Page 243 of Pretty Little Lies

“Your marriage license to Ramsey.” I see her whole body stiffen as she leans back to prop herself along the door of the black Nova, as if needing the support to even think or deal with it.

She doesn’t respond, tucking her chin into her chest as I inch forward.

I need her to not do this. I need her to stay with me. I can fix Torin. The motherfucker is just too petty for his own good, but I can fix all her problems.

“McQueen,” I mutter, regaining her focus, and she’s killing me.

I won’t be able to breathe right until she makes a decision. My heart is literally pounding a hole in my chest right now because this is life or death. Bay holds my entire existence in her little hands and my death will be hernotchoosing me and rotting away with memories I won’t be able to throw away.

No matter how much I try.

“Tell me to take this back without your signature on it,” I say under my breath. “You belong to me. And I will always have your back.”

Bay stares at me, but I see the moment her blue eyes steel against my words. Her stubbornness coming out to play with me, but I’ve been with Torin for years. It won’t work as much as she wants it to.

“Like you did when Torin sent my sisters to foster care and got Levi sent to jail?”

“He’s off the rails”—I wipe a bead my sweat off my forehead as she stares up at me. I want to be her savior and her man. There’s nothing more I wish for in this world. “I can handle him. Cairo and I got it.”

Her brows clash together. “Cairo is thelastperson I want to handle anything.”

“Then stick with me. This is all temporary.”

“I can’tdependon temporary,” she issues back. “I can’trelyon the what-ifs. I need the nows and the certainty. Levi can’t go to prison. And my sisters can’t be raised by another family. And I can’t tell my da—” She trails off before my chest bumps into hers.

She smells like motor oil and burgers with a hint of something floral. My cock demands entrance into her body, but my head…that motherfucker won’t let it rest. It won’t allow me to move forward if she’s going to marry the monster named Ramsey Wildes. I won’t be able to protect her under his hand and she doesn’t know what she’s doing. She doesn’t know everything he’s done. He will destroy her and, in turn, it will devastate her father and sisters.

“I know you have a lot on your plate,” I impart softly. “But your dad is going to get out of the hospital. He’s going to be fine. I’ll make sure he has a home?—”

“Stop,” she clips out, averting her focus elsewhere. “I can’t do this with you right now. Please stop making this a big deal.”

“Itisa big fuckin’ deal,” I sneer back. “You’re my girl. You’re giving yourself to someone who’s not going to give a shit about you. Say he gets Levi out of jail and your sisters delivered to you, the fuck is going to happen after that?”

She brings her fingers up to her temple, rubbing away what seems to be a forming headache. “I dunno, but that’s not important right now?—”

“You’reimportantallthe time, McQueen. Don’t do this to me. To yourself, fuck me and what I want. You need to bealiveafter all this.”

“Emilio isn’t going to have me killed.”

“It’s nothimI’m worried about right now. Ramsey is a wild card. A fucking psycho.”

“Take care of Torin for me,” she quakes, sounding as if she’s on the verge of tears. “I’m pissed at him…but I know he’s grieving Judah right now and?—”

“I don’t care about Wildes right now when he’s done all this to you. Judah’s been dead for years—” Her eyes slice back over to me.

“Then why is he acting as though it just happened?”

I shift my weight because it’s an easy answer. Maybe it was Cairo and my fault for never setting him straight, but Torin has always been adamant that Judah is alive. That he never felt as though he was missing from the world and would always come back.

“Torin always felt as though Judah was never missing. In the sense that he was off somewhere doing his own thing. That…one day, he’d come back.”

Bay’s face skews a little bit, and I can see the pure hatred that she has for the situation blanket over her features. “Denial. He was always stuck in the stage of denial.”

I give a curt nod. “I guess Cairo and I had always hoped as well. Judah was always a large presence to Torin and he looked up to him. It was the only male he had in his life that didn’t treat him like shit.”

Bay bobs her head as if understanding, but remains silent.

“He’ll get over this, baby. I know he loves you, he just doesn’t know how to handle the disappointment and all the feelings involved. He heard you on that video. He heard the gunshot?—”

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