CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
JAMES
ABANDONED SCHOOL
(ONE YEAR AGO)
I kissed her. No, I didn’t just kiss her. I kissed her so much I could still taste her, and I wanted more. I didn’t just want her mouth. I wanted all of her. I wanted her scent all over me, clinging to my skin like a brand.
My God, Michael was gonna kill me.
Two days. Two fucking days, and she was still all I could think about. She was like the sun in my universe, and I just kept orbiting her. My whole world had shrunk to Sarah, every thought, every breath, every damn heartbeat was hers.
Even Nathan noticed I was distracted. He kept talking about his dream of seeing Utah again. That was where his family was from, and I just nodded, pretending to listen.
I shouldn’t have been with her. Outsiders brought nothing but violence, and she didn’t deserve that. She deserved quiet and safety. But I couldn’t stay away from her either, not anymore.
And to be fair, she fucking provoked me.
When she told me one of Nathan’s brothers had asked her on a fucking date, I almost lost it. My mind went white-hot with rage.
That was the line.
The thought of her with someone else made me see red.
In our world, a “date” wasn’t some cute dinner. No fancy restaurants. No slow dances. No theaters. None of that existed anymore. Now, it meant disappearing into a room together, kissing, fucking, and then doing it again. Michael did that practically every night.
I stood in the doorway, watching her. She was sitting on a blanket on the school roof, a basket of food beside her. Her face tilted up to the sky, as if she were searching for something.
Watching her was like watching a fire—beautiful from a distance, but dangerous as hell to touch.
And yet, I wanted to.
I wanted to feel the burn, to see if we could survive the flames without turning to ash.
I walked over to her, shoving my hands in my pockets. I couldn’t trust them around her anymore.
“Found you,” I murmured close to her ear as I sank down beside her on the blanket.
She turned her head, meeting my eyes. “Why am I not surprised?”
Her voice was light, but her eyes lingered on my mouth, giving her away. Yeah, she’d been waiting for me.
I took a deep breath. My whole body went hot just from being that close. A breeze caught her braids and tossed them over her shoulders, and my gaze slid to her neck. All I could think about was burying my mouth there, breathing her in until I forgot everything else.
“You left the school again, little danger.”
She shook her head, lips curving into a little smile. “Well, I’m not inside, but I’m still on the property, technically. You can’t deny that—”
I didn’t let her finish. My mouth crashed against hers, kissing her hard and swallowing whatever smart-ass comment she had lined up.
I didn’t even remember taking my hands out of my pockets, but now they were cradling her face, my thumbs stroking her cheeks.
I needed her under me. On top of me. In my bed. Against the wall. In the backseat of a car. Anywhere. Everywhere.
She smiled when our lips parted, her palm resting on my chest, and I swore she could feel my heartbeat slamming against her hand.
“Took you a while to find me this time,” she said. “What happened?”
I huffed, rubbing the back of my neck. “Michael. He wanted to play poker.”
She scratched her chin. “And?”
“Nathan took one look at me and took my seat without a word. I think he knows. I could see it in his eyes.”
“Well, Nathan does have good eyes. Beautiful hazel eyes.”
My jaw ticked. My hands twitched. A vein popped in my neck.
“I don’t want you looking at Nathan’s eyes ever again.”
She fucking giggled.
I glanced at the edge of the roof, and my heart kicked up. We were high. Not that high. The building had only two floors, but still…
“Afraid of heights, Outsider?”
Her sudden question almost made me choke. I snapped my head toward her, and she grinned like she’d just won a bet.
I clenched my teeth, my hands locking around her waist to keep her exactly where she was. Knowing Sarah, she’d run straight to the edge just to watch me lose my goddamn mind.
I forced my gaze away from the drop and focused on the basket beside her. Not one, but like ten open bags of chips.
“So, what is all this?” I asked.
“A picnic.”
I raised a brow. “Pretty sure picnics are supposed to be on the ground, not the roof. You know, on the grass.”
She waved a hand, brushing off the idea. “One time, I found a book…”
I smiled. She answered everything with those words.
“…and it was full of old traditions from around the world. But our world’s different now. So I figured, why not start new ones?”
I wrapped my arms around her, the way you hold something you’re afraid to lose. “I like that.”
I looked at the chips again. “But where’d you get all these flavors? The school cafeteria definitely didn’t have them.”
She bit her bottom lip.
Oh, hell no.
“You went back to that store where Nathan got you the beers, didn’t you?”
She tilted her head, all innocent. “If I say yes, are you gonna be mad?”
