to have something better to do than this.”

He pauses, expression turning considering before pulling up out of the stretch to ask. “Do you know why I took this job?”

I shake my head, hating having to admit. “No.”

“I have a little sister about your age,” he starts casually.

“When I got the file on your case, I just kept thinking what if that was her and it kept me up at night, honestly.” A small shrug leaves him, and he grabs the back of his foot as I drop mine.

“So I put my ass on the plane, and that was that. I knew I had to see you through it.”

I lift a brow at him in challenge before sighing, “Cute.” Picking it apart easily.

“Comparing me to your sister. Finding that thread of commonality. Trying to incite a shared bond.” I scoff at the summarization, continuing to call him out.

“If you’re so good at what you do, then you should know better than to think such blatant manipulation would ever work on me. ”

His face goes hard at my words with something in it reminding me of Ollie’s these days and making a sick feeling fill me with it.

“You know, Ophelia.” He frowns, walking a couple of steps closer to me. “If you weren’t so determined to put yourself in this guy’s crosshairs, you might be able to see that we’re just trying to help you here.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“You think that.” He laughs quietly, and the sound grates on my ears. “But one day you’ll realize that it’s a lot easier to take down the monsters when you have someone at your back.”

“Sure,” I snap, taking off again and heading for my next stop without looking back.

Because they didn’t offer to do that, did they?

They just came in and rolled right over me with everyone else. I barely get to pee these days without someone knocking to check that I’m still there.

I make it across the intersection with Talan right on my heels, eyes drifting over the two-story white building with its café and market on the right sharing a wall with the small Postal Plus company to the left beside it.

A short metal fence surrounds them both, with a smattering of cute little tables situated underneath umbrellas dotting the sidewalk.

The perfect place to grab a quick tea before making the drive home.

I take the steps down to the door of the café at a jog, pushing it open and stepping in with a wave of AC immediately hitting me hard.

It ghosts across my skin with a chill that leaves me feeling sticky and just wanting a shower, but I drag my feet up to the register anyway as Talan falls back to hang by the door.

Probably scaring the shit out of every one of the other customers in here as he eyes them like he’ll pounce if they even move.

My own gaze goes to run over the multitude of fridges and wine racks in the store before spotting Zoey behind the counter with her pink and black hair tied up into a messy bun today.

I smile at her while coming up to the register, and her lips lift in greeting.

“Hey, girl.”

Her eyes dart curiously to where Talan’s standing per usual, and I refrain from commenting, ordering instead just like every other day.

“I’ll have my usual small dirty chai and—” The collection of croissants in the display case draws my attention, and I add up the people at home in my head before sighing.

“Like ten of the almond croissants, I guess.”

“You guess?”

I lift my gaze back to Zoe, and the smirk on her face has something like a laugh leaving me. “Please, yes, thank you.” It would be inhumane not to feed them along with myself, I guess. “How’s your model coming along, by the way?”

Zoe perks up at the mention of her PhD project, dripping a shot of coffee for my drink and chattering back. “Good! I’ve been tweaking some of the code that’s been kicking me back when it comes to the wind models, but I think I’ll have the kinks worked out by the end of the year.”

Because apparently two master’s degrees weren’t enough for her, no, Zoe chose to continue on with getting her PhD at Georgetown in environmental science as well.

“And a semester ahead of schedule.” I lift a brow at her with a small grin. “Go on, be proud.”

I knew she was my kind of a girl the second I found out her proclivity for academics.

“Yeah, well.” She shrugs with a small laugh. “I’m waiting on proud until I’ve made it through—oh!” Her eyes blow wide. “Cara was in earlier and said they finally had a box open up.”

I clear my throat quickly. “Really?”

“Yeah.” She nods happily while pouring the milk into the chai. “Said she’ll have the keys ready for you whenever you want to stop by.”

“Thanks.” I swallow nervously and dart my eyes to where Talan is still standing over the door, immediately taking in the way he’s squinting at a guy walking down the street outside and making sure he didn’t hear anything.

“Hey, I’m actually in a really big rush today.

” I look back to her while jutting out my lower lip dramatically.

“Is there any way if I call her and have her drop them off you could hold them for me until tomorrow?”

She presses the lid down on my drink and gives me a confused look. “It’s literally right next door.”

“I know, but I really am in a rush.” I try for another grin before quickly adding. “Please?”

She pauses, holding my drink, and I watch as her eyes stray toward the door. “The box is for your mom or something, right?”

Repeating another lie of mine recently.

“Right,” I echo as her gaze comes back to me, holding my breath for the beat it takes her to agree.