Page 63 of Offside Angel

“If I decide to do this, there’s a chance it doesn’t go well, and I don’t want to take anyone else down with me.”

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“But you might have to,” I argue. “Because you have Aiden to think about. If they charge me with murder and find out you knew about it, you could be charged with aiding and abetting. Hollis said as much.”

Zane is so quiet I think the call might have dropped. When he does speak, his voice is soft. “That isn’t going to happen, Mira.”

I wish I had the luxury of being that optimistic.

“But if it does, I need you to be prepared to tell the police you didn’t know a thing about it. You need to tell them that… that you had no idea who I was—no idea what I’d done.” I hate that my voice wavers, because I mean every single word. “I don’t want Aiden to lose both of us.”

“It’s not going to happen.”

“But if it?—”

“But if it does,” he cuts in with a weary sigh, “I’ll do what’s best for Aiden. I swear.”

The weight on my chest eases a bit. I feel like I can breathe. “Thank you.”

“When are you coming home? I want to see you.”

“Are you at the apartment already?” I check the time on the dash. “Did your flight get in early?”

“Jace and I flew in a few hours ahead of the team. Like I said, I wanted to see you.”

There’s a promise in his voice that zips straight to the core of me. I have half a mind to tell Evan to turn the car around and take me home.

I groan. “I want to, but I thought you wouldn’t be back until this afternoon. Taylor and I signed up for a kickboxing class in fifteen minutes.”

“Go ahead. Take the class. But when it’s over… come straight home to me.”

The woman behind the front desk gives me a tight smile when I walk in. I guess she isn’t used to members having their bodyguard sweep the gym for threats before they can enter.

To be fair, I’m still not used to it, either.

I can’t help but feel like walking around with Evan puts a bigger target on my back than if I pulled the incognito celebrity move and wore a baseball cap and sunglasses everywhere I go.

I scan the front lobby and the juice bar at the back, but I don’t see Taylor yet, so I head to the locker rooms.

As much as I want to get out of here and get home to Zane, I also need to burn off some of the anxious energy buzzing through me.

I don’t know why the meeting with Hollis has me so on edge. He told me I shouldn’t even consider turning myself in until things with Dante are resolved.

“The way you describe him, I don’t think your brother will be on your side,” Hollis said. “So, it’d be best to wait until that situation is handled before you start a new one, if you know what I mean.”

Maybe that’s my problem: I didn’t know what he meant. I still don’t.

How do I handle things with Dante? What will it look like when that situation is resolved?

Is it when I sit down with him over coffees and we work out all of our issues?

Or maybe when he’s dead?

One of those things is never going to happen, and the other is something I’d like to avoid at all costs. One body buried in my figurative backyard is more than enough.

I punch in the code to the locker room and try to shake off my bad juju at the door. Aside from being with Zane and Aiden, kickboxing is one of the only things that can turn my brain off. I can come here and pretend I’m just like the stay-at-home moms here for the free daycare or the influencers taking mirror selfies. I can be normal. I don’t want to ruin it by bringing my emotional carry-on with me.

The locker room is humid and smells like the complimentary seabreeze shampoo they keep in the showers, but I don’t hear any movement. The tile walls echo every tiny sound, so it’s easy to know if you’re alone. Yet another reason I like being here.

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