“Yep.”
“Then… no.”
She laughed, and I gave one of her braids a tug as a warning, but I was laughing too.
I should’ve been mad. I should’ve given her a whole damn lecture. But God help me, watching her braids swaying as she laughed turned me on.
“So, is there a reason for this rooftop picnic?” I asked, stretching my legs out beside her.
She leaned back on her palms and tilted her head up. “I’m looking for a shooting star.” Her eyes stayed on the sky, catching the silver light of the moon. “I wanna make a wish for my brother. He deserves it. He’s lost too much already. I just want him to be happy.”
“And how do you know the wish is gonna come true?”
“Because once, I made a wish for my dad, and it came true.”
“You don’t make wishes for yourself?”
“My wish is just seeing the people I love happy.”
I just stared at her, stunned. Her heart was too big for this world.
“The last time I saw a shooting star was back at the ranch,” she said. “The night after Michael’s birthday party.”
“Yeah. I remember.”
She sat up straight, eyes snapping to me. “You saw me?”
I rubbed my jaw. “I was watching you. You slept on the roof that night.”
She frowned. “No, I didn’t. I remember waking up in my bed.”
I couldn’t stop the smile.
Her eyes narrowed. “James… what did you do?”
I brushed one of her braids behind her ear. My fingers stayed there a second too long. “Your room was very pink.”
Her jaw dropped.
“Oh my God. You carried me to my room?!”
“I didn’t want you rolling off the damn roof in the middle of the night. You were sleeping too close to the edge. Almost gave me a heart attack.”
She smacked my chest. “Why didn’t you ever tell me before?”
I laughed under my breath.
“I don’t know. Holding you like that… it messed me up. You felt too good, too perfect. Like something I wasn’t supposed to touch. I didn’t want to ruin it.”
“But why were you watching me?”
“Because one week after I arrived at the ranch, I saw you cry. Your arm was bleeding. You ran into the barn looking for Michael. You didn’t see me, but I was there.
And I couldn’t look away. You looked so sad, and I hated it.
So I started watching you. Figured if I stayed close enough, maybe I could stop the next accident.
” I gave her a knowing look. “But yeah… that didn’t work.
You split your lip falling off the fence just a week later. ”
God knows I’d tried to fucking stop it.
I watched her so much back at the ranch, I probably looked like a stalker.
And still, she kept getting hurt—tripping and cutting her elbow, twisting her wrist playing with the dogs, falling down the stairs and bruising her back. She even got a black eye in the chicken coop after face-planting in the dirt.
It was a mess. Scrapes, bruises, deep cuts, blood.
Michael patched her up. Her dad told her to be more careful. And I just kept watching.
“Still, that didn’t stop me,” I added. “I kept watching. I kept telling myself it was because of your little accidents, but the truth? I couldn’t take my eyes off you, even when there wasn’t any danger.
By then, you were the first thing I looked for in the morning.
And the last at night. I was already yours, Sarah, long before I ever said you were mine. ”
She smiled, then leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.
She looked back at the dark town, her eyes lighting up as if she were seeing something beautiful.
“I don’t know what you see in this town,” I said, glancing around. “I don’t like towns. They’re never safe.”
“So why are we still here? If it’s not safe, shouldn’t we go back to the woods?”
“Yeah, we should,” I replied, but then my eyes landed on the scar above her knee from that day she hid in that cave.
Fuck. No place was really safe.
“But we can stay as long as you want,” I added. “The school’s a good shelter. And I don’t see any signs that this town’s ever been taken, so we’re okay. For now.”
She studied me for a moment, thoughtful. “How can you tell no one owns this place?”
“There’s no mark anywhere. No spray-painted symbol or tag. Gangs always leave something behind when they’ve claimed a place.”
“So, my butterfly drawings could be my mark?”
“Do you have a gang?”
She shook her head immediately. “Nope.”
“Do you want to force people to follow your rules?”
Another shake. “Also nope.”
“That’s what marks mean.”
“Can they mean something else?”
I paused, meeting her innocent green eyes, so sure the world could still be good.
“What would your mark stand for?”
She smiled, bright and beautiful. “It could mean something good. That this town is free. No rules. Everyone’s welcome.”
I smiled too. “I like that.”
Her whole body relaxed, like she had nothing to fear in the world.
“So… what are we?” she asked.
“You’re my girlfriend. My girl.”
Jesus, I sounded like I was fifteen.
“I am?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “’Cause you never asked me.”
“I told you. You’re mine.”
“You did?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Woman, stop messing with my head.”