around and end it, but I couldn’t. Jaz had me. She had me wrapped around her finger, and I craved both it and her like some addict that could never get enough.
Thankfully, when kids started to flood the parking lot, Jaz climbed in my car before Dante arrived at his bike. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to see one of the pricks Jaz was seeing beside me, but…no, wait, that’s exactly what I didn’t want. Fuck him. Fuck all of them.
She threw her bag near her feet, buckling her seatbelt before shooting me a smile with those full, pretty lips. Her amber eyes sparkled as she looked at me, her cheeks flushed. “Hey there, Mr. Grumps. How was your day?” For once, Jaz sounded happy.
I tried not to let my mind wander with the reasons why that could be.
“Great,” I muttered, scowling at her as I started up my car. Had to get out of here before Dante showed his crazy face. Plus, get this car on the road before I changed my mind and simply drove us to the Fitzpatrick’s house. I could always tell Oliver that she changed her plans or something.
No. I had to man up and do this. Get it done, over with. Tell someone else, for the first time, the truth.
“My day was good, too,” Jaz rambled on, “thanks for asking, by the way. Have I mentioned lately that you’re so nice? Like, the nicest person I’ve ever met. You make me feel so warm and gooey inside—” Her eyes, which were glued to the front windshield, turned as we passed the road I should’ve taken to the house. “And that’s the road we should’ve turned on.” Her sarcastic rambling halted, and her stare turned into a glare. “Where are we going?” She knew my apartment wasn’t in this direction, so that wasn’t an option.
Really, if she wasn’t as head over heels for me as I was for her, I bet she’d think I was kidnapping her.
“Don’t worry,” I said, making an effort to keep my hands on the steering wheel, lest I try to reach for her leg or something. “I handled Oliver, and he’s going to speak to your mother.” Piper, who still didn’t trust me yet. Granted, her distrust was well-placed, given how intimate I’d been on numerous occasions with her daughter.
“Oh-kay,” Jaz said, breaking the word up into two long syllables. “But that still doesn’t answer my question. Where are we going? I mean, you know I’m up for anything, but I do have a math quiz to study for.” She paused, thinking it over. “Actually, you know what? Fuck math. As long as I’m with you, handsome, I don’t care where we’re going.”
Her words both irritated me and made my lower half warm. God, I wanted to shut her up the best way I knew how—with my mouth—but now wasn’t the time for that.
I stuck to my silence as I drove us out of Midpark. We were going somewhere that was a good drive away, a place that wasn’t nearly as rich and fancy as Midpark and its surrounding cities, like Hillcrest. Where I grew up, it was all farms and shacks, small convenience stores where you had to do your grocery shopping—although, prior to the incident, I had no idea about any of that.
Before that fateful night, when I’d decided enough was enough, I had no idea about any of it.
An hour into the drive, we were on the highway, nothing but country fields around us. Jaz gazed steadily out the window, her finger tapping on the side of the door as she hummed along to the radio. I’d let her choose the station, after she’d filled my ears with whining.
She was…she really was my weakness. I didn’t know how it happened, why I fell so hard and so fast for her, but I did. I’d do anything to keep this girl safe, to protect her from the dark terrors of the world and the atrocities its people were capable of.
Unfortunately, I was no different. I was just as capable of evil as anyone else. The truth was, we all were, deep down. Some people just had different melting points. I’d thought, until Zane and Thorn came into my life and destroyed me, that I’d done a good job at moving on.
But, I supposed, there were some things you never could move on from, not truly. What I did…something like that stayed with you, lingered with you, until