After the near miss at the garage, touching her is probably a mistake. I try reasoning with myself.

She’s seventeen years old.

I’ll be twenty in seven months.

She’s not my type.

I tend to prefer girls who don’t make me bleed.

She’s the boss’s daughter.

I can’t stop thinking about kissing her.

She must see it on my face because she yanks her hand out of mine like being touched by me burns. “Everybody’s hands are smaller than yours.” She jams hers into the pockets of the hoodie she pulled on before we left and scowls up at me. “Let's just get this over with. I have to finish that tune-up before tomorrow or my dad’s going to kill me.”

Right.

And if he knew I dragged his daughter out in the middle of the night and into our business, Mr. C will kill me.

I don’t say anything. I just turn and start walking, half angry, half relieved when she starts following me. At the end of the block, I turn left, leading her away from Emerson’s house party. Two blocks down, I cut into an alleyway and she stops in her tracks.

“Seriously?” I say in a low, irritated tone to cover up the fact that her obvious mistrust eats at me. “You’ve known me your whole life.” When she doesn’t budge I pull out the big guns. “Are you afraid of me, Tesla?”

“Of you?” She steps into the alley, hands out of her pockets and clenched into fists. She strolls past me, her chin tipped at a defiant angle. “Bitch, please.” Laughing quietly, I follow her, having to jog a few paces to catch up.

The alley is narrow, wedged between two apartment buildings that blot out the moon. A few steps in and the dark swallows us whole. That’s why I chose it. A large, solid mass starts to take shape along the grimy brick wall to her right. A dumpster.

“Declan.” She says my name softly, the sound of it filled with trepidation even though she keeps striding into the dark. “If you try to murder me, I swear to fucking god—”

Before I can stop myself, I reach into the dark between us and take her hand in mine. I tell myself it’s because I want to reassure her but that’s not why I do it. I do it because I’m an idiot. Because I liked holding her hand and I want to do it again. “I’m not going to murder you.”

“I said try.” She doesn’t pull away from me like before. This time she shifts her palm until her fingers slip between mine. “And that’s exactly what a murderer would say, right before he tried to murder the girl he lured into an alley.”

Before I can answer her a voice whispers from the shadows, on the other side of the dumpster.

“That better be you, Dec.”

We pull passed the dumpster and another form takes shape. A car. Leaning against it is Ryan O’Connell, jacket hood up to obscure his features. “It’s me.” I pull my hand free and take a step away from Tess. Even though he can’t see shit, I feel like I’ve been caught doing something I shouldn’t.

When he sees Tess he flips the hood of his jacket away from his face, probably to make sure he’s seeing what he thinks he’s seeing. “Shit.” He stands up straight and pulls his hands out of his pockets. “Are you fucking crazy?” He knows who she is, even if he can’t see her face. She’s tiny. Five foot nothing. Her height alone gave her away

“Relax,” I tell him, my tone low and tight. “She’s gonna do her thing and we’ll be on our way.”

“My thing?” She turns toward me. I can feel her gaze raking over my face. “What’s my thing exactly?” She’s not scared anymore. Ryan is Henley’s older brother. She knows him. Trusts him. Likes him. I try not to let that bother me but it does. It bothers me.

All of it.

The fact that I wish I was still holding her hand. That I wish Ryan wasn’t here. That I still want to kiss her. That she is completely and totally off limits—not because she’s younger or the boss’s daughter, but because she thinks I’m a giant festering asshole and has no trouble believing that I’d lead her down this alley to hurt her somehow.

“This is a bad idea,” Ryan says before I have a chance to answer Tess. “I say we just cut our losses and—”

“One—you don’t get a vote. This is your fault. You’re the one who had to go to that fucking party and get his dick wet—not me. Two—we’re not cutting shit.” I close the distance between us and give him a look that dries up his protest. I can see that ugly, red O’Connell temper working its way up his neck, even in the dark. He wants to take a swing at me but he won’t. Because, despite what our current situation might imply, he’s not stupid. “And we sure as fuck aren’t ditching a boost on our own fucking block.”

Even though his jaw is clenched and set, he looks away from me. “Whatever you say, man.”

“That’s right.” I step back, unable to stop the asshole smirk that slides across my face. “Whatever I say.” I turn toward Tess, suddenly wanting nothing more than to get this over with and get away from her. “A cat crawled up into the engine block—I tried to get it out but my hands are too big.”

“A cat.” She looks at me like she has no idea what I just said to her. “That’s why I’m here? A cat.”

I rake my fingers through my hair before dropping my hand. “Can you get it out or not?”

She looks like she’s about ready to kick me in the balls but before she can a pitiful mewling sound leaks from the undercarriage of the car.

Her shoulders sag and she holds out her hand. “I need your flashlight.”

I don’t ask how she knows I have one. I just pull it out of my pocket and slap it into her hand. “Don’t—”

“Turn it on until I’m under the car.” She shakes her head at me before rolling her eyes at Ryan. “I’m not stupid.”

Giving her room to work, Ryan and I watch while she drops to the ground and lays on her back to shimmy her way under the car. A few muttered curses and a round of pitifully thin meows and the flashlight clicks off before Tess is shimmying her way back out with a lump zipped up in her jacket.

Standing, she brushes her hands off on the seat of her jeans. Approaching me, she reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out my flashlight. “You’re welcome.” She slaps it into my hand and keeps walking without a backward glance.

A few long-legged strides and I’m next to her. “Want a lift home?” It’s the last thing I should do but the offer comes out before I can think things through. Thankfully, one of us is thinking clearly.

“No.” She doesn’t look at me when I say it. She doesn’t have to. I can hear it in her voice. She’s angry. Not just whatever seems to be her default emotion whenever I’m around. For real angry.

“Because I’m an asshole.”

That stops her. “Because that car is a 2010 BMW 6 series,” she barely breathes it, her words going no further than my ears.

Shit.

I knew she’d figure it out. I mean fuck—if there’s anything Tesla Castinetti knows, it’s cars. It might be dark but it’s not that dark. Before I can work up the will to lie to her about where it came from and why I’m driving it, she turns and looks up at me, her jaw set. “Stay away from me.”

“Alright.” I bob my head, shoving my hands into my pockets because I’m about three seconds away from grabbing her and if I let myself get my hands on her, there’s no telling what kind of fucked up shit’ll happen next. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.” She sounds sure. Like if she never sees me again, it’ll be too soon.

Too bad I can’t do it.