Page 19 of Clean Slade
The last thing I needed was for anyone to find out Tony was really my father. It was bad enough being connected to a mobster. It was ten times worse being his son.
I tried to get past Slade again, but he put his hand on my chest and pushed me back.
It was a gentle move, but it gave me goosebumps.
“I won’t let him touch you,” he whispered.
His words reverberated through me, trapping my breath. I believed him. When he said it like that, I believed him.
Even if it wasn’t true.
“You don’t understand.” I had to go on the defensive. I couldn’t be swayed by his sweet touches and reassuring words. “What am I supposed to do? Stay here? Go back to living life as if nothing’s happened? Don’t you think I want that? I’ve got a schedule booked until August. I’ve made plans with Tiago for New Year’s Eve. I’ve finally managed to join the PTAunironically. I don’t want to go. Buthewants his granddaughter back. He will stop at nothing to make it happen!”
“We lay low,” he bit back before I even had a chance to catch my breath or shake away the tears.
I couldn’t believe missing the PTA meetings was making me cry. Fucking PTA!
“We lay low and wait. Wyatt and the others will come up with a plan to flush him out, and in the meantime, we disappear.”
Oh, wouldn’t that be perfect? Wouldn’t that be ideal?
“We?”
Why was I focusing on the wrong thing?
What Slade was saying was batshit crazy. It wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t accomplish anything.
But he said we as if he wanted to lay low with me. As if he didn’t want to let me go.
“I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”
I studied his face, flashes of our encounter at Black Lotus passing through my mind, making my heart pump faster.
“Why?”
I didn’t know what kind of answer I was expecting. Would he say because he’d been in love with me since we’d met? Would he call me Rex and vow to stay by my side?
“You asked us for help.”
Oh. That was it. Because I’d asked for help. Nothing more. Nothing less.
“There’s a campground north of here, in Chatham.”
“A campground? On the mainland?”
“I thought we could camp out there for a few days. There’s a yurt retreat that’s dead as anything this time of year. We can leave as soon as you’re ready. I’ve booked us one already, and there’s a boat waiting to take us there.”
I winced.
“A yurt retreat?” I didn’t know what to say or think.
Glamping wasn’t the solution to our problem. My father wouldn’t stop just because we were in a classy tent.
But then again, it was away from this island, so maybe that could be the first step toward our escape.
“Yeah, they said they’d leave the key under the mat, and we can stay as long as we need to.”
“When did you book this?”
