Chapter 5
“W here are you going?” I call to Ever’s back as she practically bolts from my Bronco.
“For a run.”
“I thought you had beauty shit to do.”
This finally pulls her attention to me, and over her shoulder, she says, “I just got back from competing. All that ‘beauty shit’ was last week.”
I frown. Like I fucking know. She’s the one who said she had appointments to get that shit done. Liar.
Bitch.
God, I’ve never disliked someone so much, so quickly.
I sigh. “Give me a minute.”
“For what?”
“So I can go with you.”
“I’m not—”
I dip back into my Bronco and grab that rum she planted, keeping my head in here for longer than necessary. She may just be the literal fucking worst. She almost got me arrested. If it hadn’t been Ronny who pulled me over, I’d probably be in a cell right now. With my history…
“What are you going to do with that?” Ever’s voice is closer than it was a second ago.
When I glance over, I find she’s backtracked several feet.
Something about her tone rubs me the wrong way. Something about her rubs me the wrong way.
Everything about her rubs me the wrong way.
“Why? Hoping I’ll get drunk on the job?” Giving Arthur an excuse to fire me, no doubt.
Her gaze falls momentarily before moving to my right, toward the outer wall of one of the hedge mazes, her eyebrows lifting fractionally.
“More like worried you’ll waste perfectly good liquor. I went through a lot of trouble to get—”
Ignoring her, I walk over to that same bush, then empty the bottle into the crushed white shells below, the splashing not quite loud enough to drown out Ever’s outraged gasp.
My lips spread on their own.
“Such a waste.”
Ever huffs while putting her hair into a ponytail. With her hair being so short it doesn’t all go up, but enough of it does, so her face is visible. Her smooth, flawless, beautiful face.
“Anyway, champs wait for no one so…” She flaps her fingers at me, her glossy fake nails catching the sunlight. “Bye, loser.”
Without another word, she spins on her heel and takes off toward the woods.
Gritting my teeth, I toss the empty bottle back in my car, shut the door, then bound after her. Thankfully, I catch sight of her just inside the tree line.
“Ever! Wait!”
“I thought you said you could keep up!” she shouts into the air, scaring a pair of birds.
I can keep up. I just…wasn’t prepared. I will be going forward because this shit can’t happen again. I’m already losing her. Fuck.
I increase my speed, my legs pumping faster than they have in… Shit. Months? I haven’t had a reason to do cardio in a long time.
Ever’s small form passes behind an oak tree before disappearing from view altogether.
How the fuck is she so much faster? My legs are probably twice as long as hers.
I continue running in that direction for a few more minutes before pausing to listen. She only has her phone on her, stuffed…somewhere. I don’t fucking know where she’s keeping that thing. All I know is it wasn’t in my car after she got out.
She has her phone on her.
Before I left to go track her ass down the first time, Edwin gave me some info about the Munreaux estate, including the necessary phone numbers. Hers was one of them.
Taking out my cell, I call it. The second I hear the ringtone echoing through the forest, I pivot and sprint that way.
“Shit,” Ever says, narrowing down her position for me.
I charge right toward her, full steam ahead, eating up the distance between us in seconds. I’m going too fast to stop when she suddenly steps out from behind a massive tree. Busy trying to remove her phone from the back of her shorts, she doesn’t see me until my arms are closing around her and…then we’re falling.
Fucking shit!
We go sailing through the air, time suspended as we both tense for impact. At the last second, I twist us so only my body hits the ground, hers in the safety of my arms creating a cage around her. One hand cradling her head, I hold her to my chest so that even as we roll from the force, she’s protected.
It feels like minutes but it’s probably only a few seconds before we come to a complete stop, me on top of Ever, my arms still holding her.
I immediately lift myself enough to look down at her, scanning for injury.
“I’m sorry. Fuck. I’m sorry.”
When the visual evidence isn’t enough to placate me, I sit up all the way, my hands joining the search, touching everywhere I can. They’re shaking but still have feeling.
“Are you okay?”
“What the hell’s wrong with you? You—”
“Ever!” I shout, silencing her. Coming in close again, I run my hand along one side of her jaw, chin, throat, and ear before doing the same to the other. I feel her swallow the same time I hear it.
Her eyes shut instantly, her nostrils flaring like she can’t stomach my close proximity.
I don’t give a shit. I just need to know if she’s hurt. Not all injuries are visible. The worst usually aren’t.
“Are you okay?” I cup the back of her head, feeling for any wetness but luckily find none.
“No,” comes out ragged between her clenched teeth.
