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"I’ her aro, I’d have asked her why, but now it doesn’t , any answer, can be a for that counts from this point forward is the truth I need froet it Even if it inal inclination, take her back upstairs, tie her to the bed, and fuck her until I get my answers

CHAPTER TWO

SHANE

I turn Emily and me around the corner and into the lobby, down the white-tiled path leading to Edge, the hotel restaurant I don’t speak Emily doesn’t speak There is just her hand onrow of tables to our left with cushioned chairs around the silence I don’t fill that space ords, and neither does she, but then, unless her staying has coenda, she still won’t tell me what I want to know My father isn’t all that different He won’t tellbut he alludes and plays He is the ulti the players, and will be all the way to his i deathbed And fuck , despite all of these things Like Emily ht ain, directly into the interior of the dihts dangling above thehs onto die, but most likely he’ll end up bedridden first, and instead of letting us be a norether, andlass and leather bar to e’s hts with every once in a while, lifts a hand I give hi rooo of my arm

I turn to face her and she says, "Shane…" She seees hertoward the arched entryway to a bank of bathrooht back" She doesn’t wait for a reply, turning and rushing away, but not before I see the look of helplessness on her face that reaches inside me and touches the part ofscared and not from me, and while I can’t afford to be stupid, the idea that she er is a hard blast of reality I’ve known she had secrets she wasn’t ready to share, but yet I just attacked her for that very thing Had I asked questions instead, had I given her the chance to explain, ht I’ve let ht’s boht now I can’t be wrong about that or her

I reach indown Rita, the twenty-soular, knoell "Hey there, Shane," she says "What’s hot tonight? You or your father?"

I ignore what I know froes is a joke about my father and his mistress "Don’t let anyone into the ladies’ roo her a hundred dollar bill

"Are you kiddingtoward the bathroo open the door to the ladies’ rooasps, as I enter and find her standing in an enclave with a sitting area and ainst the wall,hers "Are we alone?"

"Da on ?"

"Are we alone?"

"Yes but that could change anyinto women’s bathrooms"