Page 67 of Bad for You

But she needs to know the longer we stay here, the more danger we’re in.

“Come with me. Let’s go. Anywhere, I don’t care. Just away from here.”

I walk toward her, hands raised in surrender because I don’t want to fight.

“Why have you stayed then? If you think she’s up to no good, why didn’t you leave years ago?”

The inevitable question…

“Answer me.”

With a sigh, I meet those blue eyes of hers that promise me the world and will rob me of life. “Because I knew you wouldn’t come, and I can’t leave you here. But I can’t stay. I can’t stay when I know it’ll kill us both.”

“Is that why you fucked her?”

“Who? Gianna?” I ask, pulling a disgusted face.

She nods firmly.

So that was why she was parading around with NFL Ken—she was jealous. Shedidsee Gianna and me together, but she didn’t stay around long enough to see how it ended.

“I did nothing of the sort,” I reply firmly. “It’s all a game. She’s a means to an end.”

“And what end is that?”

I mull over how much I can tell her, and she reads it loud and clear.

“You don’t trust me.” It’s not a question. It’s a statement. “What a fucking idiot I am!”

She storms for the door, but I quickly sidestep, blocking her path.

“Get out of my way!”

But I stand firm.

“Please, just trust me, something bad is coming, and I don’t want you here when it happens.”

“How do you know that?”

“I can’t tell.”

“Un-fucking-believable. You expect me to just believe you, all because you made me come? Fuck you.”

She shoves me out of the way, but I grip her throat and slam her back against the wall. She fights me. All it does is get me hard.

“I expect you to believe me because deep down, you know I’m right,” I say, inches from her face. “Gianna is up to something, and it’s only a matter of time until our true purpose is revealed. Please don’t be stubborn. It’ll get you killed.

“We’ve been training for a war our entire lives. The war is coming. I know that it is. Please don’t be on the other side whenit does. Gianna is a fucking drug dealer! You’re not stupid. She’s a fucking psychopath.”

“Or what? You’ll kill me? Is that it?” That’s what she decides to take from what I’ve just said. She’s not bothered that the money we spend is on the backs of nothing but greed and misery.

Silence…

“You fucking asshole. You give me bits and pieces and expect me to give up my life because you say so? Well, I say no. I’m here because I want to be. I’m here because Gianna has the answers I need.”

“Your mom?” I ask because it doesn’t take a genius to know that Valentina believes Gianna knows where her mom is.

Like how I did with Lewis, and I was right—she did know.

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