My gaze flies to her closed eyes, her long black lashes quivering, and my heart lurches. I missed something. Again. I fucking missed something.
I start my inspection all over again.
“Tell me where you’re hurt.” I could only protect her upper half, her most vital half, so her bottom half was exposed.
Slowly, her eyes open and she shakes her head. “I’m not hurt.”
“You could be. If you’re in shock—”
Her hands clamp down over mine as she sits up, forcing me back on my heels.
“Crue, I’m not hurt. You made sure of that.”
“I’m sorry.”
Her expression is unreadable as she regards me. “Yeah…you said that already.”
“I’m really fucking sorry.” I shove to my feet. “That.” I point at the tree where we collided, then Ever still on the ground…several feet away. We didn’t just fall hard, we fell far. “And this. I’m sorry for all of it.”
“Uh-huh.” She glances around us.
There’re broken branches, pinecones, rocks, twigs. It’s not asphalt, but still dangerous.
Her focus sharpens on me again. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” leaves my mouth automatically.
“You didn’t even check.”
“I don’t need to. As long as you’re fine, I’m—”
“Let me take a look.” She gets to her feet.
I take a step back. “Don’t pretend like you care.”
“I’m not.” She halts for just a moment before resuming her approach. “If you’re injured, I need to know now so I can call for help. I’m not dragging you out of here myself.”
Lifting my arms for me, she makes a show of inspecting each of them before shuffling around to my back.
Her fingers move my shirt, their tips brushing over my shoulders before coming to a rest between their blades. Even through the material, I sprout goose bumps from her gentle touch.
I get a weird sense of déjà vu as the forest seems to come to a standstill. It’s like Hide and Keep all over again, except not. Not the place, not the girl. Not the fucking same.
“Wouldn’t you rather call your dad and have me fired?” I say to break the silence.
Leaves crunch under Ever’s feet as she circles around to my front again.
“He wouldn’t fire you for this.”
“For putting you in danger? That’s exactly what I’m supposed to be preventing.”
A soft chuckle leaves her lips. “I’ve had five concussions, several bruised bones and sprained ankles, two broken wrists, muscle strains in my hips, back, and legs. You could name any position on the football team and I can guarantee you I’ve been hit by at least one of them on the sidelines. I’ve been dropped from eight feet up, fourteen feet up, higher, in more hospital rooms than movie theaters, and busted my nose on more faces than I’ve kissed or will ever hope to kiss in my lifetime. If physical pain, my physical pain, was my father’s concern…” Her eyebrows plummet before she arches one. “He would’ve stopped it a long time ago.”
“Cheerleading?”
Busy searching my face, she only nods.
Damn. I didn’t even get hurt that much from wrestling.
“Why do you do it?”
Those azure eyes lift from my chin, connecting with mine as she whispers, “Because the only time I’m free is when I’m flying.”
Her rib tattoo.
“That small amount of time is worth the risk?”
She steps away, her gaze falling to the ground between us.
“Every second.” Turning, she points, and says, “The house is back that way.”
“I’ll follow you.”
“I’m not done with my run.”
“Then neither am I.”
Glancing down at her bare wrist, she smacks her lips. “Would you look at the time. It’s been exactly two hours. You got tape to remove.”
“My rig has pink fucking flames on it, you really think I give a fuck if the lines are crisp?”
“Look, I just want to get a run in, then I’ll go back to the manor. I need to unpack anyway.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Are you scared I’m going to fuck someone out here?” Her arms out at her sides, she spins in a slow circle. “There’s no one to fuck. Believe me. The neighbors on both sides of us are in their sixties and seventies.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Go meet them for yourself.”
It’s not that I don’t believe her neighbors are that old. It’s the part about no one being out here. A fuck in the woods? Ever doesn’t look like the kind of person who would resort to that, but she’s got the feral behavior for it.
“I’ve got three years to meet them. For now, let’s just run.”
Her jaw shifts off its hinges for a few seconds before she informs me, “I’m not slowing down for you.”
“Did you hear me ask you to?”
Without another word, she passes me at a pace she obviously assumes I can’t match.
I can’t.
But that sure as fuck doesn’t stop me from trying.
Minutes in, my calves are on absolute fire. I ignore the pain, instead focusing on Ever’s back, flexed above two round globes accentuated nicely by her tight shorts. Despite being ridiculously gassed, I don’t let her get more than fifteen feet ahead of me. Unable to keep up maximum speed forever, she eventually slows, then I give her about ten feet. I don’t know shit about being a bodyguard but I meant what I told her. I don’t have to be a huge interruption in her life. I’m only one right now because she’s fighting me every step of the way, like oil and water in the same bottle. Give it a little shake and we can blend together temporarily, too.
