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CHAPTER ONE

ELLIE

“You wanted hts like a drill I blinked at the dry, rough desert of Arizona as it flew pastThis wasn’t a dream, this wasn’t a scenario; this was real I was in the back of an SUV driven by a thuggish ht beside iven Ca a step backithafterfinally come to a close

I was trapped with a round with Javier Bernal

“Didn’t you?” he repeated I caught him wave his hand dis the sun that streah the tinted s “Oh, it doesn’t matter I know”

I didn’t want to take the bait I wanted to keep looking out the , pretending this didn’t exist I wanted to ignore the anger that started to prick at ust and defeat that was about to sink in my chest

He had found me

“You trackedto the roof of my dry mouth

He chuckled The hair on my arms stood up

“Seriously? Your cell phone Angel, you aren’t Jason Bourne”

I both wanted to laugh derisively at the way he pronounced Jason and sneer at the use of el had died on broken wings and with a broken heart

He continued, “I can’t track your phone unless I have physical access to it”

“Then you were tracking the car,” I said, still to the

Another chilling laugh “Tracking that car all this ti chance driving around in a flashing ‘finddevice in the car Why would I plant one in my own car?”

“Soht steal it”

“Only you, my dear”

His voice lowered over that last phrase, twisting in a curiously coht retted it I realized that up until that ram

Javier’s hair was longer now, but just as thick and dark His face had thinned out a bit over the years and his build was soer He looked like a citron-eyed lion in a white linen suit, a creature that felt larger than the sum of his parts The more I stared at him, the more the space around me became smaller

He s It wasn’t a kind s that the less eye contact we limpse of his Wish tattoo on his wrist, partially covered up by his watch

“Ellie Watt,” he said sure out your real na in myone day So, youyour real na idiot can track you down”

I blinked hard and ripped ain I’d been so careful with Cah all the steps to make sure he could never be found as Connor Malloy I barely did the same for myself The minute we knew that Javier and his men were after me in Palm Valley, the minute we headed for Nevada, I should have been more careful, more cautious I should have concentrated more on myself than on Cahlin and after that I thought I was playing it s on an old persona

I wasn’t sh

“I had people waiting in Las Vegas, you know,” he said and I could sense hiure out that’s where you’d be going next, that you needed to keep laundering your h to stay on the Strip One of h Followed you to your hotel, where you went through a half-hearted attempt to hide it”

I sed hard Disgust was beating out defeat at the moment

“I realize now, Angel, that I didn’t know you very well at all I don’t knoho I knew But I do know you’re not an idiot You wantedfor it since you ran away”

“Where are we going?” I said, trying to keep

He sighed “I told you To the past”

“I have many pasts Pick one”

He leaned back in his seat, his legs splayed open, the tip of his knee touchingpast and wondered when it beca vehicle

“Child safety locks,” he whispered and I wished he’d get the fuck out of my head “And our past Do you remember it?”

“No” Although it wasn’t that much of a lie I’d had so many pasts, that it was easy to bury theo, I only rehtas I needed to For as long as I needed to becoain Then I let it go

“Now you’re just trying to hurt me” His couldn’t have sounded less sincere

I cleared my throat “I’m thirsty Do you have any water?”

“Later First we have so to discuss”

I turnedto discuss”

The corner of his wide mouth twitched up into a s I must have been out of my mind

My phone rang, jarring me I reached for ers wrapped around ot the phone out with his other hand He held ainst my door, and checked the screen His eyes blazed for an instant before he punched the button for theto go down and then chucked my cell out of it