Kian

  “Yeah, well…” He shrugged. “Everyone sins, right? That’s what confession is for.”

  I shook my head. “Just friends, right?”

  “I promise.”

  It wasn’t going to last.

  Jake stepped close, lifting his arms in the air before circling them around my body. He waited before I nodded, then hugged me tight to him. I breathed him in. Pine and vanilla—his old scent. A month ago, my alarms would’ve been going off but not anymore now.

  Something had changed.

  Still holding me, he rocked me back and forth and asked close to my ear, “You okay?”

  I clasped on to him and whispered back, “I think so.”

  “Good.” One more tight squeeze, and then he let me go. He tapped on my chin. “You’re back at your old job, huh?”

  Laughing, I hit his arm. “I am. Want to walk me home?”

  He made a tsking sound and shook his head. “You’re a little slow on this friendship thing. Walking home with you is a requirement of being the best bud.” He cocked his head to wink down at me. “Especially if there’s wine at the end of the walk.” He held his elbow out, and after a slight hesitation, I linked mine with his. My apartment was a few blocks away, and after a really long time, I was glad that Jake was with me. As we headed down the sidewalk, I couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder.

  Was Kian still out there? Was he watching?

  More importantly, what did he want with me?

  The liquor store was on the way home, so we stopped to get wine in case there wasn’t any at home. I couldn’t remember, and when we got to my apartment, Erica squealed over the wine. She didn’t seem excited to see Jake, but didn’t say anything. As soon as there was an opening, I excused myself and slipped away to my bedroom. Grabbing my phone, I perched on my window frame. There was enough room, so I could completely sit there. I pulled my knees to my chest, and then I opened my phone.

  I needed to call Snark and report Kian’s arrival, but when I opened my phone, instead of seeing the blank screen that I usually did, there was a text message.

  I didn’t recognize the number.

  I’d like to talk.

  That was it, nothing more, but I knew whom it was from. A little flutter started in my chest.

  “They’re going to blame everything on you.”

  Hearing Snark’s reminder, I ignored Kian’s text and sent Snark a text instead.

  Need to talk. He texted me.

  I held the phone, waiting, and it buzzed seconds later.

  Same booth. Now.

  I knew if I made up an excuse to leave the apartment, Jake would go with me. He’d even go to hold tampons if I used the feminine hygiene route, so I went a different way.

  I ninja-ed my way from my bedroom. Literally.

  I faked being sick, even pretending that I had to vomit suddenly from the doorway. My performance was Oscar-worthy. I grabbed my stomach, held my breath long enough to start seeing some stars, and made a mad dash to the bathroom. After that, Erica did all the work. If there was one thing my roommate hated, it was puking. She was the one to ban me to my room for the night, and once that was done, I was good to go.

  Still. To be safe, I locked the door and shoved a chair underneath the doorknob. Heading for the window, I climbed onto the fire escape and left a quarter between my window so it looked closed, but wasn’t. It would shut, but it wouldn’t lock me out.

  Hurrying down till the last step in the stairs, it wasn’t close enough to jump, so I climbed the rest of the way. My building was old, so there were grooves in the brick wall, big enough where I could put my hands and feet. Once my feet touched ground, I grabbed a cab, and when I got to Mel’s Diner, Snark was already there. Again.

  Sliding into my side of the booth, I didn’t ask. I grabbed his cup of coffee and put some creamer in there.

  “Hey.” He dropped a newspaper he’d been reading. “That’s mine.”

  “Not this time.” I placed my phone onto the table.

  Snark’s gaze fell to it, and the issue about the coffee was dropped. He pointed to it. “That’s how he contacted you?”

  “He texted me.” I slid the phone to him.

  He picked it up and read the text before writing down the phone number and giving it back. “That was it?”

  I opened my mouth, ready to tell him about the visit, but I couldn’t. The words died in my throat, and I lifted the coffee to take a sip instead. What was I doing? Even though the liquid was likely burning my throat, I didn’t feel it. I was withholding information from him, information that I knew he would freak out about if he knew. Gripping the mug tighter, I forced myself to lower it back to the table. I couldn’t tell him. But why? Why couldn’t I do it?