Just because we’re complete opposites in every regard, doesn’t mean we have to be enemies. Once she mellows the fuck out, she’ll see that.
“You’re out of shape,” she states calmly, matter-of-factly, with zero strain in her voice. “You’re young and you look fit, so why are you so out of shape?”
Poor and ugly, I already knew. But out of shape, to this extent…honestly, it’s a surprise to me, too.
“What do you do ?”
My eyes drop to her shoes barely touching the earth, like she’s gliding over it.
What do I do? I work jobs I have zero attachment to so if they were to all of a sudden disappear, I wouldn’t be too torn up about it. I occasionally fuck girls, never more than once, never with emotion. And I live with my parents, the only two people on this planet who have never turned on me.
There. That’s me summed up. I get through each day, not putting too much thought into the next, not when it’s not guaranteed. Nothing in this world is, so I don’t bother putting much stock into any part of it.
“You probably only lift weights,” Ever says, comfortably carrying the entire conversation for the both of us since I don’t trust my voice enough to respond. This is already embarrassing as fuck. I got gapped by a teen girl, and I know for a fucking fact that if I were to let up the slightest amount right now, just for a second, she’d do it again.
It’s not true though—what she said. I don’t even lift weights.
I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise I’m this out of shape. I don’t do anything. Not anymore.
Despite slowing down, Ever doesn’t rub it in, just falls quiet, so I finally let my eyes stray from her.
All around us, trees are showing signs of spring, their tops sporting billions of green buds stretching toward the sky. I spy a box on one trunk, high up near the branches, then another a couple minutes later.
Trail cams? They look kinda big for that though. If they are trail cams, why are they so high up? Soon the branches will be filled in completely and blocking any visibility of the trail below.
I glance back down. I’ve been so focused on Ever—and not dying—that I failed to notice there isn’t even a trail.
If I could talk, I’d ask if she knows where she’s going. She sure acts like she does. There’s been no hesitancy in her strides whatsoever.
We run together in silence for at least another thirty minutes until we come to a break in the trees, revealing a cliff with the sea far below. The water looks endless but isn’t. Somewhere out in the haze is Long Island.
Approaching the edge, Ever doesn’t slow. If anything, her speed might be increasing.
Automatically, I speed up, too, just to check, and yeah, she’s fucking all-out sprinting now.
“Ever, stop,” I warn, not giving a fuck how winded I sound—how winded I am —but still, she maintains the breakneck pace. Fear tears through my body, giving me an adrenaline boost, enough to shorten the space between us, and I reach out to wrench her shoulder, which jumps in my grasp as she pulls up short, making me run into her from behind.
I wrap my arms around her to steady us both, and she cranks her head up at me like she forgot I was here.
Her eyes are glassy, too. I don’t know if it’s from the wind or…something else.
“You okay?”
The confusion melts away from her features, irritation taking its place.
“Goddess, Crue, murder much?”
My arms drop to my sides, the adrenaline evaporating in an instant.
“I’ve never murdered anyone.”
“Says the serial killer to his next victim.”
“I haven’t.”
Her eyebrows lift. “Okaaay.”
“You’re the one running at a goddamn cliff. What the fuck was that about?”
Gazing out at the water, she says quietly, “I wanted to see if I’d fly.”
“What?”
When she doesn’t answer, I shake her and repeat myself.
A break in her reverie, she studies me but doesn’t follow suit. Not that she needs to. I heard her the first time. She considered jumping.
If I wasn’t here, would she have followed through? It seemed like she was about to even with me here.
Maybe she did forget I was here.
Or maybe she just didn’t care.
“What exactly does she need protecting from?”
“Herself.”
“Working for your dad is that bad?” I ask. Enough to kill herself? It’s a fucking motorcycle company. It’s not like she’s set to be the next mafia don.
“That bad?” She scoffs. “Do you have any idea what it feels like to have someone take your future away?”
Without waiting for a response, she jogs off. I don’t follow immediately after, staying a moment longer to watch the waves coming in.
“Yes,” I answer. Except Ever’s future consists of her running a multi-billion-dollar company. Mine was going to consist of…
It doesn’t matter because mine was taken away from me and now I’m stuck babysitting the unqualified, undeserving, bratty little shit who’d rather throw herself off a cliff than run a multi-billion-dollar company.
I turn and head in Ever’s direction.