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Axe had been acting weird all day. Even when we were at Davian and Reyna’s home, he was in a world of his own. I promised myself that I wouldn’t say anything until we got home, but I couldn’t wait another minute. “Are you going to tell me what is going on? You were acting really weird at Davian and Reyna’s.”

“It’s nothing, babe. Just some stuff I have to take care of. How about I drop you off at the apartment?” he said, pulling his seatbelt across his lap and fastening it.

No way could I let this go. I grabbed my seatbelt and pulled it over my lap. “How about I go with you instead so we can talk about what is going on with you?”

Axe looked at me like it was the dumbest question I could have asked. His grip on the steering wheel tightened, turning his knuckles white. Keeping his eyes on the road, he said, “No. We can talk when I get home. I’ll drop you off.”

I was about to argue with him when he gritted his teeth and gave me that “no, no, no” look I knew to respect. Axe had made up his mind. This conversation was over, and there was no way I could change his mind.

Axe pulled up to our apartment building without a word. In my mind, this wasn’t over. “I get the feeling you are hiding something from me. When will you be back?” I asked while unfastening my seatbelt.

“Why do I get the feeling you don’t trust me?”

“I do trust you, but sometimes you are so secretive. Can you at least tell me where you’re going and when you will be home?” Knowing where he was going would make me feel a lot better, but I had a feeling he wasn’t going to tell me.

“Where I’m going isn’t important. I’ll be home when I’m finished taking care of what I need to do. Don’t wait up for me.”

Axe leaned over to give me a goodbye kiss, but I wanted no part of it. I was pissed, and he didn’t deserve to taste my lips. Instead of giving him what he wanted, I opened the door, got out, and slammed the door as hard as I could to let him know I wasn’t happy with him or his secretive attitude. Axe stayed put and didn’t speed away pissed like I expected him to, given how I slammed the door. It made me even more pissed. Sometimes he was so infuriating that all I wanted to do was beat the crap out of him.

A vibration from my phone tucked inside my small bag halted my annoyance with Axe. An unknown number came across the screen when I reached inside my bag and pulled it out. Under normal circumstances, I would have declined the call and waited to see if whoever called would leave a voice message. But since it had an Atlanta area code, I accepted the call. “Hello.”

“Didn’t your mom ever teach you never to answer calls from unknown numbers?” a male voice asked in a haughty tone.

I wasn’t in the mood, and he just worked my last nerve. “Who the hell is this?”

“Aw. I’m offended. I can’t believe you forgot about your high school sweetheart.”

“Levi McBride? I thought you were in jail.” I confidently asked, feeling sick to my stomach.

“Just got out. About six months ago, to be exact. I thought we could hook up and talk about old times,” Levi said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Not in this lifetime,” I said, ending the call.

The number appeared again, and for the second time, I answered it. “What do you want, Levi? I’m sure it isn’t to catch up on old times.”

“You wouldn’t want anyone to know the real Mackenzie Horton, would you?”

I thought I had put my past behind me when Mom and I moved to Atlanta. No one knew me here and, for me, just like my mom, it was a fresh start. “You’re an ass, Levi. How did you find me, anyway?”

“I can’t tell you all my secrets.” I heard Levi blow out a lung full of air before he continued. “Meet me at the Java Bean. Day after tomorrow. At eleven. Don’t disappoint me, Mac.”

Before I could tell him where he could go, he ended the call. I wanted to throw my phone across the parking lot. Levi McBride was a mistake from day one. I should have never gotten involved with him. He was a bad boy. But damn if he wasn’t cute. He was the hottest guy in high school and also the most trouble.Why the hell did he have to pick me as his girlfriend?

Stuffing my cell inside my purse, I walked toward the apartment building feeling like the mistake I made back in Little Rock was coming back to haunt me. Even though I was only sixteen, I should have known better than to listen to Levi. Until today, I had forgotten about Dice and what happened to him. Levi assured me he would take care of everything. Never in a million years had it crossed my mind that he would hold what I did over me.Axe’s secretive behavior seemed juvenile compared to the secrets I had kept from him.

I wasn’t sure what a panic attack felt like, but I was sure I was having one. Yanking the entrance door to the apartment building, I ascended the steps to the second floor, two steps at a time. It became harder to breathe, but I was determined to lock myself inside the apartment to get away before allowing myself to relax.

When I entered the apartment and locked the door behind me, my breathing began to even out. Axe’s decision to drop me off was the best move ever. It wouldn't have been a pretty sight if he had seen me this way. Questions would be flying. All of which I couldn’t answer unless I wanted what we had to end. The worst part was that nobody knew about my past with Levi or what I did. I had no one to talk to that would understand. The more I thought about it, I realized that wasn’t exactly true. There was one person I could trust. Pulling my phone from my purse, I brought up Reyna’s number and hit the call icon.

“Let me guess. You forgot something?” Reyna asked, and all I could do was picture her tapping her heel against the floor.

“Can you come over? I really need to talk to you.”

“What’s going on, Kenzi? Is everything all right? Did Axe do something to you?”

“No. It’s nothing like that. Can you please just come over?”

~