Chapter Forty Three

Yubi.

I don’t even wait for the dust from Trey’s tires to settle before the feeling hits me.

Something is wrong.

Not the usual wrong, the tense silence wrong, the unspoken feelings wrong, the we are dancing around each other wrong. This is deeper. He didn’t look angry when he drove off. He looked hunted. Like someone had just lit a fuse inside him and he was racing against it burning down.

I stand there in the driveway for two seconds too long, Chanel shifting against my chest, my heart pounding so hard it makes my ears ring.

He lied.

I know he did.

And whatever he’s running toward is dangerous.

I turn on my heel and rush back into the house.

The living room is quiet, almost eerily so. Michael isn’t here. That realization lands heavy, confirming the dread curling tighter in my stomach. Kiari is in the kitchen, pacing slowly with her phone in her hand, worry etched across her face in a way I’ve never seen before.

“Kiari,” I say breathlessly.

She looks up, startled. “Yubi? What’s wrong