A security van was parked in our driveway. A man was kneeling at the door as I walked past him to the kitchen. There were two more focused on something on the wall. Analise stood with another who must've been their boss. He held the clipboard and was nodding as she gestured around the room.

Then she saw me. A dark smile came to her face. "Good morning, honey. I saw your sneakers were gone so I guessed you had gone on a run."

I gulped against the gloating in her eye. "What are they doing?"

She lifted a shoulder. "Oh, nothing much, honey. Nothing for you to worry about." Then her smile turned into a triumphant smirk. "They're installing a new security system."

My heart dropped. The cold sweat was back.

"We'll have security cameras in the house now."

CHAPTER EIGHT

I couldn't email Mason.

I couldn't call Mason.

I definitely couldn't see Mason.

By the afternoon, I was a caged animal: prowling my room, pacing back and forth, walking in circles, and snarling to myself.

So I did what I always did, I went running for the second time that day. Except this time my body was sluggish, my legs felt like lead, and I had a hard time pushing my demons at bay. After an hour of forcing myself to move faster than a crawl, I gave up and walked. And then I walked some more. After the second hour of walking, I realized that I was in a part of Fallen Crest that I was not familiar. It wasn't the 'bad' section, but it was definitely further than any of the hangouts I frequented.

"Screw you, Brandon! If you sleep with one more girl, there won't be anyone left to help out." A screen door banged shut and a rail-thin girl stood in front of it. She flung her arms back, one with a cigarette, and screamed inside, "I can't do it all alone, you know!"

Her response was a low curse, but she threw her head back in disgust before extending him the middle finger. Then she threw herself onto a metal chair behind the door. Another sat beside it with a bowl of cigarette butts between them. When the girl lit up, she exhaled dramatically and leaned back in the chair. A long pale leg braced on the wire rim that looked like a mini-bonfire container, and she pushed up so her chair rested on the back legs. As she sent out another puff, her eyes opened and then locked on me.

Shit.

I'd been staring the whole time, but I couldn't look away. That would be ridiculous now, like she'd caught me doing a bad thing.

Her hair was a dirty blonde mess. It was greasy, but for some reason it worked on her. It gave her a just-had-the-best-sex look. Her eyes were heavily made up to give her a smoky image, and her lips pursed together as she blew out some more smoke. "Hey, you."

"Yeah?"

"Come here." She waved her little fingers to me, beckoning me over. As I did, she gestured to the chair beside her. "Pop a squat." Then she leaned back again and studied me. After another drag, she narrowed her eyes. "Do I know you? You look familiar."

Everything was tense inside of me. I should've been exhausted. I ran for four hours earlier, followed by a two hour walk. Albeit that it was a slow as molasses walk, but it was still walking. It was movement, anything to keep me from doing something I couldn't do. When I had started out, I almost took my car, but I didn't trust myself in any vehicle. I would turn it around and go to Mason, I'd do it without a thought, and it wouldn't be until after both of us climaxed that I would realize the consequences. He didn't take my mother seriously, but I did. I had to for him or I would lose him.

A stabbing sensation seared through me. No one knew the lengths my mother would go to if she was pushed into a corner. Something had happened to make her feel boxed in. I had no idea what it was, but her true craziness was about to be unleashed.

"Hey!" The girl snapped her fingers in front of my face.

"Oh." I blinked rapidly. "Sorry."

She leaned back again on her chair after she flicked the butt onto the bowl between us. A second one was lit immediately, and she took another drag. "I know I know you. How do I know you?"

I swallowed a knot in my throat. "Do you go to Fallen Crest Academy?"

She snorted before a full-hearted laugh came from her throat. It was a low and raspy laugh. "God no. Thank god. Why? Do you?"

I nodded. "My dad's the football coach."

"No way." Her eyes snapped to attention. "My brother used to play football against them, that was three years ago. He ain't done nothing since—"

"I own this bar, Heather!" A roar came from inside. "I do too do crap."

She rolled her eyes. "Like I said, he hasn't done anything except screw my friends and run off ALL MY HELP." Her voice rose so he would hear inside.

She was awarded with another curse, but she chuckled softly as she took another drag from her cigarette. "Anyways, what's your name? Mine's Heather Jax. Idiot inside is Brandon, and my pops owns the diner side of our humble abode inside."

"Humble abode?" It was a run-down dive, and the customers gave me the feeling most had come straight from being incarcerated. The sign out front had the name Manny's scrawled over it in big white lettering on a black background with a green arrow pointed downwards. I'd never seen the place before, but what caught my attention had been Heather's screaming. The longer I sat there, the more a possible scenario played in my head.

She blew out the rest of her second cigarette. As she ground it into the bowl, I expected her to light up a third, but she merely folded back in her chair. Then she frowned and shot forward. "Hold on. Be right back." She was inside in the blink of an eye but back just as quickly with two Coronas. As she sat down and handed one over, she laughed. It was such a deep-throated sound that I knew Logan would've been all about her within seconds of meeting.

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