“I’m sure. She’s got cider on the brain, and you’d be crazy to delay her.”
“But I should say goodbye.”
I rub the base of her neck softly. “Sass, we should escape while we can. No need to push our luck when we’re ending on a good note.”
“Oh? You don’t think I can handle it?” She fires me an arched glance.
“I think we both have to handle this lie like it’s made of glass. Why risk a slipup and shatter it now?”
My phone buzzes, and I grab it from my pocket.
Luis, checking in to let me know he’s done following up with my nutrition team for the day. They’ll have a new report for me by tonight for our next trial formula.
For a second, I hesitate.
Then I look at Lena again, at the uncertainty on her face, and I wonder if I put it there. Or was it there long before me?
That bitter doubt, caked on her heart, just like the mud, by a man who isn’t nearly as innocent as Silver the horse.
I need dirt on Harry Jay. Start digging,I text.
On it.His reply comes a second later.
There must be something I can do to pry him off Lena’s back. To put her mind more at ease so she knows he’ll never trouble her again.
“We need to play it safe when we’re just starting out. I don’t want to blow it, and I don’t want to make this harder for you,” I tell her, stuffing my phone away.
“For me?” Her expression sobers, though I don’t mention Harry’s name. “It’s really not that bad. Jesus, Brady. I’m already over what happened yesterday—”
“That pretty face says otherwise,” I say gently.
“Brady—”
“Don’t fight me on this, okay? And don’t try to minimize what happened. That savage fuck doesn’t deserve the courtesy.” I haven’tforgotten the haunted look in her eyes when she told me how he’d posted those videos online—the revenge porn—like she was never anything more than a sick joke to him.
My blood boils like steaming tar.
“You’re sweet, but you’re testing my patience. I don’t need you to fight my battles,” she whispers, looking up defiantly.
Those eyes have no end when they catch the light. Prisms of cocoa and amber.
She’s so goddamn beautiful it hurts.
“Think of it as me fightingwithyou. Shoulder to shoulder, shield to sword. It’s past time you had someone in your corner, Sass. You can fight, but why should you have to do it alone?”
Just when I think she’ll argue back, her shoulders slump.
“Maybe. Just ... don’t do anything stupid without running it by me first, okay?”
“Understood.”
“Do you still have my address?”
“Yeah.” We climb in the car, and I pull up the history on my dashboard screen. Before taking this on, I did some hunting.
I know more about her than anyone should.
Not the revenge videos, and they wouldn’t have changed my mind. But her address. Her phone number. Her voter registration.
