Stupid.
I had one reason.
One reason.
I couldn’t risk getting distracted. Couldn’t risk another heart. Another life.
My chest tightened in that spiky dread when I saw the flickers of red coming through the trees, and I tossed my phone to the opposite seat as Juna pulled into the grassy field.
The air thinned and my spirit groaned.
Hatred. Hatred.
Distrust and this debt and a thousand fucked up things in between.
I was quick to climb out of my car, standing behind my open door with my gun burning a hole where it was holstered at my side.
She came to a stop, staring at me through the windshield, her brown hair twisted in a knot on her head and falling around her face as she clutched the steering wheel in her own fear and agitation.
She was stunning. Not a fuckin’ lie.
But she curled every cell in my body in revulsion.
Finally, she killed her engine, warily clicked open her door, and stood.
“Juna,” I said through gritted teeth.
Her mouth trembled, and she gave me a timid smile. “Hi.”
My head shook in a fierce gush of disbelief. “Don’t hi me. We both know why you’re here and what you want. No reason for pleasantries.”
She blanched. “Trent…I—”
I shook my head again. “No bullshit, Juna.” I ducked back into my car and grabbed the duffle bag. I tossed it at her from across the space.
She caught it with a thud, her arms curled around the fabric and hugging all that money to her chest.
“You got what you came for, now go.”
Her expression twisted like I’d slapped her across the face. “That’s not true.”
“No? It was always about the money. Don’t deny it.”
“I never meant for it to happen.”
A blistering scoff left my mouth, and I had to curl my hands around the top of my car door to keep from crossing the space and choking her out. “You did. You set the whole fuckin’ thing up. You just got cold feet.”
Didn’t want my blood on her hands, so she’d left me with my brother’s on mine, instead.
My fault, too.
Wasn’t like I’d wanted her. Only thing I’d wanted was revenge on an enemy, and the girl had been an easy target.
She looked into the distance, her chin quivering before she tentatively looked back at me. “How is Gage?”
My chest tightened, throat closing off, and my hands were cinching down tighter.
“Safe.” That’s all she got from me. Only thing she deserved. One thing in this deal she’d given.
Gage.
She chewed at her bottom lip before she whispered, “That makes me happy.”
My insides twisted in a thousand knots, that hatred and a flash of gratitude making me feel like I might lose my mind, and she dropped her shoulders and started to climb back into her car.
Guess it was the panic, that paranoia that had been hunting me for the last few months that had the words shootin’ from my mouth. “Anyone have a clue where you are?”
Juna looked up at me with surprise riding her expression before she frowned and her brows drew tight. “No. You know I’d never go back there.”
My nod was clipped. “Good. Keep it that way.”
She didn’t say anything else before she ducked into her car, though she watched me with some kind of sadness as she started it, backed up, and whipped around so she could drive back down the bumpy lane.
I watched her go.
On guard.
Always on guard because I didn’t trust a damned soul.
Not when the ones I’d cared about most had betrayed me.
Betrayed us.
Slayed when they should have protected.
But that’s what happened when you lived the kind of lives we’d lived.
When we’d been brought up in depravity and wickedness.
Only exception were my brothers. Gage.
Knew better than letting anyone else into that fold.
I sat there for another ten after she left just to make sure I was in the clear before I grabbed my phone and saw that the message that I’d sent to Eden had still been left unread.
Agitation stirring, I glanced at the clock. School was already out.
“Shit,” I mumbled as I dialed her number and hoped she’d answer.
It rang before that sweet, sultry voice came on the line. “This is Eden, I’ll get back to you when I can.”
I hit the road and gunned it, hating that I had the sick urge to trust her with this. I had to stop the truth from sliding out and give her another fuckin’ lie to bury the mound of others.
“Eden, hey, I’m on my way but had an issue at the bar. Really sorry. Will be there soon.”
I took the curvy, winding mountain road at top speed. Engine flying, but it was my anxiety that was soaring.
This unsettled feeling taking hold, way it did every year right about this time, but I guessed that was something I would be battling for the rest of my life.
I made the hour-long trip in forty-five minutes, barely slowing as I made it to the edge of the tiny city where the dense hedge of trees thinned, and the trendy shops and restaurants tucked underneath the short office buildings and apartments came into view.