“Are you any good at it?”
“The best. You should come watch us one night.”
My hand keeps up its ministrations. I love how much Jake enjoys my touch. “When do you play next?”
“The ahhh … the weekend.”
Jake takes my hand and peels it off. Then he turns me around, and I’m pushed down on the bed in just a few fast beats of my heart. He bends and touches his lips to my chest, his touch lighter than a feather. They trail down, lower and lower, until he’s peeling the panties down my thighs, his face now hovering between my legs.
I can feel his breath puffing against my skin and fight the urge to squirm. When his tongue snakes out and touches me there, I almost jolt straight off the bed. Oh my god, is this even real?
“It might mean me staying more than one night,” I gasp, which is a bonus for me because I’ve decided that Jake’s head now has to live between my legs.
He moans and licks me again as though the taste of me is better than ice cream. “Okay.”
JAKE
“Mum?”
Mac’s voice is a low whisper as we lie in bed. It’s early, the sun barely breaking across the horizon, and it’s been three days since her arrival. A war has raged inside of me each of those days. One side fights for her to stay, the other for her to leave. I’m at a stalemate. Mac can’t be here. Even though our house is reasonably safe—we don’t invite the King Street Boys for dinner—we’re still a part of their world. A gang of undesirables, criminals, and murderers. It makes me sick to the stomach to be included in that. To know I’m not good enough. She deserves better. But I’m selfish. Mac is mine. My family.
Right now she’s calling Jenna. Believing I was asleep, Mac took my phone from the bedside table and began pressing buttons. I wasn’t, but knowing she was voluntarily calling her family, I played possum. Let her think she has the privacy she’s seeking. I’ve been badgering her to call them. They need to know where she is. That I’m with her and looking out for her. Most importantly, they need to know why she left.
Mac had explained Fleur Dreyer Halvorsen, and I’m still gobsmacked. Don’t they know their own daughter? Yes, her spirit is wild. She’s argumentative and troublesome. But is it any wonder? Her parents control her every move. Her brothers do the same. For her, it’s a daily battle to be heard and a constant fight to take back her own life. As an outsider to the Valentine clan, it’s easy for me to see. As a consequence of their behaviour, Mac has a need to be in control of any situation … with anyone, and it’s consuming her life.
“I’m okay,” she says into the phone.
There’s a pause. Jenna is talking on the other end but I can’t hear what she’s saying.
“I’m not in any trouble. I’m fine, I promise,” she answers.
Another pause.
“I’m not coming home. I can’t go to that stupid school, Mum. I’ll wither away and die.”
Mac shifts closer. Curling into my side, she rests the side of her face on my chest, the phone pressed to her ear. It brings the conversation closer and Jenna’s voice becomes audible to my ears. “Don’t be dramatic, Mackenzie. We’ve talked about this. About how good this school will be for you. They’re still holding your place.”
“Well tell them to un-hold it.”
“I can’t do that. We paid a fortune.”
“Then you should get a refund. I’m not going. Not ever.”
“I don’t want to argue about this, honey.”
“So don’t. I only rang to let you know that I was okay. I didn’t call so you could spend the time convincing me about how much I need this finishing college. Why are you trying to change me?”
The hurt in Mac’s voice is so sharp it stabs me right in the chest. I can’t play possum any longer. My arm curls around her back squeezing her closer. She shifts her head upward, eyes finding mine. “I love you,” I mouth.
My announcement is terrible timing, but she needs to hear it. Her eyes close and her lips press flat in response as they fight a tremble. My chest expands. Yep. She needed it.
“Oh, honey. We’re not trying to change you. We just want you to be the best version of you that you can be.”
“Oh my god.” Mac jolts upright, hurt evolving to fury. “You’re giving me the brochure spiel?”
“I’m not! I … Oh hell, I didn’t realise. Mac …”
There’s a long beat of silence between the two. Sitting up, I splay my palm on Mac’s naked back and begin a long, slow rub. I hope it’s soothing. I don’t know what else to do.
A sob breaks free on the other end of the phone. “I’m sorry.” I realise then that Jenna’s been faking her strength and can no longer pull it off. “Forget the school. Just come home.”
Mac exhales deeply, her back rising and falling beneath my palm. “I can’t. It’s too late, Mum.” Her voice cracks. “It’s too late.”
“Please, honey. Tell me where you are.”
Mac’s voice is firm. “No.”
“Why, Mackenzie? Why are you doing this? We’ve given you everything. We love you. And you turn your back on all of it and run away? I don’t get it, honey.”
Mac lowers her voice to a hoarse whisper. “I never wanted anything.” She turns her head to the open window, her green eyes lost as a single tear tracks down her cheek. I shift closer and swipe my thumb across the soft skin, wiping it away. Mac looks to me as she speaks into the phone. “I just want to be free to be myself. I just want to be free.”
A sniff comes through the phone. “Oh, honey, your brothers, your father, I know they’re a little stifling. They’re just trying to protect you.”
Her tone rises. Bitterness gives it a sharp edge. “I can protect myself.”
“You can’t. You’re a sweet, young girl who doesn’t need to worry about such things.”
“I can! You don’t believe in me. None of you do. And you never listen. Not even now. This whole entire conversation is pointless.”
“Mac—”
“I have to go. I’ll call you again. I promise.”
Mac hangs up the phone and leans over to rest it on the bedside table. She hasn’t told her mother where she is, but she hasn’t thought about them tracing the call. I don’t mention it for the simple fact they can’t. It’s a burner phone. With the life I lead, I can’t be traceable. Even the payments made toward my father’s care facility are from an anonymous account. From the moment I left the De Luca foster home, I ceased to exist. I left no trail behind. I got new identification and changed schools. It’s better this way, and yet here Mac is having stumbled her way back into my life through sheer, dumb luck. Why does fate keep throwing us together?
Shifting back on the bed, Mac straddles my hips. Such is her strength, all trace of sadness is gone from her face. What remains is a fierceness that sets my blood on fire. “Promise me something, Jake.”
“Anything.”
“Love me just the way I am. Don’t try to change me.”
“I don’t want to change you.”
“And I want you to believe in me.”
This isn’t just important to her. It’s everything. “I do.”