Page 151 of Hunting Pretty

His smile turned into a grin. “Watch me.”

I traced his cheekbones and imagined watching his face growing old and wrinkled alongside mine. A warmth bloomed inside me and it turned into an ache, a wanting.

“Fine,” I said. “You could set up one of those mobile computer help guy businesses. Go around to all the old folks’ homes and do it for them for free.”

“That’s it!” He rubbed his nose against mine and his voice grew soft. “We could do anything, Ava. Have anything. Together.”

My smile faded and I let out a sigh.

It was all too unreal. It was just play fantasy. We couldn’t have it for real, right?

Broken dolls couldn’t be put back together again.

I’d be walking out in the sunshine, pretending that darkness didn’t follow me like a shadow. I’d be weaving a pretty life around me when I knew that my core was damaged.

He seemed to sense my change of heart because his voice grew serious, the furrow between his brows returning.

“Ava, if you stay, if you keep digging, more of your past will reemerge.”

“I know,” I whispered, my voice hollowed out at my fate.

My memories had been triggered because I found out that Liath was being drugged and abused. I only had a tiny piece now, but…

There was more hidden underneath.

More dirty jagged pieces.

“Ava”—he tugged my face to his with his fingers on my jaw—“you don’t have to go through this. You don’t have to remember. You don’t have tostay.”

He was right. I could lock this box back up. Shove it back into the darkness.

I could leave my past behind me. Never look at it again.

God, it was so tempting.

“Right,” I said slowly as I turned over the idea in my mind. “I mean, Ebony will be pissed when I tell her but—”

“No,” he interrupted, his fingers flinching against me. “Youcan’ttell anyone where we’re going.”

“What? Why not?”

His voice lowered, his gaze darting around the room as if there might be someone listening. “Think about it, Ava. If you tell anyone where you’re going, whoever is after you will find out. They’ll come looking for you.”

My throat tightened, a lump lodged there, a painful knot of emotion that made it hard to speak, even to think clearly.

Liath’s abuser had killed her to keep her quiet.

He was trying to kill me to keep me from exposing him.

“If we leave,” Scáth said, “you have to cut all ties.”

I blinked slowly, the realization of what he was saying settling on me like cold flakes of snow.

No, he was right. I’d have to leave without telling anyone. At least initially.

My stomach flipped at the thought.

Ebony would freak out. She’d get the police commissioner himself on my case. Even if they did classify me as a runaway, she wouldn’t stop looking for me.

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