Page 105 of Trust

He turns away and rubs his face once more. “You are impossible,” he mutters, and there is no affection in it.

“That’s what I said.” A sleepy Sara comes in carrying a wicked smile on her face, as if she finished a joke she’d started earlier. She reaches out and steals my drink from beside me, completely unaware of what’s been going on in here.

We both stop cold, caught in the moment. I force a grin, playing it off like nothing happened. Stix lifts his cup, casual on the surface. But his posture’s too straight. The light doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

“You sleep okay?” he asks, his voice bright enough to mask the strain.

“Yeah,” she says dreamily, curling her hands around the mug and breathing in the steam. The way she goes all shy and soft around us warms my heart. No way in hell I’m letting her go.

Stix clears his throat. “There’s a call with your father today,” he says watchfully. “He’ll ring later.”

Her shoulders stiffen the smallest fraction. She sets her coffee down in slow motion. “The election is today,” she says, her voice thin like the weight of it just landed.

“I gotta go.” I can’t sit here and pretend everything’s fine. I need to move. Get ahead of this before it gets complicated.

In the bathroom I move fast, the plan clicking into place. I’ll get her out. On my terms. No more waiting.

When I come back down, they’re folding the blankets and getting everything back in place. She looks from me to Stix, clearly sensing trouble. A flicker of confusion crosses her face, a question unasked.

I head for the kitchen. Grab the key from its hiding place. Unlock the cabinet holding the police file, and put the key right back where it was. With a bottle from the fridge, I leave the room and pretend I only went to get some water.

When I sling my bag over my shoulder, Sara freezes. Her eyes lock on mine, waiting.

I tilt my head toward the porch.

She follows.

“So this is it?” she asks, a crease forming between her brows.

If she thinks I’d abandon her after everything that happened between us, she’s dead wrong.

“No.” I pull her in close. “This is see-you-later. None of this is over.” My mouth is close to her ear. “When you get the chance, check the far left kitchen cabinet.”

Stix will hate me for this, but she needs to know. When the time is right, it’ll be much easier to bring her with me if she already holds the truth in her hand.

One last brief kiss, and I turn. “I’ll meet you in Wisconsin,” I call back at Stix who’s looming in the doorway watching us.

I don’t say the rest.

I don’t say I will do whatever it takes to keep her out of the firing line.

I don’t say I will break whatever I must to keep her breathing.

“Be careful,” he says, a warning thinly veiled as concern.

“Always.”

The lie comes easy.

I throw my leg over the quad and glance back once. Sara stands at the edge of the porch, smiling sadly, unaware of the choices being made around her. My chest twists. I hate leaving her like this.

But the sooner I go, the sooner I’ll see her again.

SECRETS

Sara

The door clicks shut behind me, and my chest caves in hard. What just happened? He gets what he wants, whispers a soft see-you-later, and then he’s gone? After the night we had?