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CLAIRE~He didn’t waste time.Tyler slammed his mouth onto mine, hard and hungry, like he had been waiting for the chance. His lips crushed against mine, tongue pushing in without any warning. I beat at his chest with both fists and twisted my head, trying to break the contact.“Fucking let go of me, you idiot!”My free hand shot down to the waistband of my trousers. The Taser Pulse was still there. I yanked it free and tried to press it against his side.He was faster.His hand closed around my wrist like a vice. He twisted hard enough that pain shot up my arm, then ripped the device out of my grip. Without even looking he threw it across the room. It hit the far wall and clattered to the floor in pieces.He smirked, breathing a little heavier now.“I knew you had that with you,” he said. “I saw when the woman you came with gave it to you earlier. Cameras. This whole place is full of them.”It hit me all at once.This wasn’t random. This had been planned from the second I stepped out
CLAIRE~ I slowly turned back as the full horror of what she had just said sank in. My stomach felt hollow. My hands were ice-cold. For a second the whole room seemed to tilt. “Are you threatening me?” I asked. My voice came out quieter than I wanted. Morana smiled. It was small and calm and completely empty. “If you do not want it to be a threat,” she said, “you’ll stay and you’ll listen.” I swallowed hard. Every muscle in my body was locked tight. I was holding myself back from rushing forward and punching that calm look straight off her face. My knuckles still ached from earlier. I forced my arms to stay at my sides. She stood up and walked toward me slowly. When she stopped in front of me she leaned in so close I could smell the wine on her breath. Her voice dropped to a whisper only I could hear. “Give him a listening ear,” she said, “or I will believe you are more than just friends with Connor and his brothers. Trust me, it would be very ugly for both of us.” She
CLAIRE ~Terror hit me so hard and fast it felt like my ribs were trying to fold in on themselves. My stomach dropped straight through the floor. My hands went ice-cold. For a second the only sound in the whole room was the thick rush of blood in my ears.Tyler stood there smiling like nothing had ever gone wrong. Like we were still in Seattle and he hadn’t cheated. Like he hadn’t climbed into bed with my father. Like I hadn’t spent months trying to scrub both of them out of my head and my skin.My body moved before my brain caught up. I stumbled back two full steps. The Taser Pulse pressed against my hip under my shirt, solid and familiar. My heart did a hard, ugly flip.That was when the door opened again.Morana walked in like she owned the air itself. A glass of red wine balanced loosely in one hand. She moved straight over to Tyler without hesitation, set the glass down on a side table without even looking at it, and smiled like this was just another casual Tuesday.“Don’t be sur
Claire~ My eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. I stared at her like she had developed another mouth entirely. “A Taser Pulse? For what? Are you sending me in there to commit murder or something?” Anastasia looked at me like I had just asked if the sky was optional. “Taser Pulse is not for murdering people, Claire. It’s for self-defense.” “Of course. Because anything that can drop a grown human is somehow pure and innocent the second you slap a label on it.” I stared at the small black device in her hand. It looked too clean. The kind of thing people carried when they expected things to go sideways. She kept her arm extended, waiting. No pressure. I swallowed, took it, and slid it into the waistband of my trousers under my shirt. The metal felt cold against my skin. I adjusted the fabric so it wouldn’t show. “Happy now?” She nodded once toward the door. “Come on.” I stepped out of the car and immediately regretted every life choice that had led me to this driveway. The plac
I huffed. “Well, you and Connor. You two must have the most exhausting text threads.”“We don’t text much.”“Of course you don’t. That would be too straightforward.”The corner of her mouth moved again. “You’re funnier when you’re irritated.”“I’m a delight in all emotional states. You’re just seeing the limited edition late-night road trip version.”She actually almost smiled at that. Almost. Then it was gone. Her focus went back on the road like the moment hadn’t happened.We drove in relative quiet for a while after that. I watched the dark shapes of trees slide past. I tried not to think too hard about the fact that the boy I’d met at twelve in a Seattle orphanage might have already been carrying an entire second life I knew nothing about. Hayes. Whitaker. Archivists. Stepsister who carried guns. It was a lot. Too much for a head that still felt like someone had rung a bell inside it.Anastasia eventually broke the silence without looking back. “You’re silent. That’s weird.”“I’m
Claire~Anastasia sighed. The sound was short, like she had practice ending conversations before they got messy.“I’m not about to unpack anything right now. You’ll get to know enough soon.”I stared at the back of her head. The dashboard lights painted the side of her face soft blue. For a second I wanted to lean forward and shake the rest of the answers out of her. My head still throbbed where it had hit the seat earlier. The pulse was dull and stubborn. It refused to settle. I pressed my fingertips against the sore spot again and hissed under my breath.“You know what’s exhausting?” I said. “Sitting in a car at whatever-o’clock in the middle of nowhere in a new city. Almost getting introduced to the business end of a roadside welcome party. And still getting half-answers. It’s like every single person around here has a PhD in incomplete information.”Anastasia’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. “You’re dramatic when you’re annoyed.”“I’m dramatic when people keep handing me puz
I yelled, “YOU MONSTER!”The words came out raw and loud. My throat hurt. For a second, I thought my heart might stop from how much this hurt.I clenched my fists hard. My nails dug into my palms, but the pain kept me grounded while everything else fell apart.Tyler stood there looking shocked. Beh
Claire's POV There was only one person I knew that bear that name.I should have turned around right then. Instead, I stepped closer and looked through the narrow opening like I wanted to destroy myself.And the image I saw burned into me instantly.Tyler bent over the edge of our bed, sheets tang
Claire~I didn’t wait. I turned around and ran down the hallway. Tyler yelled my name behind me, but I didn’t stop or look back.Tears ran down my face as I pushed open the front doors and stepped outside into the cool night air. I had never felt so humiliated. My chest hurt from everything that ju
Claire's POV"I have a problem” Connor said “I have not been able to reach climax for five years," he dropped to me.I almost stabbed myself in the hand with my pen in shock. "I am sorry, what did you just say," I asked him.Connor sat across from my desk in the leather chair and he put one ankle o







