“You don’t have school today?”

Shaking her head, she moved away from Leonardo, knowing full well now Romero wasn’t there to show off his camera. “My class was cancelled, so I came out for a run.”

Eyeing Leonardo one more time, Romero put down the camera, nodding. “All right. I gotta get back to work,” he said, seemingly indifferent. “Tell Angel to call me.”

He drove away, and Sarah knew she needed to get out of there—needed to get to Angel before Romero did—because that last comment about telling Angel to call him was pure B.S., as if Romero couldn’t just text Angel himself and say, “Text me. I have some photos I wanna show you.” If Sarah didn’t know any better, Romero had probably already tried to call Angel and likely hadn’t been able to get a hold of him.

It can zoom in from miles away, Sarah.

Sarah’s heart rate picked up again. Romero was nothing if not obvious.

“I gotta go,” she said, moving past Leonardo.

“Sarah, wait,” he said, holding her arm.

“Get your hands off me!” Sarah jerked her hand away and pushed past him.

The haze of fury that had begun to stew just before Romero drove up suddenly erupted inside her, and she spun around and pushed him with both hands. Then she did something she’d never done to anyone in her life and slapped him—hard. “I trusted you,” she said loudly. “I wanted to believe you were my brother so badly, and you knew this and used it against me, you bastard! I hate you!”

Leo stood his ground without moving but didn’t so much as lift a hand to block anything else she might swing at him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I really am. I just—”

“Go to hell!” she said, walking away again.

She needed to get out of there before she wasted even another ounce of energy on him. He didn’t deserve it. Never had.

“I truly am sorry about everything,” Leo insisted, raising his voice but didn’t follow her. “I never meant for it to turn into this. I swear to you. But there is something else I think you should know. It’s why I’m even here.”

Sarah didn’t bother to even look back at him. She didn’t want to know about how this sicko thought he was in love with her anymore. Why he thought that was a good enough reason to come and turn her life upside down, play with her emotions, and then just walk away and leave her hanging when he realized his demented plan wasn’t going to work, she had no idea. She was done listening to him and sniveling inwardly about the other family she’d fantasized about having out there. For years it’d been just her and mother, and she’d been fine with it. Why in the world she’d suddenly thought she needed more was just selfish. So many others had less.

“It’s about your father, Sarah,” he said, making her stop at the door of her car, but she refused to look at him. “Your real father.”

~*~

Angel

Rushing out into the school parking lot, Angel read the text Sarah had sent him earlier. Her afternoon class had been cancelled, and she’d gone for a run at the marina. He had three other texts all from Romero. He could see the last one had attachments. No matter how many times he’d told Romero he couldn’t text him back when he in school, the guy still texted him back to back often while he was sitting in class. Usually the second or third ones sounded annoyed because he hadn’t responded to the first one. Angel frowned, reading the first one of Romero’s texts.

Call me as soon as you can. I need to ask you something.

Angel scrolled down to read the second one before checking out whatever stupid photos he might’ve sent in the third.

Sarah’s brother

It was all Angel got to read of the second one because the screen lit up with an incoming call from none other than Romero. Angel rolled his eyes, knowing Romero’s impatient ass would likely be all irritated that it’d been over forty minutes since he’d sent the first text and Angel still hadn’t responded. So he answered, ready to hear Romero’s mouth.

“What?”

“Hey, man,” Romero started right off. “I don’t care what you say about Sarah’s brother. The guy’s shady. I didn’t like the looks of him from day one, and I’m not talking about his tats and shit. I’m talking about the way he was all up in her face until you came and sat back down with them.”

Angel had meant to follow up and ask Romero what he’d meant that day when he said they were getting cozy, but he’d forgotten all about it. Now he hated to have to say to Romero the two words he so rarely ever did but had no choice. “You’re right,” he said, getting in his car and throwing his books on the passenger side. “He was shady.”

“What do you mean was?”

“I mean it turned out he wasn’t her brother after all. It was all bullshit, but he’s gone now.”

“Gone where?”

“Out of her life. She cut him off.” Angel started up his car. “She doesn’t talk to him anymore.”

“I knew it! So what was up today?”

“What do you mean?” Angel asked confused.

“Did you not see the pictures I sent you? They were together at the marina.” Angel froze for a moment just as he was getting ready to put the car in reverse. “And not to piss you off or anything, but they looked pretty f**king cozy again. Say I exaggerate all you want, but pictures don’t lie, and I have more if you need to see more. You know I thought that f**ker looked too—”