I boot up my laptop, the squeak of the shower starting coming from behind the bathroom door, the pipes rumbling below the house.
I’m well into my edits by the time I register Mira emerging from the bathroom, her long, slightly wavy hair wet and hanging in thick strands down her back, making her beautiful face all the more pronounced.
My fingers pause above the keyboard, my breath catching in my throat. She removed the bandage on her ear, and the cut seems to be healing a little. The sweatshirt she borrowed yesterday hides the curves I know exist. Doesn’t stop my gaze from searching them out before she disappears into the bedroom.
I grab a random textbook from the piles I keep stacked along the wall of the dining area and thumb through The Neurobiology of Olfaction, trying to focus on the words instead of the girl behind the bedroom door. A red Jeep pulls up.
Lewis’s car.
He honks, and Mira exits the bedroom, whipping out the front door and slamming it shut faster than I can blink.
I slump in my chair, my head tipped to the ceiling. I breathe in deeply for the first time since I found Mira in the woods last night.
This will never work.
Chapter Nine
Mira
“I can’t live with him, Lewis.”
Lewis frowns at the road as he drives to my studio apartment. “Why? Tyler’s a good guy.”
And here’s where it gets tricky. Tyler is a good guy, even though he’s trying hard to be a royal ass.
What Tyler doesn’t realize is that I know his game. I play it every day. I can tell the bad seeds from the good. Tyler doesn’t make the cut. He’s complex for sure, and something happened to give him an edge, but he’s not what he’s making himself out to be. For one, he didn’t need to stay with me last night. If he were a true jerk, he would have left me on my own like any self-respecting asshole.
No, Tyler’s a mix of good guy and fire. That fire was there all those years ago, but hidden, and never more evident than the night we were together at Holly Walker’s house party. I wasn’t ready for it then. I’m not ready for it now.
“It isn’t a good idea for me and Tyler to live together. We didn’t really get along in high school.”
Lewis glances at me, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Wasn’t he your tutor for two years? I thought you guys got along fine. Not that you needed his help. I still don’t understand why you didn’t let me tutor you.”
Lewis was one of the best students in school, but I had my sights on Tyler, so…
I rub a smudge of dirt off the door that I’ve brought in with my shoes, feigning nonchalance. “He helped me for a year and a half. And I didn’t want to bother you with tutoring. You spent all your time studying; you didn’t need another reason to have your nose in a book. Studying with Tyler worked out for a while, but then we had a falling out. It happened right before you guys graduated. He pretty much hates me now.”
Lewis’s gaze flickers over, his expression contemplative. “I don’t think he hates you, Mira. Give the guy a chance. Cali’s is the safest place for you right now. You said so yourself—no one knows you’re there. Tyler is taking time off work and he’s around. He’s the best person to keep an eye on you.”
I could grumble about not needing anyone to look out for me, but even I have to admit that I’m in deeper than I thought. I woke up this morning in a cold sweat from a nightmare involving the men from the woods. In my dream, they didn’t stop at a beating. I woke before the guy choked me to death with his hands.
“Yeah, okay.”
“Good, now tell me about last night. I took it you didn’t want to talk in front of everyone, or even the police, but I need to know the details. In fact, we should give the police the full story and how we paid off that man a few weeks back. The loan shark shouldn’t be involved in this, but you never know.”
I’d gotten so behind when I told Lewis and his parents about the money. Lewis insisted we pay the guy off. It sickened me to borrow from them, but there was no way I could get out of it without help. I asked for just enough to get the loan shark off my back.
“I owe more,” I say.
“Mira,” Lewis growls, which isn’t like Lewis at all. I’ve really pissed him off. “What do you mean you owe more?”
“About twice what I told you.”
“Twice the amount?” His gaze darts from me to the road and back again as he angles the Jeep down the street to my apartment and pulls into the driveway beneath the carport. He shuts the engine off and turns to me. “How did this get so out of control? Have you been gambling since?”
“No.”
He sighs. “Well, that’s one good thing. Your therapist is getting through to you?”
