Page 48 of Destroy (Deadly Hearts 2)

“No,” she says, shaking her head. “Declan is already living there in the overnight room, and I just asked David before. It came out before I meant it to, but once it was out there, I needed to make sure you and Layton were in the loop.”

“So, it’s for protection?” I ask, scrunching up my nose.

“Yes, yours and mine,” she replies lightly.

“Safety in numbers, like?”

“Something like that,” she agrees with a smile.

“If you think you, or we, will be in danger when we get home, shouldn’t we stay here for a bit longer?” I ask a reasonable question.

“I don’t think we will be in any particular danger, no more so than usual. Jake is dead, and whoever has slipped into his place will be too busy trying to play catch up to bother about me. This is more general than that. We caused a lot of trouble before we left. I think it’s best if we stick together.”

“Okay,” I say. “I’m in. As long as I don’t have to share a room with Layton.”

“You will have your own room. Why, what’s wrong with sharing with Layton?”

“Nothing if you can sleep properly, which I don’t. He is a terrible insomniac. Worse than me. What little sleep I get, I want to be asleep.”

“Hmm, why is that?” she asks out of the blue.

It disarms me.

Wily creature. She’s been waiting for the chance.

“If you really want to know, my mum used to get pissed up and high, and her friends would come over. They’d party all night long and then when it came to bedtime…let’s just say any bed would do.”

I stare grimly in front of me, shuddering from the memories of those old skanks climbing in bed with me.

“Oh, baby,” she murmurs, placing her hand on my thigh. It’s the first time she has initiated contact with me since that day, and it blows all the shit away. I smile at her before turning back to the road.

“It’s fine,” I lie, shrugging. “It just made me a wary sleeper and that grew into barely sleeping at all.”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” she murmurs. “Uhm, I think that was our turning…” she adds, looking back at the road we’ve just driven past.

“You sure?” I ask with a frown. “I thought it was the next one.”

“Oh, maybe…” she says.

“Layton always drives,” I complain. “I actually don’t have a fucking clue where I’m going.”

“Me either,” she says with a laugh.

“Check the Satnav,” I instruct her. “Maybe it can tell us where we’ve been.”

“Good idea,” she says and leans forward, taking her hand off my leg to fiddle with the built-in GPS system.

“Oh, here,” she says after a minute. “That’s it. Bluebell Terrace.” She punches some buttons and soon we are rerouted and on our way for real.

Ten minutes later, we pull up outside the huge home Mrs. Gannon lives in and I cut the engine. I turn to her and smile, brushing her dark hair away from her face.

“Safe and sound,” I murmur.

“Thanks,” she says and leans forward to press her lips to mine.

I panic.

I don’t know if I should push her away, kiss her back or just let her kiss me.

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