Page 32 of Forget Me Twice

But then she’s also got her long ash-blonde hair and face done up like one of the girls on the faded pin-up posters still hanging on the back office wall down at the garage.

It’s confusing as shit, but,fuck. Something about the way she carries herself. My eyes had trouble leaving her.

Sabine had blonde hair, a small, cloying voice whispers in the back of my mind.

My stomach clenches and I push the thought away.

What I do know is that she’s confident, bold as hell, and she stood her ground against Sloane and her sharks. Sharks that’d smell a drop of blood in the water a mile off. Hell, some days it feels like they’ve got the angle on any and all bullshit before it even fucking happens.

But she stood there and took it, didn’t she? Took their jokes, and a chest full of old stew and turned the other cheek.

Andthe mouth on her. Fuck.

Immune to their mind games. Smiling like a loon, like she was above it all. It was fake and hollow and I felt the chill of it in my bones, but she didn’t cry when they pushed her.

What kind of fucked up shit has she been through that’s got her so goddamn fearless? The way she moves like she’s counting out each three moves in advance.

And how the fuck did she get that scar?

I cut Lake an uneasy side-eye as we slip through the gate, following the path she’s most likely to take if she’s meeting someone with a car. His eyes are glowing, mouth in a wide, sadistic grin.

He’s practically skipping along at this point, so worked up by the excitement of tracking down this mystery girl.

His Zippo flips open and shut in time to his uneven steps.

Fuck. Even if it’snother,I can already see the telltale signs of obsession slipping its vile claws in, moving deep under his skin like an infection. Either that, or he’s toeing the line of one of his manic episodes.

I’m going to have to check up on his meds.

See? She’s already causing fucking trouble.

“Are we going to kill him?”

Until now, I figured it had just been a clever bluff to save her ass. But she really is leaving to meet up with whoever was on the other end of that phone call this morning, isn’t she?

Something unnamed and acidic bubbles high in my guts. It simmers up underneath my rib cage and leaks into my chest.

I don’t like it.

Wait. No. I don’t give a fuck what she does.

I let out a low, frustrated growl.It’s. Not. Her.

“No, we’re just going to follow her.Them,” I grit out. “We’re not going to do shit. Just watch and wait them out.”

Just as Lake’s about to burst forth into the lot, I grab him by the nape of the neck and haul him back behind the corner of the admin building. He hisses like a cat, but he’s no match for my sheer strength. “Fuck, big guy. I was just making sure we don’t lose them.”

Lake is normally stealthy as fuck when it comes to surveillance and scoping out rendezvous points. It’s why he’s our in-and-out guy. But he’s not usually this worked up and chasing tail when he’s staking out a drop off.

I give him a sharp shake before I let him go. “She’s going to see us and know she’s being followed if you don’t settle the fuck down.”

He hums low under his breath, entire frame taut with his impatience. “I still think we should cut him up, at least a little bit. Then he won’t be so pretty. She won’t want him. Do you think he’s as pretty as me?”

I groan under my breath, not bothering to point out that a scarred beauty like her would probably just find that shit hot. Instead I nudge him hard, tipping my head as I spot her blonde hair right by the curb, directly in front of the building we’re sheltering behind.

Right before a bright green,goddamned Aventadorrolls up.

That car’s worth some fucking cash.

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