Page 12

“What kind of trouble?” Taylor asks.

She carefully lowers her fork.

“The kind that kills people.”

2

SAGE

Ishould run.

Four large men are sitting around the table, watching me as if I just dropped a bomb between the steaks and potatoes.

Maybe I did.

Sean Campbell is my father.

I was almost sure before I came here. Now I know.

It isn’t only because he knew Hayley’s last name. I see pieces of myself in him. His height. The shape of his eyes. The way his dark blond hair falls across his forehead when he leans forward.

But mostly, I know because of the way he said he loved her.

He didn’t hesitate.

He didn’t say he once cared about her.

He said he loved her.

Present tense.

My throat aches.

Sean’s gaze never leaves my face. “Tell me who’s after you.”

“I don’t know all their names.”

“How many?”

“I saw three at first. Then more started looking for me.”

“Why?”

I press my hands between my knees to stop them from shaking.

He waits.

All of them wait.

Nobody shouts at me. Nobody calls me a liar. Nobody tells me how stupid I was.

That makes it harder.

“My mom died when I was sixteen.”

“Mae?” Sean asks.

I nod. “She had a heart attack.”