Going on actual dates with Sam wasn’t an option. Dad never let me go out with friends, but Sam and I were inseparable during school hours. We held hands and he would play with my hair and talk close to my ear as if everything he said was just for me. After a couple weeks of hand-holding, he gave me my first kiss, then a second and a third. I liked kissing Sam. He felt safe and dangerous all at once.
My fifteen-year-old heart called it love until the day he convinced me to skip class with him. We didn’t go far from school, just to a little cafe close to campus. It was practically empty when we walked in. A couple of guys with coffee sat at a table. No employees behind the counter.
I squeezed Sam’s hand. “Are you sure they’re open?”
When I looked up into his face, his smile was sad. “I want you to meet someone,” he said, pulling me toward the one occupied table.
An uneasiness crawled up my spine. It didn’t feel right. Where were the employees? Who were these men coming to their feet, with their button-up shirts, loafers and military haircuts?
“Hello, Miss Marchant.” Panic bubbled up as the man showed me an FBI badge. “My name is Agent Bolton. I’d like to speak with you about your father.”
“No.” I stepped back, bumping into Sam as I shook my head. “No, I’m not allowed to talk to you.”
I turned and tried to leave, but Sam caught me and hauled me around to face the agents. “They’re not going to hurt you, Leila. This is my uncle and his partner. They just want to talk.”
Sam had brought me to the cops?! The FBI! How could he? I kept trying to squirm away as I begged. “You don’t understand. I can’t talk to you. I can’t. It’s against the rules. I’ll get into so much trouble. Please just let me go before someone sees me talking to you.”
The agent held out a hand meant to calm me. “No one will know you spoke with us. The last thing we want to do is get you into any kind of trouble, Leila.”
“Then let me go back to school. I shouldn’t have skipped anyway. It was stupid of me.” Stupid to skip out on my bodyguards.
“Your father ruins lives, Leila. He pretends to be a saint by saving people from financial ruin, and then he blackmails them into doing his dirty work. He traffics illegal goods, guns, drugs, and stolen and forged art. That auction house is just a way for him to launder his money. Did you know that?” The look he gave me was one of pity. He was talking to me as if I was ten and clueless.
“Yes,” I bit out. “I know that. Which is exactly why I don’t want to be talking to you.”
“Not even if it will protect innocent people? I know you’re not like him, Leila. You’re not heartless.”
Maybe not, but I was fifteen and I was terrified.
The uncle-agent took a step back. “Why don’t you just come sit with us? It would look mighty odd if you walked into a cafe and didn’t stay to eat or drink anything.”
It would look even worse if my bodyguards looked in and saw me sitting with these guys. I glanced at the windows, noticing for the first time how many of the blinds were closed, the space where the agents stood blocked from the view of the outside world. If my guards were outside, they couldn’t see me, and if I left too soon, it would be suspicious.
I hated that Mr. Agent Man had a point. So I sat down, my arms hugged tightly around myself, and I let them talk.
They asked me a lot of questions and I answered when I could. It wasn’t as though I knew the inner workings of my father’s empire.
When I ran out of answers, they thanked me for my time and left out the back doors.
I stayed in that seat, staring at the table, terrified of what I’d just done. I’d broken the number one rule.
Sam slipped into the chair across from me. He didn’t say anything and as I studied him, the reality of the role he had played fell into place.
“Are you a cop?” My voice was wooden.
He smiled and shook his head. “I’m only seventeen.”
I rose an eyebrow in challenge.
“I told you, Agent Bolton is my uncle. He asked for my help.”
“Did he ask you to help before we met, or after?”
“Before.”
“Am I the reason you transferred?”
He lifted a shoulder. “You’re part of it. I’ve wanted to go to Northgate Academy for a long time. My uncle just helped convince my father.”
“Why?”
“He’s been working on your dad’s case for a long time. He wanted me to get a read on you, see if you seemed like the kind of girl who would…”
“Betray her father?” I filled in, my voice sounding flat and harsh.
“Do the right thing.”
I clenched my jaw and looked away.
“When I told him how scared you were of your dad, he—”
“I never told you I was scared.”
“You didn’t have to. I’m not an idiot.”
Was it that obvious?
“So when I told him that, he asked me to get close to you.”
I thought of all the times he’d whispered in my ear, ran his fingers through my hair, kissed my mouth. My heart hardened and I narrowed my eyes at him. “Good job.”
He sighed. “Leila…”
“No. I don’t want to hear it.” I had no interest in the excuses of a liar. I had just betrayed my father. Sure, it was probably the right thing to do, but right now that wasn’t much of a consolation. “You need to leave now.”
“I can’t.”
“Sure you can. Use your legs to stand up, walk to the door—”
“Leila, if those guys who follow you everywhere are waiting for us outside, then we need to keep up the act.”
Crap, he was right. He stood, holding out a hand to me. “I just want you to be safe.”
I didn’t respond; my tears were too close. Sam had been the bright spot in my days, and he didn’t even care about me, not really. One of the best things about being with Sam was that our relationship hadn’t been based on manipulation and half-truths. Or so I had thought. Apparently I’d been born to attract unhealthy relationships.
He wiggled his fingers toward me. “Come on. You can do it.”
I looked up at him, trying to rally, to tell myself that I had to do the hard things, but honestly, my life experience had left me ill-equipped to do any hard things.
“No, I can’t. I’m not an actress, Sam.” I stood, grabbing my backpack and pulling it over my shoulders. “I can’t pretend everything is ok, not after this. You broke up with me, that’s the story I’m going to tell.” Because it was true. “It’ll be a lot more believable than trying to act like everything is just fine.”
I stalked out of the cafe, my shoulders hunched against the onslaught of emotions. Right before I got back to campus, my bodyguards flanked me.
“That was dangerous.” Andy stated it as fact, without any accusation or reprimand. Will stayed silent, as usual.
I sniffed. “I know. Sorry.”
He spared me one glance. “You all right?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
He pulled me to a halt. “Leila, we need to know if someone is bothering you.”
“He broke up with me, okay? Sam broke up with me. Now leave me alone.” I yanked my arm out of his grasp and went back to class.