Page 6 of Better Hide

Whatever Jayden’s lookingat on his phone has him frozen.

I immediately straighten. “What is it?”

Jayden doesn’t answer, then flashes me a weird look. “Nothing.”

The hairs on the back of my neck prickle. Whatever it is, it’s bad enough that he can’t get his unaffected mask back in place.

I throw on some pants, then jerk my head toward the hallway. “Jo, stay,” I order. I grab her phone and take mine with me, too.

Jayden walks stiffly to the door. I grab a keycard and follow him. Just outside the room, Jayden stops. “The window.”

“She can’t open it.” I turn to face him. “What’s going on?”

Jayden shakes his head. “It’s nothing. I’ll take care of it.”

Anger fills me, and I get in his face. “We aren’t kids anymore, Jay. You don’t have to protect me. Tell me what’s going on.”

Jayden’s dark eyes bounce between mine. There’s real fear in them, and that shakes me deeply. Jayden is never afraid, and he has never been afraid in all the years we grew up together.

Jayden grips his phone and then hands it to me. “You’re on the cop’s radar.”

“What?” I look over the messages, and my stomach drops.

“Goddamn it.” Jayden runs his hands through his hair. “Fuck! I should have told you to leave your phone.”

Shit. They’re going to find Sage. And Pat.

I try to shrug. “Fine. We just won’t go back.”

“They’ll put warrants out on us. On you.” Jayden’s face starts to fall back into his mask. The same one he wore when we were kids. The one he wore when I wanted to lose my shit and scream at Pat. When he would calm me down and tell me he’d take care of it. The one where he becomes a different person for weeks. Distant. Unreachable. Angry.

“You’ll get arrested,” Jayden says.

“Hey, no. It’ll be fine.” I reach out to grab Jayden’s arm, watching him disassociate further into whatever mind prison he retreats to.

“Jay,” I snap. “I’m a big boy. I’ll be fine.”

He gives me a blank look.

I try to get him back. “So what? We’ll have warrants and have to stay under the radar. Big deal.”

Jayden’s eyes flash to me. “With what money, Cole? It’s expensive to stay under the radar.”

“I don’t know! We’ll figure something out.” I cross my arms. I hate when Jayden wears the weight of the world. He stopped doing it so much when we first got Jo, but he fell back into it as soon as she left.

I search for an answer that’ll make him feel better. He’s right; we don’t have a lot of money. Jayden hasn’t worked in a while, and I’ve worked odd jobs here and there, but we live frugally.

Jayden asks the question that I just started to think about. “What about your mom?”

I wince. My mom cut me off a few months ago, and although she still lets me stay at the cabin, the extra cash she sent hasbeen gone. I rub the back of my neck. “Yeah…I don’t think that’s happening.”

Jayden watches me. “What do you mean?”

I stare down the empty hall. I didn’t tell Jayden that Mom cut me off. He didn’t need the extra stress while we were looking for Jo.

“Cole…” There’s a warning in his tone.

There’s a thump behind our door and the telltale sound of a slide lock being engaged. Both of us freeze.

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