“How do you know it’s a he?”

“Mainly because I’m not an idiot. Is he in jail? Are you planning to be with him when he gets out? Setting up a nest egg, paying off his debts?”

It was almost laughable, if it wasn’t so tragic. How right and wrong he was. I walked over to the door, grabbed the bronze handle and stared at it, deflating with an exhale. Behind me, I could feel Trent’s stare on my back as he waited for an answer. Outside, I could hear the sound of a buzzing office. “I’ll see you on Saturday.”

“You don’t get to walk away before you answer me.”

“Says who?”

“Says your boss.”

I turned around. “You didn’t act like my boss when you gave me weed and dick.”

To this, he said nothing. His eyes slid a needle of pain into my neck, reminding me the power he had over me.

“First and last time I do this for you,” I stressed. “I mean it.”

“Edie,” he scolded. Why? I was just some girl he’d used to get off and get his daughter to communicate with the world. And I was stupid enough to let him use me because I loved Camila and Luna and enjoyed his hands on my body. Even though, frankly, I also had a dog in this fight. His flash drive. My key to freedom.

“Thank you for paying the shop, by the way. For fixing my car. I appreciate it, but I don’t need a sugar daddy.” My back was still to him.

“Good, because if you call me a sugar daddy one more time, I’ll smash it back to the piece-of-crap state it was in before. This is not what we are, Edie. You use me as much as I use you.”

I wanted to believe him, but I knew what I felt.

The flash drive wouldn’t make us even. Not even close.

I opened the door and walked out, not bothering to close it behind me. There was no point in trying to conceal myself from him.

He’d find me. He always did.

LATER THAT DAY, I SLURPED my Ramen noodles in an alleyway sandwiched between the Oracle building and a large concrete parking lot. The place had the uncomfortable scent of stale piss, but it was so deserted, cold, and quiet, I simply couldn’t resist. Which was ironic, because it was exactly how I’d describe Trent. Sans the piss, obviously.

I sucked the last noodle between my lips and threw the plastic bowl into the bin behind me, my stomach full but my heart empty, when I turned around and slammed right into a concrete-strong body too hot to be a wall.

Trent.

“What?” I bit out. I wasn’t in the mood for his games. Though clearly, it wasn’t just about Saturday and Theo and his questions. I simply didn’t want to be around the guy who had so much power over me without holding anything hostage, like Jordan. Trent cornered me until my spine pressed against the cool metal of the back elevator leading to Oracle building. Reaching into his pocket, he plucked out a key card and swiped it behind my head, making the elevator ping in delight. The door slid open and I stumbled in, my knees weak. He pushed me the rest of the way until my back was against the wall. The door slid shut. He turned around to punch a floor, then twisted his head to face me again.

“What’s going on, Trent? I’ve given you what you want. Why are you here?” I pursed my lips. His face was serious as a heart attack.

“It’s easier that way,” he said, rolling my hair around his fist and tugging it, arching my back. My neck was long and exposed, and he dragged his hot lips across it, making my thighs quiver with anticipation.

“What’s easier?”

“Not to talk. That’s why I’m The Mute. When you don’t talk, people assume you don’t listen. They stop asking you for shit. They start caring less. People love the sound of voices. Theirs and others. That’s why they love music. I don’t. I don’t like music and I don’t like people. So I don’t say shit. But I never thought it would be like this with Luna.”

The candid revelation caught me off guard. That’s why I barely noticed that his hand was already working the buttons of my gray pants. Trent was like a spice. I tasted him everywhere, even though our lips had never touched. Never would, probably. But he still made my mouth water and my eyes burn.

“I need to fuck you,” he groaned into my neck, crowding me to the wall. “That’s all I can fucking think about, Edie. Your pussy clenching around my cock. I need to fuck you, and it’s fucking with me. With my mind. With my priorities.”

“Then do it,” I moaned, pushing a hand into his slacks and cupping his junk. It was huge, and he was so hard, I actually whimpered. I needed him inside of me, too. I needed him to fill me and make me forget. Forget about Mom, and Jordan leaving, and what I had to do to Trent to protect Theo. Forget that life was mostly a chain of disappointments linking tragedies together.