Page 163 of Irreversible

It’s gotten even harder to remember how to coexist among the general public. I was never good at it, but now, I don’t even know where to begin. How to make polite conversation.

What am I supposed to do, walk up and introduce myself?

She might think that’s what she wants, but I’m not sure she’d like what she found.

I pull another cigarette from the pack, headed down a spiral full of self-loathing and regret when something vibrates against my thigh. A tickle. An annoyance. My goddamn phone.

I don’t have to guess the caller—only one person has this number.

Fishing the phone out of my front pocket, I bring it to my ear, never taking my eyes off the chipped black paint of the back door. “What.”

“Stop complaining. You’d miss me if I didn’t call.”

My shoulders loosen. “I said one word. How is that a complaint?”

“It’s all in the tone, Porter. You sound like an angry teenager.”

I drop the cigarette butt on the ground and smash it under my heel. “Piss off, I’m working,” my voice pitches cheerfully.

“Ah, to have a job where stalking an ex-model can be calledwork.”

“I’m not stalking her.”

“Tell that to the restraining order she’s going to slap you with if you don’t explain yourself soon.”

“I’m better than that.” I don’t tell him how close I came tonight. How my resolve is disintegrating every time I’m close to her. “She doesn’t know I’m here.”

Yeah, I’m full of shit.

“Let me talk to her. Tell her the truth. The woman’s been crawling up my ass because I can’t give her answers when she knows damn well something’s up. She’s not an idiot.”

“Of course she’s not an idiot,” I snap. My life would be a lot easier if she were. But then she wouldn’t be Everly, and I’d be indifferent to her. “I don’t need you to talk to her.”

“Easy, killer. It’s her right to know she could be in danger. Besides, it would allow us to move her to a safe place. Get some protection on her.”

“I’mher protection.”

“Yes, except you’realsothe reason she’s in danger.” He says it in that gentle tone he uses when he has something to say that I won’t like. But I already know. I’ve been playing with fire. Unleashing hell on my enemy. Thinking I had nothing left to lose.

I was wrong: the girl behind the wall had become something more than I intended, and he knew it. Everly was nothing more than a product to Vincent—until I went fucking around with his empire.

Now, she’s a way to get back at me.

I knew it the second that picture landed in Tanner’s inbox.

Dammit.

As I run through every possible scenario, deciding on the next best move, the side door cracks open. My breath stills when the bouncer walks out and glances around. He nods over his shoulder, and Everly appears, waist-length hair twining around her body with the breeze.

Damn, she’s something. Even dressed in street clothes and makeup-free, she’s easily the most stunning woman in this place. My knuckles go white thinking about how many assholes have jerked off thinking about her. How many she’s rubbed up against.

Fuck. I have a problem.

Tanner’s continued chatter interrupts the trance I’ve slipped into. “Since I don’t have a bat signal, and you don’t bother with email, you’ll have to humor me. I figured you’d want to know that the bane of your existence is aware of your location. I’ve got security footage of one of his spies watching you…while you’re watchingher.”

I’m off my game. I should have noticed someone following me already. “He knew I’d come here; that was the whole point.”

“Hehopedyou would. He threw the bait to find out, and you went for it.”

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