Real Shadows - M.E. Clayton Page 0,29

was beating me down with logic, and I was not liking it. “Staying with Xander saves you time and money. And considering that you’re going to blow a big chunk of your money on a house and car, you could probably stand to save as much as you can right now.”

“But-”

Ignoring me, because the man did have logic as his superpower, he kept talking. “You could always stay here as originally planned, but staying with Xan gives you more privacy and, quite frankly, keeps Karla out of harm’s way, Fallon,” he finished honestly, and I appreciated it more than he could ever know.

I searched all their faces and I could see they were all in favor of me staying with Xander. But just like Trevor was concerned for Karla, I was concerned for anyone who could get tangled in my mess. And that included Xander, even though he had been a jerk to me in the beginning.

If I was going to be brave enough to stop running, I had to be brave period. I couldn’t pick and choose when to be strong with this situation.

“I appreciate the offer and the reasoning, gentlemen,” I told them. “But staying at the motel isn’t a problem. I’m not a manicure/pedicure kind of girl anyway. A motel isn’t on my list of hardships. And since I plan on getting a job, I’m not worried about the money.”

“Fal-”

I stopped Trevor from whatever he was about to say. “I’m not going to hide behind Xander, Trevor,” I said, my voice clear and strong.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Xander exploded as he stood up from the table. He slapped his hands down on the tabletop and glared at me. “Are you seriously turning down my offer to be all ‘I-am-woman-hear-me-roar’? Are you fucking serious?”

I stood up because…well, fuck this asshole, that’s why. “I’m turning down your offer because I don’t want you getting hurt!”

He looked remarkably offended. Like, the most offended I’ve ever seen someone. “What!?”

I ignored Karla and Trevor standing up and huddling next to each other far away from the table and lit into Xander. “It was one thing to stay with Karla and Trevor when I was going to live in hiding. They were going to relatively safe since I wouldn’t exist here. But living out in the open with you can bring that psycho to your door, Xander! What don’t you get about that?”

He looked murderous. His snarl was low and deep and serious. “I’m going to forget you just called me a pussy, just like you’re going to forget I was an asshole to you when we first met. And with that, you are going to move your shit into my house, and you are going to stay with me until I say it’s safe for you not to. Understand?”

My eyes widened as I reared back at his audacity. “You can’t do that! Who do you think you are?”

His eyes narrowed. “I’m the bastard who will stay in the motel room next to yours if I have to. You think you’re being stalked now, just you wait, Fallon.”

“Fuck you!”

“I have no problem doing that for you, too!”

Trevor had me by the waist and Karla was pushing Xander back before I could fully launch myself across the table at the asshole and kill him with my bare hands. “I am not moving in with you!” I screamed like a lunatic.

“Yes, you are!” Xander fired back.

This asshole!

Chapter 14

Xander~

I was pretty sure I was going to have to sleep with one eye open for the rest of my days, but who needed sleep anyway?

After Trevor and Karla kept Fallon from killing me, and with a ton more common sense from Trevor, Fallon had caved and agreed to move in with me temporarily. She wasn’t happy about it, but she chose the not-cutting-off-her-nose-to-spite-her-face route. And now I was at her motel room picking her up to move her in. I had even let some of the guys knock off work early and that wasn’t my norm. Mackley O’Brien, or Mac as we like to call him, had even made a comment about how I must be feeling sick or something.

The asshole.

Little could I admit it was the something-or rather someone that had me twisted up in knots and not that I was coming down with the flu.

I knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, it swung open and a fresh-out-of-the-shower Fallon stood before me. Her face was free of makeup and her dark hair