I heard her scoff as my stomach rolled. “Oh stop with the jealousy, Jameson.”
His growl of frustration had me leaning in closer to hear what he would respond with. “I don’t care about you and another man, Lex. I’ve said it time and time again.” His visceral anger was loud.
“And yet you’re yelling like you do.” She was right. I thought the same, thought that his anger was much too palpable for a man who didn’t care, who was apathetic.
“Because you can’t understand the concept that this isn’t about you or him.”
“No. It’s about us,” she told him. “I realize now that Paolo shouldn’t have sent those men to the academy to get Franny to prompt a meeting, Jameson, okay? I am sorry about that. We’ll make it up to you.”
My body ran cold at her admission, that the man she loved had actually been the one who’d orchestrated that shootout.
I heard a scuffle and then Jameson growl, “I should fucking kill you.”
“A gun to my head, Jameson?” She laughed. “Really? Go on then … Shoot the woman you know you love.”
And I waited to hear what he’d do, what he’d say, if he’d act.
“I can’t.” I heard his voice break, and something in me broke too.
I didn’t want him to pull the trigger, but she was right. He still loved her, and that thought made me sick, so sick I couldn’t stay another second. I ran from my room with my packed bag, even leaving my plants behind. Yet, I halted in front of Franny’s door. It crushed me to consider not saying goodbye to her. How could I when we’d been through so much already? When it was me and her against her dad, trying to get to the country club or trying to get a bunny? When it was her and me in a crawlspace hiding, or her and me standing our ground after gluing jewels on her dad’s Rolex?
My hand reached for the knob, trembling.
But I didn’t touch it.
I couldn’t.
Franny came first. Always. And telling her I was leaving would have broken her. I touched the wood of the door and murmured, “I’m so sorry, Fran.”
But her door opened quietly and there she stood. A stoic frown on her face. “Are you leaving, Mia Darling?”
I knelt down beside her and pulled her in for a hug. “I have to for a little, okay? I need to think, but I promise I’ll come back, Fran.”
She sighed and pulled away from me before she pouted. “Somehow I know this is daddy’s fault. So, heart-in-pinkie promise, okay? You have to let him figure it out.”
I tried my best not to start crying then, gulping back the sobs building in my throat. I held out my pinkie and locked it in hers. “Heart-in pinkie-promise, Fran. Now, back to your room until morning, okay?”
She nodded and gave me another hug before she turned on her heel. I closed her door behind her, not wanting her tosee my tears fall as I hurried down the hall to Archer’s post. “I need to leave, Archer. And you need to take me. Please. Take me somewhere he won’t find me.”
“Mia—” He was about to object.
“Please.” The sob that ripped through me was guttural, tangible, and so raw that I covered my mouth to try to muffle it. “Just for a few days. I need to get away from here and think.”
He exhaled like it hurt and warned me, “Only a few days.”
I nodded, tears streaming now as I patted Malek, who was whining next to me with his body pressed close. He knew as much as I did that something was very wrong.
That I didn’t belong for another second at the Knight Estate.
Archer had Xavier pull a car around, and then we disappeared into the night without a trace.
Mia
ONLY AN HOUR ORso had passed when the first call came in on my phone. Archer made sure to disengage whatever tracking device was embedded in it, and I turned off the location for good measure.
“He’s going to find us one way or another.” Archer sighed inside my room at the hotel we were staying at.
“I know.” I nodded, my voice sounding so stupidly weak that I hated even talking. “I just need time.”
