Secret Heir (Dynasty #1)(36)

I’m just about to text Dani again, when I hear the rumble of an engine behind me, following me down the otherwise deserted street.

I can feel my skin prickle with panic, but I force myself to stay calm. I command myself to keep walking, my gaze darting around for any sign of safety. The shops lining the darkened street are all closed, and there doesn’t seem to be any houses on this street.

I can see a gun metal sports car in the corner of my eye. I don’t recognize it. I hear the sound of the electric window lowering and I almost scream when someone says my name.

“Jaz, get in.”

I whirl around to find that infuriatingly perfect face looking back at me from the driver’s seat of what is probably his new ride.

I let out a harsh laugh as my nerves calm.

“No. Fucking. Way.”

Raph lets out a growl of frustration.

“Get in the car, Jaz,” he repeats.

“Are you deaf?” I shout back. “I said no.”

“If you think I’m going to leave you out here when I know that you’re drunk and you have no idea where you are, then you’re wrong.”

I stare back at him in confusion.

“What the fuck do you care, asshole? You hate me, remember?”

He gets out of the car himself then and all six foot three of him towers over me on the sidewalk.

“Please, just get in the car.” I don’t know whether it’s the alcohol making me hear things, but his voice sounds different—gentle in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak before.

My confusion only grows; but he’s right—I am drunk and I have no idea where I am. The stubborn part of me would rather get lost and mugged than get in the car with the guy who has made my life here in Eden a living hell so far. But I know I’d only be punishing myself. Plus, I fully believe that this equally stubborn asshole will just continue to follow me if I don’t get in.

I say nothing as I let Raph open the passenger side door for me and I climb in.

The silence in the car is both painfully awkward and deafening. The atmosphere in the small compartment is so charged, that I’m finding it hard to breathe, even though the window is fully open.

“I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I was …I was just pissed and I didn’t mean what I said,” Raph says haltingly, as if apologizing is a foreign concept to him. It probably is.

Once I get over my initial shock, I turn to him. I don’t ask him for an explanation of why he was pissed, because I don’t think I want to know the answer.

“Did that hurt?” I ask instead.

“Did what hurt?” he replies, frowning.

“Apologizing?”

He surprises me by laughing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him genuinely laugh before and it makes him look almost innocent. Almost.

We fall into silence again and I look out at the darkened streets as we pass, once again surprised by how similar everything looks to Earth.

I don’t know what makes me ask the next question. It could be the alcohol in my system or the darkness of the night that makes it feel like it’s safe to bare something.

“Isn’t your girlfriend going to be super pissed that you just walked out on the gig and left her there?”

Raph is silent for a long moment.

“If you mean Layla, then she’ll be fine. There’s plenty of other guys there to keep her entertained … and she’s not my girlfriend anymore. It’s not like that between us.”

I don’t really know what that’s supposed to mean, and I don’t know why I care.

I wait for him to bring up my kiss with Baron, but he doesn’t. I don’t know why I feel disappointed. Of course, he doesn’t even give a shit, because as I have to remind myself, he hates me. This uncharacteristic act of mercy doesn’t change that.

Neither of us speak again until Regency Mount looms on the horizon. The sight reminds me that while there seems to be a temporary cease fire tonight, tomorrow we’ll still be enemies. Still, while we’re still under the cover of the night, I bare another piece of myself.

“Most days I think you’re right, you know.”

I can feel those blue eyes turn to me, burning bright, even in the darkness.

“I don’t belong here.”

“When I saw you in elements class today—what you did … I can’t do anything like that. I don’t have those kinds of powers. I shouldn’t be here. I mean I’ve gone through ten different foster homes, ten different towns and I didn’t belong in any of them. I don’t know why I thought that this place would be any different.”

I look over at Raph and find him gripping the steering wheel so tightly, that his knuckles are turning white.

He closes his eyes for a split second, rubbing his brow in a gesture of frustration.

“Dammit, Jaz,” he lets out a frustrated groan, but says nothing else.

Eventually, I feel my eyes drifting shut and I let myself float into the darkness.





13





“What the hell happened last night?”

Dani’s voice is way too loud in my ear and I hold my cell away from it. My head is pounding with what is definitely a hangover.

I start to explain myself, although I actually have no idea how I got back into my bed. I remember dancing with Baron, kissing Baron, Raph being furious, me walking out of the club, Raph following me, then taking me home.