Chapter2

The biting two-a.m. wind whipped across my cheeks. I buried my face into the solid expanse of Zane’s back. The motorcycle finally rolled to a halt in front of a rusted iron gate.

Zane planted a long leg on the asphalt and killed the engine, pulling the key. He glanced over his shoulder at me. "Get off. Or do you need me to carry you?"

I uncoiled my arms and hopped off the bike.

He vaulted onto the iron gate and extended a hand toward me. "Come here."

I glanced down at my neatly pressed button-down shirt. Without hesitating, I grabbed his hand and stepped onto the iron rungs. As I swung my legs over, my ankle rolled, and I pitched forward. He caught me firmly, supporting my weight, but in that split second, he seemed to freeze.

"Stand steady." He released his grip and turned to head inside.

Beyond the overgrown weeds stood an abandoned glass greenhouse. Zane strolled over to an old apple tree near the structure, casually plucked two unripe apples, wiped them against his jacket, and tossed one to me.

"Try it," he said, taking a bite. "Let's see if the stuff growing in the yards of these rich neighborhoods has that same sickening superiority to its taste."

I caught it and took a hard bite. The tartness was blinding.

He watched me, raising a single eyebrow. "Not bad."

"The worst it can be is a little sour," I said.

It caught him off guard for a second. Then, he let out a very faint chuckle, lowered his head to take another bite of the apple, and didn't say anything more.

I clutched the apple, my palms running slightly hot. It was the absolute first time I had ever spoken my own mind in front of him.

We walked into the greenhouse, one after the other.

"Look up," he said.

I tilted my head back. The glass dome was fractured in all the right places. A few intact panes perfectly framed the starry sky above, with Orion hanging diagonally dead center.

"That's Sirius," I spoke up, my fingers unconsciously tracing the invisible lines in the air. "The brightest star in Canis Major. Those five dimmer ones next to it make up Orion's shield."

"The view from here is way better than my bedroom window," I said. "So much better."

I turned my head to point out Ursa Major to him. But he wasn't looking at the stars at all. He chewed his apple, his dark eyes fixed dead on me.

"Why'd you stop?" he asked, tossing his half-eaten apple into a rusted metal barrel in the corner. "You were doing great."

"Do you usually... come here to zone out?" I asked, changing the subject awkwardly.

He was just about to open his mouth when a gruff male voice barked from outside. "Who's in there?" A high-powered flashlight beam swept across the glass.

My heart violently seized in my chest. If we were caught, if they called my mother—

"Get down." Zane grabbed my wrist and yanked me forcefully to the ground.

We rolled behind a thickly overgrown cluster of hydrangea vines in the corner. The space was so cramped we couldn't even turn around. I fell back onto the dirt, and he covered my body with his. His firm chest hovered mere inches from my face. I instinctively shrank back, but he planted his forearms on either side of my head, keeping a razor-thin margin of distance between our bodies.

"Shh."

His breath brushed hot against my earlobe. The sharp scent of mint and cheap tobacco flooded my senses. We huddled there, every muscle strung tight, my hands clutching fiercely at the lapels of his leather jacket.

Heavy bootsteps paused violently just outside the vines for two agonizing seconds. The flashlight beam swept past once more.

His fingers, cupping the back of my head, tightened faintly.

Finally, the man muttered a curse, and the footsteps faded away into the distance.

"He's gone." My voice was still trembling.

He loosened his grip but didn't immediately pull away. In the dim, suffocating shadows, his gaze dropped back to my face, flickering downward for a fraction of a second before snapping back up. His Adam's apple bobbed.

"Yeah," he replied, his voice a full octave lower than before. "He's gone."

He stood up first, then offered a hand to pull me up.

Three in the morning. The motorcycle engine cut out an intersection away from my house. He pushed the bike, silently maneuvering it back to the edge of the property line. The thick branches of the old oak still reached out, trailing right down from my second-story window.

Zane stopped in front of me. "I'll get you up there."

I nodded. I pressed my hands onto his shoulders, and just as the tip of my shoe was about to step into his laced hands, the side porch light blazed to life without a single warning. My foot slid out from under me. Zane's hands instantly locked around my waist. He snatched me out of mid-air, pulling me flush against his chest. He didn't let go right away.

My mother, Eleanor, stood perfectly rigid in the heavy shadows of the porch. A riding crop was gripped tightly in her hand.

Smack. The crop cracked sharply against the doorframe.

"It seems the street mud out here didn't just soil your hands—"

Her piercing gaze dropped directly to the arms he still had wrapped securely around me.

"It made you forget entirely who you are."