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I got h, so he wouldn’t guess what I was thinking If he realised I was on to hiround Take Jess with him

I wasn’t going to let that happen if I could help it I knew their address I could get her out if I needed to…

I just needed to figure out hoould convince her to go along with me How to make her believe I could protect her

Brad sat down as our food arrived I stared at the chicken salad on , heavy on red and green things I didn’t know the na he’d ordered for Jess, while he was tucking into a pulled pork burger that wasirls putting on weight

Jess wasn’t even peeking at me any more as we settled in to eat, and Brad didn’t see amiss He just wanted to talk about how incredible it was that those random people still knew his face, after all these years had passed When he kneas hardly a spring chicken these days, still worked out but hardly what he was in his youth… groan How had I been taken in by this bullshit artist? Jess didn’t even have any expression on her face as he talked It was like being stuck with Mu

I owed Mu to accept it

Chapter Twenty-Five: Tamara

r />Brad was keen to drag the both of us out to dinner, but I insisted he drop me off back at school so I could nificantly at Jess a lot, like I was feeling aard about being around her She hadn’t said anything directly toThere wasn’t much room to talk in between Brad’s contributions, of course

I let hi, though rimace

“So I’ve been talking to Ryan,” I spoke up on i a lot of things over… I can’t pro to meet up too”

“Oh, cool” Brad tried, but he just couldn’t bring up the sa with his boy I resisted shooting any ful looks in Jess’s direction

I sort of thought heright up to the school so soet out of his car, but he stopped just one space down fro at thirty-two minutes past three

He turned to me and spoke as if Jess wasn’t there at all As if ere parting at the end of a date, I thought and then regretted “Thanks for co road at this point, we’ve lost so … but I think we could really have a great relationship still I hope you won’t let any s”

“I won’t,” I pros… I could see now that he’d used Jess to lure s I would have been too wary to do otherwise What would come next? An invitation to his house with Jess present and his wife not? He could just send Jess off into her room and then what could she do?

Maybe he’d realised whatever he was doing to Jess rong because the world saw her as his daughter… but he and I were basically strangers The saht not apply in his messed-up head