Page 98 of Shatter

Then he reaches back and puts his hand over mine where they're locked on his stomach.

"Aren texted this morning." He keeps his eyes on the road. "Around dawn."

My fingers go cold under his palm.

"Laurent's at Sawgrass Point." His voice is flat and steady. "The man from the diner, the one in the suit. Aren watched him walk in at two in the morning, and he hasn't come out."

The phone face down on the nightstand, and the cold side of the bed.

He knew, the entire morning.

He took me to the spring anyway and let me have it.

I press my forehead against his back.

"You should've told me." The words come out muffled against his cut.

"I'm telling you now." He squeezes my hand once. "I wasn't going to lie to you. I wanted you to have the morning first."

My fist curls against his stomach, and my eyes burn behind my lids.

I hold on tighter instead.

He pulls out onto the highway, and we ride north with the sun on our backs.

He checks his mirrors the entire way.

* * *

His phone rings in the clubhouse lot before I've even gotten the helmet off.

He glances at the screen and frowns and holds it out to me.

"Aziza." He's already pulling off his gloves. "For you."

I take it.

"Baby." Aziza's voice crackles down the line, breathless and loud over the clatter of pans. "Tell me you're not doing anything."

"I'm not doing anything." I push my wet hair out of my face. "Why?"

"The Arijullo's baker in Havana just got food poisoning off his own shrimp. Can you believe it? Wedding's tomorrow at noon." Something metal clangs in the background, and she swears. "Two hundred cupcakes and a three-tier cake. I've got two hands and a bad hip."

I look at Hakon.

He's watching me with his arms folded, his face unreadable, but I can see the phone in my hand reflected in his eyes.

Laurent is ninety minutes away.

My hands want something to do so badly they ache.

"I'll be there in an hour." I turn away before he can argue.

He walks me in instead of dropping me at the curb.

He parks out front and walks me through the door under the pink awning.

While Aziza watches from the prep table with her eyebrows up, he checks the back door and the alley behind the dumpsters.