Page 76 of Hide From Me

“Be careful.” That was all she said and got in without a fight. I didn’t deserve her trust, but right now, I needed it.

I shut the door and let X head back to our little compound.

The pretty white stones were chilly as I leaned against them. They made up the iconic White Building. It made a whole hell of a lot of sense that the Whitehall’s owned it, but it didn’t make any sense that some asshole was claiming my little blossom was the only remaining heiress.

Then again…

I really wished I smoked right now, but I saw what drugs of any kind could do to those around you. I sold the shit, but I didn’t make anyone put that shit in their veins. I turned when I heard the quick steps behind me.

“Hey, you got it all sorted?” I asked.

Zeid nodded.

“Yeah. Dude did as agreed. No tapes, no proof that she was ever here.”

I held up her key. “Except her little shitty car.”

Even Zeid cringed.

“I wouldn’t let my girl drive that, just saying.”

I pushed off the building.

“Yeah. Maybe we fix the problem, but right now, it’s our ride home.”

I didn’t deny the my girl comment. I’d always thought of her as mine. It hadn’t mattered where she was or what I had to pay to make sure she got what she needed. She’d somehow always been mine, it was just now she knew it.

Zeid had the papers still in his hand.

“What do those things say? Anything?” I asked.

He was thumbing through them, stopping as we got into her ride. I’d hated this car, but until now I couldn’t just take it away from her without outing myself. Something told me that my time had come to spill whatever she wanted to know. I didn’t fear much, but something nagged at me in the pit of my stomach, and it had everything to do with what that really shitty PI said.

“It says we have a really big fucking secret hiding in our walls,” Zeid finally answered.

A secret. She’s always been my secret. She was the secret to my downfall, and no one should know about that. But something told me that this was bigger than me.

“I won’t let her go.” That was all I could say. I didn’t need anyone’s permission. I didn’t want anyone’s blessing but hers. I wasn’t letting her go.

TWENTY-NINE

rylee

I should have been freakingout, but I wasn’t. I was so confused about what the man had been saying. Rich? My mother had struggled. I had my father’s last name, and I’d only ever questioned that once. Why had she put his name on the birth certificate when she was terrified he would find her?

My mother hated her job. She drank way more than she was sober, and she hid cash in all of my bags, my pillowcase, and the jewelry box she said was hers when she was a girl. I still had that, and it was the only thing that I actually still loved. It was the one thing that showed me my mom hadn’t always been this broken person. She loved me the best she could; I knew that.

“What you thinking about, short stuff?”

I met Xander’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

“My mom.”

He wasn’t good at hiding his emotions, I decided. His eyes crinkled in the corner. I was certain a smile was on his face if I tried to lean forward.

“You just saw a man’s brains paint the floor and you’re thinking of dear old mom?”

I took off my seatbelt, and that got him slowing down.