“You need to let go of what happened between us, Quinn. The Honor Challenge is over. Courage? It doesn’t matter, and it won’t get you anywhere with me. We’re in the Nobility Challenge now, and?—”
I opened my mouth to argue, and he shook his head.
“No.” It came out like an order. “Let me finish. Then you can speak.”
Keeping my lips sealed, I forced a breath out my nose to make my annoyance clear. He waited a few seconds to be sure I wasn’t going to interrupt again and continued his big speech.
“You were fun to play with for a little, but—We’re from different worlds, and you could never be what I need.” He emphasized his next statement. “I picked a different path. I didn’t choose you.”
The finality in his tone struck like a punch.
Tears pricked my eyes, and I sniffed them away.
He sighed. “I’m trying not to be an asshole, but I don’t know how else to say it other than to force you to face the truth and stop lying to yourself.”
I sucked in a tight breath.
“You don’t belong in our world. You weren’t born for this, groomed for it, and you don’t have what it takes to survive it. Do I have to spell it out for you? Draw a list of her skills and assets and compare them to yours? Is that what it’ll take for you to move on instead of…” He gestured over where I stood. “Whatever all this is.”
“No,” I croaked, fighting to steady my voice. “I got you, Max. Loud and clear.”
He narrowed his gaze on my face, and with a curt nod, he turned away.
With my head to the right, my hair fell across my face and shielded me from his view. A tear slipped down my cheek, but it should’ve been more.
Because I had no idea that it would only get worse.
The cop returned from the police cruiser holding up my crossbody. “This yours?”
I kept my mouth shut, still fighting back tears and running through what I’d been told to do by Gia’s dad if I got pulled over. Of course, in those scenarios, I hadn’t fled the car like a madwoman in a state of panic.
“Yes, officer,” Max chimed in for me. “Like I mentioned, it’s her crossbody. Her inhaler should be inside with her name on it and everything.”
“I need that if you don’t mind.” I spoke without thinking, then I narrowed my eyes at Max. “Hey, how did you?—?”
As if watching a horror movie play out in real life, Max curved his lips into a slow smile that twisted my gut with anxiety, and the officer unzipped my bag to get my inhaler.
“Wait! Don’t!” I cried.
But it was too late.
The officer lifted my inhaler out of the bag, and his eyes widened. After handing the inhaler off to Max, he reached back in and pulled out a small plastic bag.
He held it up for both of us to see. “I’m afraid you’ll be coming with us to the station, Miss Everly.”
I gaped, swiveling my gaze from the small bag of white powder in the officer’s hand to Max Dread.
“That’s not mine!”
I cried out while Max just stood there with a shocked expression. The picture of innocence. I growled, realizing how bad that sounded and pleading with the officer.
“I mean, I don’t even know what that isorhow it got there. He’s setting me up! You have to believe me!”
The officer pierced me with his stare.
Then read me my Miranda Rights.
Fourhourslater, Gia, along with her mom and dad, picked me up from the Mosaic Falls Police Station, where I’d been fingerprinted, photographed forMy First Mugshot, and detained for a bogus charge of possession of a controlled substanceandpossession of a fake ID.