  “Jo?” His eyebrows lifted. He folded his hands in front of him on the table and pinned me down with his gaze. “Was that it?”

  “Yes.”

  His eyebrows furrowed. “You sure?”

  My throat felt pinched, and I swallowed painfully. “Isn’t that enough? You said he’d get in touch with me. Wh-what should I do if he gets in contact with me again?”

  “Like if he tries to see you?”

  I glanced away. “Yeah. What then?” My fingers curled tighter around the mug.

  “Well then, we’d have a different situation on our hands.”

  I swung my gaze back. “What do you mean?”

  “That boy sliced and diced your foster father. He’s a whole different creature than what the media has said he is, and his team knows it. He knows it. And you and I both know it. If he does find you, do not talk to him.”

  I jerked my head up and down. “Okay.”

  “You’ll let me know if that happens?”

  My eyes fell down to my lap. It was like he already knew. I could hear the suspicion in his voice…but, no, there was no way he could know.

  I put my phone into my pocket. “I will.”

  He pointed at where I had put the phone. “Do not text him back.”

  “I won’t.”

  Reaching over, he took my coffee back. “This is mine.”

  “Okay.” I let out a soft laugh.

  A waitress came over with her pad and pen ready. As she asked for my order, I looked to Snark, and he nodded. He said, “Go ahead. Get something to eat, and I’ll give you a ride back home.”

  “Really?”

  He rolled his eyes. “It’s too damn late for you to be traveling alone anyways.”

  “Thanks.” My lips twitched, a grin forming, as I gave my order.

  When the waitress left, Snark didn’t bring up the text message. He didn’t push to see if there was anything I was holding back, and I was thankful. Leaning back in the booth, I relaxed for the first time all day.

  It wasn’t until he pulled into my alley when he brought Kian up again. His hand was resting on the steering wheel, and I’d just unbuckled my seat belt when he asked, “You sure there’s nothing else?”

  “What?” I had started to reach for the door, but dropped my hand back to my lap.

  His eyes were pinned on me, and he sat there, mulling over something in his head, before his eyes narrowed. “You can’t lie to me.”

  “I’m not.”

  “He’s going back to prison. He’s going to try anything possible to make that not happen. This is your future we’re talking about.”

  “I thought you said his team wanted to do that.”

  “Jo, if you think he’s separate from his team, you’re crazy. That boy is the one who will be sitting in a cell again. Not his lawyers or his folks. Him. I just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

  My lungs stopped working for a moment. “Stupid?”

  He shook his head. “He’s been evaluated. Do you want to know the logistics of what they found?”

  My mouth went dry. “What?”

  “Just don’t let the image on-screen fool you, and don’t romanticize what he did. He killed for you, but he’s had two years to think over what he did. He threw away
his future while you got a new one. That would sting even Mother Teresa.” He gestured to the door. “Now, go on, and do the ninja thing you told me about. Crawl up the wall.”

  “What am I supposed to do now? Just live life normally?”

  “You do that. Me? I’m going to pay his folks a visit tomorrow. I think all contact will be cut off after then.”

  That was good. That was a relief.

  After I said good-bye, I climbed up the fire escape and then slunk through my bedroom window. I should’ve been happy after hearing that from Snark. Kian would stay away, for sure, after Snark saw his parents.

  Yes.

  That was a good thing…

  “What’s up with you and Jake?”

  I knew that question was coming. I’d been prepared for it over the last month, but Erica had been quiet on the topic.

  Then again, she’d been coming home so late that I wasn’t sure if she’d come home half the time. She was always up and back at the office by the time I’d get back from partaking in my new guilty indulgence. A new coffee shop had opened up a couple of blocks away, so I’d begun walking there in the mornings to get a latte to start the day.

  I worked late mornings till early evenings at the restaurant. There’d been no more delivery jobs, and when Paul returned from wherever he’d been, I was immediately yanked off of training. Once that happened, my life settled into a small routine.

  Erica was finally bringing up the other new habit that I had formed. And that was spending time with Jake.

