Page 1 of Come With Me

Prologue

Ayden

TEN YEARS AGO

“Please, Laney. Come with me,” I beg for the hundredth time.

“Don’t go. Not yet.Please.” Pleading green eyes look at me before I toss my suitcase in the back seat of my pickup and shut the door. “Ayden, you know I can’t.”

We’ve had this talk several times. She knows why I’m leaving.

“And you know why I can’t behere.” I palm her splotchy cheeks and wipe away her tears.

“What about us?” she asks while trying to catch her breath.

“You’re the love of my life, Laney. That’ll never change. But if you don’t come with me, it’s over. I’m never returnin’ to Texas.”

Her sobs rip through me. Fresh tears spill down her cheeks, and it takes everything inside me not to change my mind.

I’m the reason our hearts are shattering.

“Baby, if you come with me, I’ll take care of you. I promise.”

We’re only eighteen, but she’s the woman I planned on marrying. Having my children. Starting a family together. She’s always been my home when my own was destructive.

I’ve told her for the past year that the day after we graduate from high school, I was getting out of town—out of Beaumont. After the black eye my father gave me when I told him I wasn’t going to his alma mater, I knew I couldn’t be here anymore.

He wanted a football star in the family.

I want to choose my own life and escape his abuse.

“Why can’t you start fresh here? Get a job and save up, then we can stay together. Please, Ayden.” She grabs my wrists.

She knows why. There are no options for me here. My father would make certain of that, and I’d be stuck living withhis rules. As a high-profile attorney and the mayor, he holds all the cards. And as his only child, I could never live up to his impossible expectations. Each time I disappointed him, he took his anger out on my body while my mother clutched her bottle of Chardonnay and looked the other way.

Just like she did when I told her what he’d done to Gabby last year.

Another reason I have to leave this place. The guilt’s eating me alive.

“I love you more than anything, Lane. But you know what will happen to me if I stay here.”

I’ll end up likehim.

An abusive, power-hungry, angry son of a bitch who’s unfaithful and a manipulating bastard. Being anything less than his idea of perfect would ruin me and everyone I love, including Laney. Not getting an athletic scholarship at his alma mater to brag about to his uptight politician buddies cost me a week in the hospital.

Not that anyone would believe me if I told them.

According to my hospital chart, I was mugged.

“No, you won’t, I promise. We can move in together and have our own family. He’ll never hurt you again.”

I want to believe her. I want to trust that it’d be as easy as moving out, but I know better. My father would still have access to me, and to get back at me, he’d make sure no one within a hundred-mile radius would hire me.

Bending to her mouth, I hover above it for a moment, waiting to see if she’ll deny me. When she doesn’t, I press my lips to hers. Neither of us breathes or moves. We stay glued to each other as if our kiss can transport us to another time, another place, another reality that isn’t ours.

“I love you, and that’ll never change,” I whisper against her lips. “I’ll call when I settle in and get a new phone.”

It’s only a matter of time before my father cuts me off once I’m gone. I managed to save enough money from side jobs and birthdays, but it’ll only last a couple of months until I find a full-time job. Someplace far away enough where he has no influence.

---