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“Thanks.”

His jaw tightens. Then he climbs inside.

I step back.

The engine starts.

For one terrible second, my chest squeezes again.

Then my phone buzzes.

I pull it out.

Roman: Stop looking at me like I'm disappearing.

My breath catches.

I look up.

He's still sitting behind the wheel, watching me.

Me: Are you?

His eyes drop to his phone.

Roman: No.

My heart does something incredibly inconvenient.

I look up again.

Roman shakes his head. But his mouth fucking twitches.

I step onto the curb and watch him pull away. I don’t move. Just watch his truck disappear down the street.

This time feels different. He's leaving, but he's coming back.

I’m pretty sure he’s living in a furnished house somewhere in or around Hollow Creek. I watched his expression closely while I quizzed him.

The problem?

I still don't know where the fucking house is.

Gracie looks up when I walk back into Bramble. “Well?”

“He denied everything.”

Her eyebrows rise. “What do you mean by everything?”

“James.”

“Who's James?”

“Roman.”

She stares at me. “No. Roman is Roman.”

“Roman is also James.”