Page 34 of Run with Me

On a normal day, I would have waited for him to be ready, but given that I had no more than restaurant leftovers in my stomach, I dugin.

“Mmm,” I hummed, stuffing the scrambled eggs into my mouth, then taking a bite of the freshly baked bread. “It’s delicious. Thankyou.”

“You’re welcome.”

He was watching me eat, smiling, as if the chunks plummeting into my stomach were giving him the same satisfaction they were giving me. I doubted that was possible.

“So, someone’s looking for you. Why? What did youdo?”

If Xavier was Jack’s friend and business partner, then he couldn’t be as bad as I’d first perceivedhim.

“You mean besides burning down his house?”

“Ouch! I knew you were a rebel the moment I saw you.” His smile was kind and genuine. He was a handsome fellow, and judging by the size of this penthouse, definitely a well-established one, too.

“No one died in the fire. And he’s not a nobody. He’s a somebody, and he’s going to find me and killme.”

“I get the feeling that burning his house is the least of your worries.”

Instead of answering him, I picked up the fork and stuck another mouthful of scrambled eggs into my mouth. They were paler than the ones I was used to eating, and tasted of… smog. Was that the city taste? These eggs came from farmed chickens, not free range ones like we had in Pace, but at this moment, they tasted too darn delicious to reject. I was beyond starving.

Jack was right, though. The burnt house wouldn’t be at the root of Ben’s revenge, but fifty million wouldbe.

“When is Xavier coming back?” I asked.

“How about you answer my questions and I answer yours?”

“Okay, but you didn’t ask me a question. You made a statement.”

“Pretty and smart. Xavier’s away on ajob.”

“Hunting the badguys?”

“They’re not always bad. Sometimes they’re good, and the job gets a little complicated.”

I stilled. “How do you deal withthat?”

He looked at me with a bemused smile, and I couldn’t help but grin myself.

“I don’t usually answer so many questions. I don’t get involved.”

His direct gaze pierced through me. Jack must have been good at his job. He made trusting him simple and easy. It wasn’t even a decision that you had to make. You justdid.

“Do you have prenatal medicine for that kid you’re carrying?” He pointed to my belly, and I gasped.

The bump wasn’t visible yet. I knew that because I’d seen myself in one of the storefront windows a couple of days back. In fact, I’d looked kind of skinny. I couldn’t have been showing. Not with the little food I was able to feed my baby the past two months. This baby wasn’t even born yet, and I was already a bad mother.

“You can’t tell anyone. Not even Xavier.”

His face twisted, as if I’d asked him to commit murder. “I’m guessing the father doesn’tknow?”

I shook my head. Of course he didn’t know. If John had known, he would have never let me leave Pace. But I had to. I wouldn’t let them take another baby away from me. Never again.

“I won’t tell anyone. I promise. But Mary is a keen woman. It would sound better if the news came from you. She’d open up to you a littlemore.”

“You really thinkso?”

“Yeah, and if you helped me by keeping Mary busy with her baby shopping, I could check if anyone’s looking foryou.”

---