Page 115 of For the Promise

“Go. We’ll keep him occupied. But I expect you to answer when I phone you later,” Dakota says.

“I will.” I always answer my phone.

My phone vibrates in my pocket. Correction. I always answer my phone unless an asshole is trying to reach me.

The door handle rattles and Paisley shoves me out the secret door before slamming it shut behind me.

I stumble outside and find myself in an alley.

“Hey!” A drunk couple stagger toward me. “Where’s the speakeasy? We can’t find it.”

Tourists have to complete a riddle before the location of the speakeasy is revealed. One of the first things Paisley told me after she hired me was to never tell anyone whereRumrunneris. It’s a Smuggler’s Hideaway rule.

“Go right. It’s the second alley.”

“Thank you!”

They won’t be thanking me when they end up in the alley behind Smuggler’s Cove, where they keep their dumpsters.

I force a smile and make my way past them and toward the beach. Prohibition Beach is a small beach on the other side of the boardwalk.

Locals cast me sideways glances but I maintain a smile on my face until I reach the beach and ascertain it’s empty. And then?

Well, then I let the dam break.

Chapter 36

“I should have learned to pick a lock when my brothers offered to teach me.” ~ Jaxon

Jaxon

“Are you seriously asking what you did wrong?” Eli asks.

“Even I know what you did wrong,” Miles says.

I lift my glasses to massage the bridge of my nose. “Can we stop with the riddles? Just tell me what I did wrong.”

“Dude.” Miles shakes his head. “You hurt her.”

My heart squeezes. I don’t want Blossom to ever hurt. “It’s probably for the better.”

“Are you shitting me right now?” Rhett growls. “That woman loves you, and you love her. You need to fix this.”

“But she left the minute things got tough.” I shake my head. “She’ll never stay with me.”

Eli sighs. “I should have realized this.”

My brow furrows. “Realized what?”

“You’re afraid of being abandoned since Dad left us.”

I scowl. “I am not afraid.”

“Which is why you’re sitting here discussing this with us instead of running after the woman you love.”

I bristle. “I don’t love Blossom.”

“If you don’t go after her now, she’s never going to forgive you. You’ll have lost her forever,” Rhett says and my stomach drops to the floor.

---