Page 13 of The Hate We Breathe
Abel’s lips spread into a fuller, wider grin. “Though, after seeing some of the reports from the high school from earlier this year, I’d say you’re probably more like my best friend’s wife. More feral than domesticated.” The driver of the sedan honks and Abel’s head whips back to it. He lifts a hand and flips it off with a scowl. “Anyway, as I was saying—” He glances back at me even as he starts moving towards the car with a slow, predatory grace.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Gio’s Firebird idling in a parking spot. His head is down, as if he’s reading something on his phone. He hasn’t noticed us yet.
“You don’t need to worry about why I’m helping you, Juliet.” He stops next to the passenger side door and reaches for the handle. “Just focus on the outcome you want. Everything else will fall into place.”
With that, he gets into the vehicle and a few seconds later, the driver guns the engine, speeding past as the wheels shriek against the pavement. I watch him go before turning towards Gio’s Firebird. But the sound of the other car screeching off must have gotten his attention, because his head is up now and he sees me. He pulls out of the parking spot and I stop to wait.
Gio rolls down the window of his Firebird and grins at me from the driver’s seat as he comes to a stop right alongside me. “Your carriage awaits, my lady,” he announces.
I roll my eyes but round the front of the car and get in. Minutes later, we’re leaving the parking lot and the sound of Spanish rock is playing over the Firebird’s speakers, lulling me into a sense of easy reprieve. With a sigh, I sink deeper into the seat and hit the button that lowers the window.
“So, where are we going?” I ask. Cool air invades the car’s interior, causing goosebumps to rise along my arms. Summer is well and truly over and fall is edging into winter. I watch the trees and buildings go by in a blur as Gio speeds up and cuts across a few lanes, hitting his blinker to turn onto the next street.
Gio shoots me a look that has his eyes glittering and I frown at him, suspicion curling in my stomach. His next words don’t ease the feeling. “Thought I’d take you on a date,” he says.
I groan. “Gio.”
His laugh is unrepentant. “Come on,” he urges. “I’ve not taken you on a date before and you spend more time with Lex than me.”
“That’s not true,” I say immediately. Gio arches a brow at me.
“It’s totally true,” he argues. “So, I’m claiming the rest of the afternoon for myself.”
“Yeah?” I fold my arms across my chest. “What’s your idea of a date? Taking me to a hotel and fucking me until I pass out?”
Gio snorts. “No, of course not—that’s forafterthe date.”
I flip him the bird and slump in my seat. Gio’s responding smile is bright and easy. I blink and the memory of him standing over one of my kidnappers, face speckled in blood as he drove his fist into the man’s face over and over, resurfaces.
Like me—these men have two faces. Who I was and who I am now. Who they are in the dark and who they are to the rest of the world are theirs. Gio reaches over, as if sensing my thoughts, and settles his hand over my thigh, squeezing in such a way that my core contracts and my lower belly tightens.
The sight of Gio’s hand, far larger than my own, cupping my leg, makes me want to drag it farther up and press it between my thighs. Instead, I clear my throat and unfold my arms, letting one drop to lean on the door and the other to the console.
“Fine,” I say. “A date then, but you still haven’t told me where we’re going.”
His grin is smug. “You’ll see,” he hedges.
Damn it. I swear if we actually do pull into a hotel, I’m going to kick him in the balls.
Half an hour later, I gape at the building Gio passes and then slows to turn into the parking lot. “Is this a joke?” I ask.
“What?” he asks. “You don’t like rock climbing?”
“I’ve never done it,” I admit. “But that’s kind of weird for adate, isn’t it?”
He shrugs and parks behind a bright yellow truck with twin black stripes going down the side. “It’s more interesting than lunch and a movie,” he says, then waggles his brows as he pockets his keys and gets out of the car. “Besides, it’ll be fun to see if you can beat me to the top.”
I follow him out of the car and peer past him to the building. The sign above it is a vibrant bright green and blue with a thick scrawl that reads the name of the place:Rock & Climb.My gaze moves down to the impressive mural painted on the redbrick siding. It depicts several people—men, women, and children—laughing as they climb up the rocks. I shoot Gio a look as he jogs towards the entrance.
“Come on!” he calls out. “They have a discount hour and I want to get in on it for both of us before it ends.”
To my surprise, when we get inside, the whole place feels open rather than confining. Several temporary walls are marked with different levels of experience from beginner to expert. Gio, of course, goes for the harder courses immediately. Despite my initial trepidation, however, I start out with the beginner’s and find the exertion of scaling the side of a wall far more fun than I expected. I blow through the first two courses and then on to intermediate within the first hour.
By the second, I’m watching Gio get a quarter of the way up the expert wall, twisting his body in all sorts of weird angles before he slips and drops back down. My chest tightens when he loses his grip, but the ropes and harness keeping him up cinch tight and keep him from falling to injury. The employees are professional and they’re nice—but maybe that’s because we’re on the outskirts of Silverwood and technically in Tangier and no one here has knowledge about who I am back home.
Either way, by the time our two hours are up, I’m sweaty and laughing as Gio, once again, misses a rock and slips off the expert wall, cursing up a storm as the employee anchoring him begins to lower him back to the floor.
“I almost had it!” Gio complains as his feet reach the ground and he straightens.
