“Listen.” I rake my fingers through my damp hair. “I need another favor.”
“A favor.”
He drags it out, tone shifting from playful to something more serious. He’s going into crow mode, treating me like one of their clients instead of his foster brother. My chest tingles with awareness where the black bird is inked into my skin, perched on a skull and hidden in the design of the waves. The detached, calculating nature creeps into his chuckle when I sigh.
“Yes. I want you to use the resources at your disposal. You guys have the reach. I just want you to do what you can to make sure Maisy is watched and gets home unharmed.”
“Helping you while you’re in Ridgeview for your revenge is one thing, but outside of that, what you’re asking…” Colt trails off for a moment and clicks his tongue disapprovingly. “You know the rules, Foxy. Can’t break them, even for family.”
Annoyance flares. “Don’t call me Foxy, asswipe.” I tug on my hair. “Come on, Colt. I’ll owe you one again.”
“You sure you want to owe me more than once?” I can hear his smirk in his tone. “You know the price of favors owed in Thorne Point.”
A gruff sigh leaves me. “Yes.”
There’s another long pause, then Colt laughs. “Done. Your little flower is safe with me, brother.” A low, sinister voice filters over the line in the background. Wren Thorne, the ringleader of their group. “I’ve gotta go. You know how the big guy gets when he’s in a mood.”
We share a laugh and I picture Wren’s fierce scowl. He’s not someone to be messed with.
The anxiety fades away at last. I end the call and stare for long minutes at her social media pictures on the computer screen. There’s work to do, but I don’t move.
This is insane. I don’t understand why I have this urge when I still don’t fucking trust her. She’s a goddamn liar, just like her parents. Yet here I am, selling myself out to a group of psychos with skewed morals and a code of loyal brotherhood I know the consequences of in order to keep her safe.
Forcing out a breath, I drag both hands through my hair and stare at the industrial rafters overhead. When I turn over the idea of giving it all up, everything in me revolts. Not happening. I’ve spent too damn long wanting to know the truth about my parents’ deaths and I’m not done yet. Her parents are behind it and they have to be brought down.
Tracing my tongue over my lower lip, I nod slowly, mind made up.
I won’t stop, but...I’ll do what I can to protect Maisy from afar. I’ll stop focusing my efforts on taking her life apart. Separate her from my vendetta against her parents. I’ll quit bullying her at school. It’s all I’ll allow myself.
A hollow laugh escapes me at the weight lifting from my shoulders now that I’m acknowledging this. I can’t outrun it anymore, or bury myself in messing around with scrap metal and engine grease, or pretend what happens when I’m around her is something else than what it really is. What it’s always been.
For every minute I’ve spent hating her, I hate myself a little more because I’ve never been able to let her go.
The truth is, I never stopped loving her.
It’s existed beneath the surface all these years. I can’t cut her out of the hold she’s kept on my heart since we were kids. It’s why her betrayal sliced me open, hurt so much worse because I love her.
This damn thing I feel for her is still real, overwhelming and impossible to smother. Even my hatred is love for her, as fucked up as that is.
After the harrowing images my brain supplied of what could’ve happened if I didn’t lose that tail and how things would end if we were caught, I know that even if I’ve been willing to ruin her life, I won’t let anyone else do the same. I won’t be the reason she gets hurt because she’s impulsive and never learned to stay out of trouble.
The instinct to protect her is bone deep, woven into my being. She’s mine and no one else can have or hurt her. Only me.
It scares me that I feel so deeply for her—the good emotions and the bad.
I have to stay away from her, or the things I’ve bottled up beneath the hate and my grudge all these years will explode out of me. I won’t be able to control myself. The attention she’s been begging me for will consume her like an untamed fire.
I’m in love with Maisy, but I can’t ever trust her again. If I give her my trust, it opens my heart up to feel the agonizing pain of her betrayal once again.
Fifteen
Maisy
Once my whirlwind adventure in Paris to watch my best friend marry the man of her dreams ends, I face my front door with a sense of dread. Three days away from home was amazing. It was the trip of a lifetime, leaving my free-spirited, travel-hungry heart full. I made memories I’ll cherish forever. Yet even amidst the splendor of a foreign city, Fox and what I learned last weekend never left my mind for a second.
The frantic kiss, the car chase, his rough hands on me, and his bribe with Lana—all of it demanded my attention. Even while Thea and Connor were exchanging their vows and rings while Devlin officiated, the thoughts were there, luring my attention away from being present in the moment. I kind of hated myself for being a crappy friend during one of the most important milestones in my best friend’s life. We need to sort things out between us soon, or I’ll go crazy from feeling like I’m living a double life.
My lips tingle at the memory of Fox claiming my mouth. All this time I’ve been braced for his storm to impact me. My heart wasn’t prepared for what it would feel like when we finally collided.