Page 92 of Under Pressure

Sean let out another bark of laughter, making laughter lines appear around his eyes. Everything else about him seemed more or less the same, but those lines were new. He pointed to the side of the couch. “Ryker’s favorite spot is just a little to your left.”

She scooted and, sure enough, found a spot that was mostly spring-less.

They glanced at one another again, and both started to speak. “I—.”

“Do you—.”

“You go ahead,” Blue said.

“No, you.”

She just needed to get it out. The sooner the better. “I wanted to tell you about my secret. The whole time we were together, I wanted to tell you.”

He leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and waited.

“But we had a strict policy about telling anyone.” She turned the tracking device over and over in her fingers, then shoved it in her pocket. “If anyone finds out, we have to leave and as much as I wanted to tell you, I didn’t want to leave you more.”

“You’re leaving now?”

She nodded.

“We’re good at keeping secrets,” Sean leaned back in his chair, a show of confidence. “Me and the guys. We keep them every day.”

It suddenly occurred to her that theRey Del Marwas probably one of those secrets, though she wouldn’t want to guess just how big of a secret it was. “I know, but it’s not just you. It’s Jonah. He knows and he’ll tell. He probably already has. If not for the hurricane, my dad and I would already be out of here.”

Sean gritted his teeth and looked down. “Can you tell me what it is you’re running from?”

Her eyes welled with tears. “No.” She didn’t want to. She didn’t want to put him in any more danger than he already was just being near her.

She’d merely made friends with Ian from the carnival when she was a teen, and Dom had been ordered to kill the guy. Of course, she hadn’t let Dominic do it, but she’d had to go on the run because she’d taken a stand against them.

She loved Sean. He wasn’t her friend. Sean could never be just a friend. She knew that now. And she couldn’t stomach the idea of what would happen to him when The Outfit found out about him. And they would, if she stayed. At some point, TheOutfit would find her, and anyone in the way would be taken care of.

“So, this is how the conversation would’ve gone,” Sean said, staring at his hands.

She wiped a tear from her eye. “What conversation?”

“All those years ago, when I went into the service and you stopped taking my calls.” He scrubbed a hand through his dark hair. “I always wondered what our conversation would be like if we had talked all those years ago.”

Blue sniffled. “I stopped taking your calls because I was mad at you for joining the Navy without talking to me first.”

“I know.” He still hadn’t looked up from his hands. “I only did that because it killed me to see you shying away from your dreams. I knew you were hiding from something, but I thought it was . . . I don’t know what I thought it was. But I didn’t want to stand in your way. I thought if I joined the service, you’d be able to go to that school in Paris for design without feeling like you were leaving me behind. It never occurred to me you’d just stop talking to me.”

She stared at him wide-eyed. Dad wasn’t the only person who’d do anything for her. Blue waited for the shock of that revelation, but it never came. Seanwoulddo anything for her. But she was going to run again and turn his life upside downagain. Leaving Sean and his friends to deal with this big mess with theRey Del Marthat she’d created. Because that’s what she did. Ruin things. Hurricane Bluebell blowing through your life.

She could give him this much at least. “A week after you went into Boot Camp, Marshall Stroup heard a rumor that The Outfit had feelers out in every major city from New York to Florida. He made us move. After our fight, I thought you’d just stopped calling me, and then a week later, we moved.”

Sean scooted forward in his seat. “I was trying to give you space, and then I started boot camp and I couldn’t call for a while, but then I called you every day for months.”

More tears fell loose. “I didn’t know. Stroup took our phones—made us start from scratch.”

Letting out a big sigh, Sean leaned back. “Where’d you go?”

“Paris,” she said. He’d given her that, and she wanted him to know. “I went to that design school.”

A small smile split Sean’s face, and he nodded. “I guess we’re right back where we started.”

She wiped at the tears flowing in a steady stream down her face. “Yeah. I guess so.”