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For now—just for the next twenty minutes—I’d let o our separate ways

When we finally pulled around the back of Elle’s barn to the little gravel parking area in front of o I didn’t let

He swung off the bike and tookI felt like I was trapped in a drea distant and surreal

“Crap,” Iat the lock “I don’t have my keys They’re in my purse, and I have no idea what happened to it, or er said “Your phone is gone I’ll get you a new one to through one of the saddlebags to pull out a small black leather pouch When he cae little tools

“Lock picks,” he said shortly

“So this is just another part of your life?” I asked, nu to break into places?”

He glanced up atin ht his attention, because his expression softened

“Babe, I’entle “Locksunsmith—if it’swith it When I was a kid I built shit out of Legos; now I have big-boy toys For a while I worked full-ti lockout calls Sometimes it’s not about scary stuff, okay?”

I nodded, but I wasn’t sure if I believed him

“Whatever,” Iaround Everything was just like I’d left it the day before Normal All noret cleaned up,” he said “I’ll call Ki Noah ho out”

“Was he worried about et a drink of water I considered offering hie of anger was good—made me feel less numb

“I’m sure he was,” he replied “Kih They’ve been watching movies and shit I talked to hi but I haven’t seen hi you back”

I turned to look at hi roo al that happened Did they … hurt … you?”

I snorted

“U up to touch my bruised cheek “They threw me in a van, tiedto kill me because of some bullshit with your club that I don’t understand or care about So yeah, that part kind of sucked Thanks for asking”

“Did they rape you?” he asked bluntly I shook my head His face softened with relief, and he walked towardhi around, and it’s over,” I said, focusingme exactly why this had to happen “I know I’ve said that before, but everything’s changed now It doesn’t matter how you erous, and I don’t want anything to do with any of you Noah and I, we can’t afford that”