Kiera, one of the club girls, walked in with Javier’s arms around her. His eyes jumped to the both of us, gaze sharpening and features turning cold.
I plastered on a fake smile, hoping that it convinced at least Javier. He wouldn’t hesitate to cause trouble for Elden if he thought he was getting something I wasn’t giving him.
I took that as my opportunity to run.
Elden didn’t follow me.
Even though I’d secretly hoped he would’ve.
It was for the best. It was the only way to avoid disaster.
I spent the rest of my time at home reveling in my little brother and his baby smell. And I worked overtime at the café. Elden no longer came in. When there were club gatherings that I attended, he wasn’t there either. Macy gave me worried looks, but thankfully, she did not speak to me like she did atViolet’s. I could tell my mother knew that there was something going on. But she thought it was something to do with my father. She tread carefully, treated me gently and didn’t ask questions. I took advantage of that, thankful for my father being a piece of shit and letting me hide behind his ghost.
Then I went back to school where I went through the motions.
Well, I went through the motions and then some.
I did not mope.
Not in the house, at least. Not with Ollie’s baking, with Henri’s cocktails and Sariah’s social cachet that got us into every and any party we wanted.
Classes were hard. Assignments were hard. But hard was good. Hard meant I couldn’t think of Elden.
Except I did.
Constantly.
Sariah had heard every detail of the ‘breakup.’ She had tried to delicately tell me that I didn’t have to save a man who hadn’t asked to be saved. “Don’t you hate it when men do that to us?” she’d joked.
I’d smiled and sipped my cocktail but had held fast to my decision. I loved Sariah. I’d never had a friend like her before. She was effortlessly cool, kind, warm, smart. She always wanted to have fun but also kept up her grades. I’d never heard her say a bad word about anyone. She loved men and women and dated both.
She loved them, but she had never beeninlove with them.
It was something she’d admitted freely, wearing her lack of love as somewhat of a badge of honor. Most likely it had to do with something her parents did to her to warp what love meant… She still never spoke about them.
Because she had never been in love, she couldn’t possibly understand why I was making that decision. I didn’t tell her that, though. It would come off as condensing and cruel to a friend who was trying to help me. A friend who, despite never being in love herself, was a hopeless romantic.
Luckily for me, she didn’t try to convince me further.
Elden and I were never going to stay apart. I knew that it was far from over between us. Whatever was happening right now was delaying the inevitable. Until I turned twenty-one, until I graduated, until my stepfather softened from being a father and a husband so that he was less likely to kill Elden.
Whatever.
I wasn’t sure how long my willpower would’ve lasted. Not much longer, surely. Definitely not until graduation or until my twenty-first birthday.
Little did I know it was just over a month after seeing him, when two lines appeared on a test.
ELDEN
“We’ve got a shipment coming from the Russians, and we’ve got the sheriff sniffin’ around, so I want everyone minding their Ps and Qs,” Hansen sighed, leaning back in his chair. “This fuckin’ guy is getting to be a pain in my ass.”
“I could take care of him,” Hades offered.
Hansen looked at him. “Much as I am tempted, unfortunately, we start killin’ cops, we start bringing more heat in our direction.”
Hades tapped his fingers on the table. “Might come to that, he keeps tryin’ to fuck with us.”
There were multiple nods around the table. The new sheriff was indeed a pain in our fucking asses. For years, the club had enjoyed an amiable relationship with the previous sheriff, who didn’t get paid near enough and was a throwback to the old days. He didn’t give a shit about what laws we broke as long as we didn’t bring shit into his jurisdiction.