“You are not going with this guy,” Chasm growls against my ear. His angry lips stir my hair, and goose bumps break out across my entire body. Oh, that feels good. And this is most definitely not the time to be thinking about things like that. I turn toward him, looking up into his gaze and wishing … No, there is no wishing involved here, is there?
My arms slide around his neck, and I lift up on my tiptoes, letting him press his forehead against mine. He wraps his hands around my waist and gives my belly a small squeeze.
“No, Little Sister,” he breathes, his mouth so close to mine that I can practically taste him. “You aren’t risking your life—not even for … his.” Chasm presses his lips to mine, and I swear, the entire room goes silent.
“Well, now, I’m not sure how I feel about you dating boys before graduation,” Justin muses, as if the stupid asshole didn’t force me to sleep with Chasm in the first place. When we finally break away from one another, I look back to see that Tess is just … staring at me in that way of hers again.
Disappointment is plain on her face, just like Parrish warned me about so seemingly long ago.
Has it really only been about three and a half months since I got here?
Tess is too busy with her phone call, however, to deal with me and Chasm.
“I want to go with him,” I reiterate. “What if … what if we just go out for an hour? Just one. Then he can bring me right back. In time for the press conference.”
“Oh, you’re having a press conference today?” Justin queries, but almost like he already knew about it. “Let me help. I have a press release prepared. I could announce the launch of the app and pledge every resource our company possesses to help you bring your son home.”
“You’re an opportunistic monster,” Tess breathes, her eyes brimming with angry tears. She still has her phone pressed to her ear but whatever her fancy-pants lawyer is saying on the other side must not be very hopeful. I look at her and I feel simultaneously hopeful and vindictive. This is exactly what you did to the Banks. Exactly this. You swept in with your lawyers and your DNA tests and you took what you wanted with no regard to anyone else.
Just like Justin is doing now.
“Let me in on the press conference, Tess, and I won’t take Dakota tonight—even though it is my legal right. We’ll meet up tomorrow for lunch, won’t we, princess?” He doesn’t even wait for me to answer because he doesn’t care; this is what’s happening, and we both know it. “We can work up to the overnights.” He gives me a look and then lets his gaze drag over to land on Chasm. “I’m currently staying in a vacation rental, so I don’t exactly have a permanent address of my own just yet.”
“How long have you been planning this?” Tess asks, so angry that even though there are tears on her cheeks, she looks like she’s about to say damn it all, and deck Justin Prior right in the face. “Since the moment you heard my son was missing? Is that why you crawled out of the woodwork, just to ruin my life? To ruin your daughter’s life?”
“I’m just here to help, and to form a relationship with my child. I’d never consider ripping a girl away from her mother.” Justin moves over to me, putting his hand on my shoulder and leaning down again on the pretense of kissing my cheek. He lowers his voice to the barest of whispers. “We’ll have fun together, I promise. I’m not as scary as Amin makes me seem. He’s a terrible actor.” Justin pats my head as he stands up, giving my lime-green hair a little rub between his thumb and forefinger. He smiles again and releases me, his eyes snagging briefly on Chasm’s before he turns back around. “Well? Do we have a deal?”
Tess brings the phone away from her ear, her gaze locked on me. She looks like a woman who’s losing her daughter for the second time. I feel so guilty that I could scream. And tomorrow, I really am going to lunch with this guy. I’m going to leave this house with the Seattle Slayer.
And then what?
Then fucking what?
“I don’t give a fuck what she says: you’re not going with this nutjob. Parrish wouldn’t want that.” He might be whispering, but Chasm sounds so firm in his statement, like he thinks either of us has much say in this. At this point, I have exactly two options. The first is that I go with Justin as he wants, and both Parrish and I have a chance. The second is that I get ahold of those female FBI agents and tell them everything, give Parrish up, and try to save myself.
