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“Finding out what he wants.” Aaron turns right to a main street again and stops at a bagel shop. “Go inside. Wait on me.”
“No, I—”
He kisses me. “Do as I say. Now. This is how you stay alive. You listen. You let me do what I do.”
I swallow hard, and because I have no choice, I enter the bagel shop and pray Aaron comes back alive. I walk to the back of the shop and sit down. A few seconds later, Smith walks in. I rush to him. “Someone was following us. Please. Go help Aaron.”
“I know someone was following you,” he says. “And no. I’m not going to help Aaron.”
Chapter twenty-one
Ashley
My anger at Smith is hot and fast. “What do you mean you aren’t going after him?” I demand but hold up a hand. “Never mind. Someone was following him. If you aren’t going after him, I will.” I start to move away, feeling suffocated by the tiny bagel shop.
Smith grabs my arm and pulls me around to face him. “You will not go after him.”
“You don’t have a say in what I do.”
“You asked for my help. He asked for my help. You have it, which means you stay here.” He takes my hand and starts walking through the tiny path between tables until we’re at a stairwell leading to a lower level seating area. I all but stumble trying to keep up, and the minute we’re on the stairs winding downward, I voice my agitation. “Stop.”
He doesn’t stop. He keeps walking. I want to hit him, but I can’t even get to him to do that. We get to the lower landing with a large seating area and doors leading to the subway. A good location to escape, run, or hide. Or, a good place to be kidnapped. I dig in my heels, but it doesn’t work. Smith is big, and he rotates me into a small space between a condiment center and a big thick beam. “What the hell are you doing, Ashley?”
“Trying to get away from you and find Aaron.”
“You mean the man I helped hide you from?”
“You didn’t help hide me. I was put into protective custody, and had Aaron not come for me, I’d be dead. What part of someone on the inside spilling my location, do you not get?”
“Someone dirty like Aaron?”
“He saved my life,” I bite out, “and he’s not dirty.”
“So every lie he told you doesn’t matter now that he has his hand back in your pants?”
I punch his shoulder. “Asshole. Why are you being such an asshole?”
“Because I care about you.”
“Enough to dump me in some safe house and forget me?” I challenge.
“That’s not fair.”
“He didn’t forget me. I never forgot him. I love him, and I thought you were my friend.”
“I am, which is why I’m standing here right now.”
“If you’re my friend, you’ll help him. I can’t lose him again.”
“I don’t want you to end up dead or used and discarded again, Ashley. Let me get you out of here.”
“He’s not guilty. He needs help. I told him he could trust you. I was wrong, obviously. Let me go and we’ll leave, and we’ll leave you alone.”
“I’m trying to help you, woman.”
“Someone was following him, and we’re standing at the bottom level of a bagel shop while he needs us. That is not helping me.”
His teeth clench. “I can’t let you stay with him.”
