before the game started. “You don’t need to prove yourself, alright?”
Max looked past Conor and at the boys. “They think I’m a wussy.”
“Who cares what they think?”
“I just want them to like me.”
“Why does it even matter?” Conor shrugged like it was no big deal if they liked Max or not. “Between you and me, they have things they’re scared of, too.”
Max returned his gaze to Conor, and the expression on his face was one that made Conor’s belly tighten and his heart skip a beat.
“You don’t know what it’s like,” Max whispered, eyes wide. “When you have no one. When everyone laughs at you. When the teachers don’t even want anything to do with you. It hurts, and I’m lonely, and I get scared, and maybe I’m a wuss and everyone’s right. I don’t even know why you let me hang around. I keep waiting for you to tell me it was all a lie, and this is some big joke you’re all playing on me.”
Conor was taken aback. He frowned at Max because that was far from the truth. “Have I ever laughed at you, Max?”
Max slowly shook his head, looking down at his sad looking shoes. “No…”
“I’m not tricking you.”
“But Jem’s always saying things, like you’ll lose interest…”
“Jem’s being a bully. He’s probably just upset I talk you up all the time.”
Max’s eyes shot back up to Conor in surprise. “You do?”
Conor gave him a lopsided smile. “I sure do. I think Jem’s a little jealous.”
“He is?”
“Jealous Jem, doesn’t that have a ring to it?”
Max’s lips flickered up. “Yeah…”
“Ignore him. He’ll probably stop pestering you when he realizes it’s not getting to you. He just wants a reaction, Max. Stop giving him one.”
He looked thoughtful. “I let him get to me.”
“That’s right, and Jealous Jem sees that.”
Max cracked a smile at the name.
“We playing yet?” Dominic called out, interrupting them.
Conor raised a hand, his eyes still fixed on Max. “We’ll talk about this later, Max, after the game is done, okay?”
Max nodded, still looking a bit off despite the faint smile. “Okay.”
“Like I said before, you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with, alright? Hide behind the car if you have to. I’ll look there last so you can really hide yourself in there.”
Taking a deep breath, Max nodded again. “I’ll think of a better spot.”
Conor doubted that.
With a playful push, he walked past Max and to a stump on the ground. Sitting down, he covered his eyes, and shouted, “Alright, get ready. I’m going to count to a hundred, and then I’m going to find your ugly faces! Ready? ONE, TWO, THREE…”
He heard a series of excited footsteps running in all directions, growing fainter and fainter.
Chapter Four
Charlotte
“Tell me, are you Locke’s girl? Is that why I never see you in a tiny little corset, fluttering about?”
Despite the ice in my blood, my smile was painfully bright as I chimed, “Never took you to be so nosy, Mr Crane.”
Crane’s eyes lapped over me from across the table. “Only curious.”
“Ah, well, as Locke would say, curiosity is a dangerous thing.”
“So, you do belong to him then.”
“If you check the calendar, you’ll notice we’ve been in the twenty first century for kind of a while now.”
He gave me a blank look. He wasn’t getting it.
My smile faltered. “So…I don’t belong to anyone, Mr Crane.”
His expression relaxed. “What’s your price then, Miss Miles? What number would get you belonging to someone like me?”
I lifted a finger. I needed a minute to stop myself from gagging. The guy was old. Like, as in, his skin was pale and thin, and his face looked saggy and sunken in. He was halfway to the grave, and I was tempted to tell him to hurry up and repent for all his fucked-up sins.
Instead, I trained my gaze on the paperwork before me and tapped my pen on the table.
“Is there anything else you’d like me to do?” I asked, redirecting the conversation before it got out of hand. When I saw his eyes sparkle, I quickly added, “Regarding your recent business negotiations with Mr Locke.”
The blatant rejection made him narrow his cloudy-looking eyes at me. “Well, did you take care of my earnings?”
I ignored his hard tone. “I did.”
“Then I guess I don’t need you anymore, do I?”
“You do not.”
Now he kicked back in his chair and looked around the clinical room with an air of smugness. “I wasn’t serious, just so you know. Prude little bitches like you do nothing for