Page 73 of White Hot Kiss
“Don’t ‘okay’ me.” I took a deep breath.
“Okay.”
I shot him a glare.
“What?” he said innocently. Then he got all serious-faced again. “What are you going to do?”
Glancing up at the overcast sky, I shook my head. Besides the obvious, which was finding out where the Key was and staying away from the demon who wanted to use me as part of a bizarre incantation, I assumed he meant with the home situation.
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted, my voice a tiny whisper. “I can’t hide from them forever. And as long as they don’t know about the soul thing, I should be okay. Zayne—”
“Zayne?” Roth was frowning again. “The big, blond oaf?”
“I don’t think he can be categorized as an oaf,” I said drily. “How do you—Never mind. Watching me. Got it.”
“You can’t trust them. You may be close with Stony and crew, but they have to know what you are. You’re not safe there.” He ran the tips of his fingers along the cushion beside him, drawing my attention. Hadn’t he touched me like that last night? I shivered and looked away. “If you go home, Layla, you’re going to have to pretend you don’t know any different.”
“I can’t believe it,” I said, and when he sent me a look, I shook my head. “Zayne—he couldn’t have known. He...”
“He’s a Warden, Layla. His loyalty—”
“No. You don’t understand. I’m not naive or stupid, but I know Zayne wouldn’t have kept something like this from me.”
“Why? Because you care for him?”
I was about to ask how he knew that, but then I remembered Bambi had been chilling about the tree house. “Of course I care about Zayne. He’s the only one who’s ever really known me. I can be myself around him and...” I trailed off, because the falsity of what I was saying sank in. I really couldn’t be what I truly was with Zayne, either. “Anyway, he would’ve told me the truth.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Because he cares about you, too?”
“He does, but not in the way I’m sure you’re insinuating.”
“Actually, he does like you.” When I frowned, he laughed. “And I do mean like you, like you.”
I scoffed. “How would you know? You—”
“Don’t know Stony? You’re right, but you forget that I did watch you for some time. I’ve seen you around him, and I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Sure, a relationship between you two is as hopeless as the debt problem facing—”
“Jeez, okay. I know that.” I sighed.
“But it doesn’t stop someone from wanting another person they can never have.” His gaze turned acute. “Even if Stony doesn’t know the truth, and you trust him with your life and blah, blah, you can’t tell him anything.”
A big, heavy ball of dread settled in my stomach.
“Layla?”
I nodded. “I’m not going to tell them.”
“Good,” he said, standing. He smiled, but I couldn’t bring myself to return the gesture. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d just sealed my fate.
14
Leaving Roth’s loft hadn’t been easy. For a second or two, I didn’t think he was going to let me go. He hadn’t voiced any direct opposition to me going home, but I could tell he wasn’t a big fan of the idea. But if I stayed with him it would only be a matter of time before the Wardens found me.
They’d kill Roth, and even though I had no idea how I felt about him, I didn’t want him to die.
Roth wanted to take me as close to home as he could get me, but I wasn’t ready to go there. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go, but I needed to be alone. He’d followed me outside his loft and I discovered we were in one of the new skyrises outside the Palisades. Along the Potomac River, it was one of the wealthiest sections in D.C.
I guessed being a demon paid well.