Page 21 of Selling Innocence

“Your food’s burning,” he said, his gaze still locked on my wrist.

That brought me back to the moment, to what I was doing. Sure enough, when I spun around, smoke escaped the pan as the chicken turned a not-so-appetizing black. I rushed over and turned the burner off, then moved the pan to an empty spot to cool.

So much for lunch…

I turned, ready to make a joke to Vance about how I should have left the cooking to the chefs, it seemed, but I found myself alone.

He’d left?

Something uncomfortable sat in my stomach, a feeling I couldn’t identify. Pity? Concern? I didn’t know, but it dug deep and gnawed at me, like a sad tune I couldn’t get out of my head.

That empty expression of his wasn’t one I expected to ever see on Vance’s face, but I hadn’t imagined it.

I was pretty sure I’d glimpsed something he’d never wanted to share, and I had no idea what to do about that.

Don’t risk getting any closer to these men than you have to. You know where this life leads—to an early death.

* * * *

Char

I dropped down, my hands pressing into the grass beneath me as I lowered myself into a push up then popped back to my feet.

Burpees sucked, but they worked. While Hayden and Vance preferred body building in a gym, I’d never been a fan. Body-weight exercises offered far more advantages.

Strength, flexibility and balance. Plus, a physique like theirs made blending in far harder. It served me better to have a more average build that hid easily beneath clothing.

Sweat had soaked through my shirt, making the fabric cling to me, but I wasn’t done. Just one more set. I used to hate when trainers would tell me that, especially because I knew it was a fucking lie when they did so. Now, however, I used that trick. I told myself one more when I knew I had at least an hour left before I’d call it a night.

Training mattered, though, and it was often the only thing standing between success and failure, between life and death in my world.

Not to mention it was a great way to burn off the excess energy that ran through me.

We were so close.

Five years of struggling, of establishing ourselves, of failing to locate Lorien and we finally had a lead.

All because of that girl.

I refused to even use her name. What did her name matter? She was a tool, just someone to get us closer to our ultimate goal.

Why did Lorien want her? What would happen to her? Those were questions for better men than me. All I cared about was paying Lorien back for what he’d done, for everything he’d stolen from me. If that girl had to pony up part of the tab, well, life sucked for us all.

“You’re going to run yourself into the ground.” Hayden’s voice made me look up just as I lowered myself into the pushup.

The asshole managed to sneak around far too well. Only Tor was better, but Tor also never spoke, which meant he could do it without anyone noticing.

I blended into crowds, but I wasn’t nearly as silent as the two of them.

“I’m almost done,” I said before popping back up to my feet, then running my forearm across my eyebrow, catching the sweat before it dripped into my eyes.

“You always say that then push yourself too hard. We’re getting close, so don’t risk what we need to do because you wear yourself out.” Hayden held out a water bottle to me.

I almost refused it. Hayden’s habit of acting like the father of our little group annoyed me. I was more of a working on my own sort of person. Groups only invited problems and betrayal.

I’d always been a believer that two people can keep a secret, so long as one of them is dead.

However, Lorien was too big a fish for any of us to catch on our own. This little family Hayden wanted to make would serve its purpose, but I was out the moment we finished this.

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