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"What were you even doing there?"

"Looking for a fight I needed so that would make the news"

"Oh my God, it did?"

"I was this close," he said, and held his thued out by a corrupt politician"

"You were robbed"

"Indeed My father paid them off, I think"

I watched Noah closely when I asked my next question "So your father knows about us, then?"

"Yes," Noah said evenly "He does"

"And?"

Noah raised his eyebrows "And what?"

Boys So impossible "What does he think?"

Noah looked like he didn’t understand the question "As if that matters?"

Ah He understood the question, he just didn’t knohy I was asking "It does matter," I said "Tell me"

"He thinks I’m a fool," Noah said simply

I tried not to sho much that hurt

Apparently I failed, because Noah took my hands in each of his It was the first time he touched me like this, like it mattered, since before Jude took es on an to protest He hushed me He lifted my hands to his mouth His petal-soft lips brushed over my knuckles, then my palms Noah looked into my eyes and owned me

And then he kissed ainstthe veins beneath the that does"

"What?" I whispered

He looked at , dark lashes, withJude"

61

NOAH’S HANDS WERE GENTLE AND HIS VOICE was soft, which

I wanted to kill Jude I’d thought about it

Noah let go of ements before I came here to haveto go after the he’s done--it’s been to get at you He said he took Joseph because he wanted tothat’s exactly ould torture you the most"

I sed "But now I’m in here And so are you"

Noah was silent for ain his voice scared me, and drew my eyes to look Noah was beautiful--always--but there was so dark now beneath those perfectly carved features So new

Or maybe it was always there, and I had just never seen it