“You’re not half bad either. Need a ride home?”
“Please. I would rather walk than ask Clay for a lift. He is a little smug about helping me out.”
He heads for the side of the building, where a motorbike is parked close to the wall, and I stop. This isn’t what I expected.
“That’s yours?”
He glances back at me. “Is there a problem?”
“No.” I look at the bike and back to him, trying to work him out. This is a man who Vero says color-codes his wardrobe and arranges his bottles in the bar so all the labels face forward. “I just didn’t pick you as the type, that’s all.”
“Most people don’t. But it’s the one place my mind goes quiet and everything falls away. I only focus on what’s in front of me.”
He grabs a helmet and holds it out to me, so I take it and he helps me secure it. When I get on the bike behind him, I place my hands carefully around him and feel him laugh. Ares pulls my arms tighter around him and tells me to hold on. Maybe it will be easier than I expected to get to know him; when he lets his guard down, he lets things slip. That is unlike Aaron, who never let his act slip. It was a well-crafted control, one that was extremely hard to break free of, and one I swore I would never allow myself to experience again.
Vero
I have had a lot of good ideas in my life. Handcuffing myself to Kayla was a good idea, and climbing onto the roof of the Asylum was a good idea in theory, even if the execution needed some work. Convincing Gerald to let me borrow one of his baby rabbits for a night to cuddle was a phenomenal idea. But I think this is going to top them all.
I watch as Kayla holds up a costume bag.
“A clown?”
“A sexy clown,” I correct her, because trust me, there is ahugedifference.
She reaches into the bag and pulls out the short skirt, then pulls out the mesh shirt with a painted collar and the little hat.
“Vero, I can’t wear this.”
I rush to her side. “Yes you can, and you will look incredible.”
“I will look like I’m about to perform at a children’s party, then with one strong wind it will take a bad turn.”
“It’ll be fun. Nixie has already cleared you, and I have been waiting my whole life for this. Well, not my whole life, but for the right person to have fun with me. You’re that person. Be my person.”
“And you picked this? It’s not Clay trying to fuck with me?”
I laugh because Clay would pick something like this to mess with her, but not me. “I picked it because I knew how hot you would look in it. And with the right makeup, you will look the part.”
“If I do this . . .” she says.
“You’re doing it,” I push.
“You donotditch me. I will not walk around like this alone.”
“I would never.”
Well, not unless one of the other guys was with her. We already know what happened when I thought someone was looking at her while she was working. Sure, I wasn’t myself at that moment, but if someone were to come into my territory and touch her, it would be very easy to make them have a run-in with the Scarecrow. Surely he gets bored in there at night all by himself.
“Vero . . .”
“I would never intentionally ditch you.”
My words seem to ease her mind, and she looks at the costume one more time. “Go wait outside.”
I stand outside the room, but have zero patience, so Ipress my ear to the door. I’m not sure what I think I will hear, but waiting sucks.
“I can hear you breathing,” she calls out.