  Erica and I were walking to the local market held in the community park. It was the first time we really had to talk. She’d say hello and visit with Jake whenever she came home before heading to bed while he was watching movies with me. The first time, she had paused. I saw the confusion¸ but she let it go. The second time, there was more confusion. The third was when she began to grow wary.

  “It’s just a friendship.”

  She snorted, dodging around a couple holding hands. “And I love working for Susan with this interview thing. Try again, Jo.”

  I grinned. “That is the truth. We’re friends. Only friends.”

  “No mushy stuff, like those two?” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, indicating the couple we’d just woven around.

  “No. No touching. No holding hands. No back rubs. No hugs.” I stopped and shrugged. “Well, we do hug, but that’s it.”

  The local market had grown since the last time I was there. Before, it had been three booths of food, but now, there were three lines of booths with four booths in a row.

  As we got to the edge of the park that was situated between two brick buildings, tucked away in a corner, Erica paused beside me. “Damn,” she noted under her breath. “This has tripled.”

  I nodded.

  So had the clientele. Children were running around with their paper bags for groceries, ducking and dodging around older kids, parents, and a few grandmas and grandpas, too. The whole scene looked like an image torn out of a children’s book.

  This…this was why I loved living in Hillcrest and going to their private university. I knew places like this existed, but after finding a community with a little park like this, a thriving local market, a new coffee place, my job only a few blocks away, and a liquor store where I wasn’t scared to go at night, I couldn’t leave this place. Somehow, someway, this had become my new home.

  “You good?”

  Erica had gone toward the market but paused when she saw that I hadn’t followed.

  I broke from my little reminiscing moment, shaking off the feeling that this could be taken away from me. It couldn’t. I wouldn’t let that happen.

  “You coming or what?”

  “I’m coming.”

  As I got to her, she teased, “Don’t tell me you’re having daydreams about your not-future boyfriend.”

  I shot her a look as we came to the first booth of strawberries. “Was that sentence supposed to make sense?”

  Erica laughed, moving around to the next booth where she picked up a container of blackberries. After paying for them, she said to me, “Not really, but your whole thing that you’re only friends doesn’t make sense to me either.”

  I wanted to tease her back about Wanker, but I bit my tongue. Erica would get prickly on that subject.

  She moved down the line and headed for the vegetable row.

  She was in denial about Wanker.

  I was in denial about…everything.

  Hell, was everyone denying something?

  Erica came back around and shot me a confused look. “You coming?”

  I started forward. “Yeah.”

  As I got to her, I stepped on something and glanced down. Kian’s face was looking back up at me. It was an old newspaper, and his story was on the front page. Someone had discarded it, or it had been brought to wrap items with it. I bent down and picked it up. I hadn’t allowed myself to read whatever the reports said about him, but the headline, “He Gave Up His Future,” caught my eye, and I couldn’t look away.

  Erica came to stand beside me. “Uh, Jo? You know that thing was on the ground, right? You’re going to have to go to the hospital to get all those germs off of you.”

  “Yeah,” I murmured. “Uh-huh.”

  The paper was two weeks old. That was a week after I’d seen him, a week after he’d disappeared again from my life.

  Kian Maston was released three weeks ago and given a new lease on life.

  “Hey.” Erica stopped my reading, gazing down at the newspaper. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but you know that interview I’m doing in a few weeks, the one I’m working with Susan on?”

  Oh, no.

  My heart started pumping.

  She continued, “It’s with him.”

  “What?” My throat couldn’t work. That word had barely squeaked out.

  She nodded, her eyes filling with excitement. “Can you believe it?”

  “With this guy?” I had to be sure.

  “I know. I can’t believe it either. I’ve been dying to tell you about it, but Susan and the senior reporter threatened us. If we say a word, I’m off the project. We’re not supposed to say anything, but, man, this interview is big. He’s only done one other interview. And get this”—her voice rose—“he reached out to us. I guess he always wanted to come to Hillcrest or something, so he offered to do an interview here.”

  My mouth was so damn dry. “When?”

  Her eyes got big. She shook her head. “I can’t say that but soon, very soon.” She moved closer, dropping her voice. “This could