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He shook his head and thenyour phone”

I pulled it out froht where to put it Then I h the tiny space between the two rooms and went over to Victor

Victor had his laptop open, but he turned it slightly when I approached “Be careful out there,” he said

I passed hi on to this for me”

He nodded and slipped it into his back pocket “The one time you hand it to me not yet broken”

I smirked “Not yet”

“I give it two more days,” he said with a chuckle

I did have a bad habit of losing or breaking them

North held open the door for me and peeked out “Time to move”

North and I dashed over to the Jeep between people going in and out of the diner Once I was in, I quickly put on my seatbelt

North put a flip phone on the dash above the radio and then started the engine

“I thought you said no” I paused and then shookthat Luke did once ere going to do soerous I hadn’t expected this to be a similar situation

He nodded shortly and threw the Jeep into reverse Soon ere on the road and taking a detour route back to Ashley Waters Traffic had all but cleared out Neighborhoods were mostly dark and quiet

I breathed in sharply, feeling exciteerous, justat night

Or perhaps it was that it had been a while since I’d spent time alone with North His darkdid so to my insides

Northme the sa on the clothing I earing now

“What?” I asked him

He returned his attention to his driving “You don’t look right”

“I look weird?”

“No,” he said “I think it’s all the black It doesn’t look right on you”

“You wear all black,” I said, but he’d said so like this to me before “We match”

We parked not far frorocery store The grocery was open twenty-four hours and a fast food place nearby was open late, so we still blended in at this hour There were a few cars in the lot, but he parked in the back of the grocery store where there was a smaller lot for employees

He parked and then checked the dash for the tiazed out the , checking the building in front of us There were yellowed lights in the back, although not asMost of the cars were in darkness “Victor should have taken care of the cameras”

I checked where he was looking, at a caled toward the employee cars

“Unless he forgot that, too,” North said with a grumble

“What do you think he’s doing?” I asked “I’d been there most of the afternoon before you ca to leave him alone He couldn’t watch theon whatever was happening tonight”

“I think he’s buying you a house,” North said

“He wouldn’t dare”

He scanned the parking lot once more and then looked over at me and smirked “Bet you a dollar”

I didn’t think it was possible Despite noing he had his own portfolio and he was using Mr Blackbourne’s card more than his own, it still didn’t seem like he could just buy one

He put a hand on the back of my seat near , we’ll do it You know that”

“I don’t know if I want to get accustomed to that,” I said

“Why not?”

“I want to help, too”

“You are,” he said He leaned toward me and a thick, dark eyebrow lifted over one eye “You’re helping reat today at the school”

“I feel like I can do more”