Page 17 of Dirty Legacy

Nobody knows it happened. I haven’t told Nadia, which is a minor miracle. I’m not sure she’d believe me if I did.

I mean, I couldn’t blame her. Why the hell would Connor Maguire want to have sex with me? A nobody working in his accounting department?

That man is like a beautiful god and I’m about the most boring girl imaginable.

No, it’s a fluke. Connor doesn’t want me. He’s back to being nothing more than Big Boss. And there’s no way in hell that’s him driving the BMW.

Even as it rolls past me, and I swear his eyes are on me through the window.

I duck into the bodega, heart racing wildly.

Is he following me?

Why the hell would he do that?

But no, I’m being ridiculous. Weed smoke. That’s all it is. I’m contact high. Although I can’t imagine that’s true since I must have the strongest tolerance possible by now.

I greet the bored guy behind the counter and pick out what I need. The prices suck but I don’t feel like walking to the better grocery store ten blocks away. I’m about to pile everything on the counter when I pause in the personal care section.

There, down at the bottom, is a pregnancy test.

Cute box. Pink, gray, and purple. A stick, some gloves, what looks like a cup. I don’t need it, right? I’m not thinking about the late period. I don’t think about that, and I don’t think about how Connor fucked me deep and satisfying, the best sex I’ve ever had by a wide margin, and how he didn’t wear protection, and I’m not on birth control, and he finished deep inside of me⁠—

“Find everything?” The guy rings me up, bagging my stuff.

“All good, thanks.”

I hurry from the store. I fall into a flow of walkers and head toward the crossing again. Mom’s waiting. Pot smoke and laughter. It’ll be okay. I’ll cook, make her eat something. We’ll be fine. When the light changes, I walk to the other side, and spot that BMW again.

It’s the same one, rolling slow.

I pick up my pace. I don’t look over my shoulder. That’s not Connor. He’s not following me. I grip my bag tight, nearly running by the time I reach my apartment building. My heart’s hammering and I’m out of breath as I duck inside, peering through the door as the BMW cruises past, moving much too slow.

I catch a glimpse of him. Sinfully handsome. Eyes like storms and mouth like hell.

What in the world is he doing here?

“Forget something?”

I flinch and turn. Dennis stands at the other end of the lobby. He smiles uncertainly. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No, it’s fine, no worries.”

I hurry past him, feeling like an idiot.

No, Connor Maguire isn’t stalking me. He’s not waiting in his car near my apartment so he can follow me to the local bodega. That would be madness. And I don’t care that my period’s late, and I sure as hell don’t need a pregnancy test, and my mom’s going to be fine, she’ll cut back on the weed, we won’t get evicted, we won’t end up homeless.

Everything will work out.

So long as I can make these stupid nuggets.

5

CONNOR

Angie disappears into her apartment building and I drive away, stomach a twisted wreck, heart bashing against my ribs.

I’m fucking sick.