Page 136 of Lies Like Love

Fel

Fogsetslowoverthe headstones.

It’s a cool night, and this far from the city, stars manage to break through the pollution and reveal themselves. I can’t help but wonder how many of them are up there, and if one person could count them all.

Are they as endless as they feel?

If stars are eyes of those we’ve lost, I wonder what they witness. No doubt it’s all the things we’re incapable of seeing.

Things we’re too scared to face until there’s no other option.

Like that night.

After that day at my grandparents’ house, they disappeared. They used their money to fabricate a story about someone breaking in and trying to rob them. They buried the truth, and even if I should mind, their cowardice absolved Jude of what he did.

They bolted back to New York without so much as calling me. Disappearing with their secrets.

Lies—only this time, I accept them.

No one needs to know that my father was never really dead, or that he tried to come back to life by taking my own. His memory will be buried with a past I’ll no longer let haunt me.

“You shouldn’t be so easy to catch, Red.”

Jude stops behind me, brushing my hair off my shoulder. He leans in to bury his nose in the crook of my neck. Inhaling deep to breath me in.

“Didn’t know I was supposed to be running.” I smile, knowing that’s exactly what he wants because he loves the chase.

“Liar,” he whispers in my ear, and it sends a shiver the full length of my spine. “It’s why you chose this costume isn’t it. To tempt the big bad wolf. Remember what I said he’d do if he caught you.”

“Eat me?” I bite my lip, hoping for exactly that. “But you aren’t the wolf remember? You’re my hero.”

Jude chuckles against my neck. “This is a new story.”

His fingers start at the peak of my shoulder and trail downward, over the bare skin of my arm and around my body, until he’s pressing his palm against my stomach and pulling me against him.

I’m vaguely aware we aren’t alone, and it shouldn’t turn me on like it does.

Nearby, people holler, and it’s followed by a chorus of laughs.

Jude wasn’t joking when he said Blaze’s annual Halloween event was wild. The bar has been transformed into a haunted house. And outside, the field is unrecognizable. There’s a fake graveyard, a drive-up theater playing horror films, and a haystack maze.

Most people are dressed up. Except for Jude, who opted for a simple nametag on his black T-shirt that readswolf.

It’s fitting for how he’s been stalking me all night. His eyes following wherever I go. So when I slipped out the back door, I knew he’d come and find me.

“So you’re the bad guy now?” I sink into Jude’s hold.

He trails his nose up and down my neck as he breathes me in. “Bad for you.”

“If that’s the case, then who will save me?” I smirk, feeling his grip on my stomach tighten. “Should I call for one of the guys over there to help the damsel?”

“What did I say about taunting me with threats of other men, Red?” His teeth grind beside my ear, fueling me with adrenaline.

“I don’t remember.” It’s a lie to get a rise. I want his fury, his possessiveness. I want his rage.

Jude chuckles so darkly in my ear I have to clench my thighs.

“You don’t remember,” he repeats, his voice dropping an octave with his whisper. “Then I think I’ll have to remind you.”

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