Love Me (WITSEC #3)(7)
“What do you mean by completely erased?” Keelan asked.
“It means there’s no record I ever existed,” I answered. “If you were to look up my family online, you would find that Shayla was an only child and that Mr. X was stalking her. News articles that covered the night my family was murdered were altered. Of course, erasing me isn’t completely foolproof because the police involved, the people from my old life who knew me and my family know the truth. Not to mention Shayla was my identical twin.”
“I told you I had all of Shayla’s photos online erased,” Logan said. “The only way for someone to connect you to your parents and sister is if someone tells them.”
With a furrowed brow, Creed looked from Logan to Ian and back to Logan. “Not that I care, but should you really be admitting to doing all that to a fed?”
Logan smirked. “I’m sure Ian’s called in a favor or two.”
“By the time this is all over, you’ll owe me enough to last a lifetime,” Ian said. “Especially with all the felonies I have to look the other way on.”
“Ian and Logan are ex-SEAL buddies,” I told the guys.
Ian’s brows rose. “I thought we were lovers?”
Logan huffed a laugh, then grimaced, clutching his ribs. He stepped around Knox, heading toward the door. “I’m not your type. My hair isn’t blond and my breasts don’t have their own zip code.”
Ian shrugged. “And remind me what your type is? Long legs that spread—”
“I don’t need to hear that information,” I snapped, covering my ears.
As he reached to open the door to leave, Logan glanced back at me, a small smile on his face. For just a moment, all the bad seemed to have been forgotten. But as we locked eyes, it all came back. His smile dropped. “I’m sticking around until we get the shit with the sheriff handled. I know things are rocky right now, but if you ever need me, I’ll come. No matter what, Shi.” He didn’t wait for me to respond and walked out, with Ian following him.
I glanced around at the guys and noticed Knox watching the door close with that suspicious look again. What was weird was that Keelan and Creed were also staring at the door with the same look. Colt, however, was staring at his brothers like me, looking as confused as I felt.
“Why do you all look like that?” Colt asked them.
Knox, Keelan, and Creed exchanged a look.
“I don’t trust him,” Creed said, looking at me. “He didn’t apologize for drugging you. Instead, he deflected by telling you things you would want to hear, and I didn't believe him when he said he was testing us to see if we could protect you. That’s not how the fight went down. I’m sorry, Shi. I hope I’m wrong, but something doesn’t feel right.”
The eldest Stone brothers said nothing and that told me that they agreed with Creed.
He had apologized yesterday before… Now that I thought about it, maybe he hadn’t. Was telling someone you didn’t know how to apologize to them the same as saying you were sorry? And if what Creed said was true, then everything Logan had said—his sad speech as to why he couldn’t step up as a parent—had been a lie to get me to let my guard down.
Logan was good at lies, especially if they manipulated a situation to get what he wanted. I’d just never thought he would do that to me. Or, honestly, I’d never wanted to believe he’d do that to me.
I went to get off Keelan’s lap, but he refused to let me go. “I have this feeling that you’re a flight risk,” he said in a low voice, but everyone seemed to hear.
Unable to meet his eyes, I stared at the strap of his sling. “You’re putting yourselves at risk being with me. I’m putting you at risk staying—”
“You promised, Shi,” Creed said. “Run or fight, we do it together, remember?”
It had been wrong to make that promise.
“One of us could die tomorrow,” Knox said. “Be it a heart attack, a brain aneurysm, or a car crash. What have I told you about living in fear?”
Living in fear isn’t living.
2
The next morning, I jerked awake hours before my alarm was due to go off. I lay there trying to calm the pounding in my chest. Keelan was sleeping soundlessly next to me, which I was grateful for. He needed to rest.
Once I was calm, I rolled onto my back with the intent to go back to sleep. Instead, I found myself staring at the dancing shadows on the ceiling as my mind became overwhelmed with thoughts. Thoughts of what I needed to get done that day, what assignments were due for school, which in turn reminded me of Cassy. Then I found myself thinking about her father, the sheriff, and then I was thinking about Logan, which pulled Mr. X into my thoughts. That was my breaking point.
Careful not to wake Keelan, I pushed off the covers and crept out of his room. I went home and changed into yellow athletic leggings and a matching racerback top. By the time I was stretching in my front yard, the sun was starting to rise.
Before I took off running through the neighborhood, I set a timer on my phone for one hour. That was it. I refused to let my run exceed that.
At the end of that hour, the sun had risen from behind the mountains and I had worked up a good sweat. It amazed me that even though it was late October, it was still hot out. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I turned off the alarm. I was down the street from my house and felt the temptation to run the rest of the way.