Page 82 of Rebelonging


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"That was interesting," I said.

He gave me a look. "That's one way to put it."

I felt my eyebrows furrow. "Are you mad at me or something?"

He turned straight ahead, studying the dimly lit parking lot. "No."

"Are you sure?"

Cast in shadows, I watched him in profile. He didn't answer, and he didn't move so much as a muscle.

"You are," I said.

Slowly, he shook his head.

I reached out, placing a hand on his thigh. "Then what is it?"

He turned to face me, and his hand closed over mine. "You could've been hurt," he said.

"But I wasn't."

"But you could've been."

"Sothat'swhy you're mad at me?"

His hand tightened. "No. Baby. Not you.Me."

"Why you?" I kept my tone light. "You rescued me. You're the hero of this story, not the villain."

"You sure about that?"

"Definitely."

"Oh yeah?" he said. "Well, let me ask you something? You ever have that happen before?"

"What?" I said.

"You ever have some stranger come up and give you crap for no good reason?"

"Well, Iama waitress," I said. "So, yeah. It happens to me all the time, actually."

"You know what I mean." He leaned toward me, over the center console. "I shouldn’t have left you alone."

"Why not? I don't need a bodyguard."

"That place," he said. "I mean it's nice enough." He shook his head. "But the crowd. Shit." He reached over, brushing a stray lock of hair from my face. Something in his voice changed. "I wanted to kill him."

"Which one?"

"Both."

"Well, you did a pretty good job ofhalf-killing them, so that's gotta count for something, right?"

He gave me a look. "I can laugh at a lot of things, Chloe. But seeing you hurt isn't one of them."

"Except Iwasn'thurt." I grinned over at him. "I wasn't even touched. So there."

He closed his eyes as if shutting out an image too painful to watch. "But you could've been."