“Not worth it,” I whispered. I was trying to keep calm when all I really wanted was to set Jake loose on Owen.

Jake looked at me like I was crazy. “It’s worth it to me.”

I shook my head. “Too many people around. Too impulsive.” I was reasoning with him on a level I thought he would understand. What was I going to tell him, that it was wrong to take out his gun and pop Owen right there on the beach?

How do you reason with someone who kills people for a living? All I knew was that I was talking him down from a ledge I didn’t want him to be on.

Jake released the hold on his gun and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He was fighting for control. When he opened his eyes again, he looked down and smiled at me.

Control intact.

“Why are you smiling, motherfucker?” Owen taunted him. “You can’t be too happy about fucking a freak. If you haven’t tapped that yet, you should reconsider now. The shit she’s got going on under there is a cock-blocker, for sure.” Owen winked. “Somehow, it didn’t keep me from getting the job done though.”

Jake squared his shoulders and grabbed me by the waist. He walked me right through Owen’s group of friends. Just as we passed Owen, Jake pushed me to the side and landed a punch squarely across Owen’s jaw. He went down hard. His eyes were still open when he crashed on his back in the sand. Jake didn’t miss a beat. He just kept on walking, grabbing my hand and towing me away from the gawking crowd.

“So, that’s it?” Alissa ran to catch up to us, keeping pace alongside. “You’re just with her now?” She looked me up and down like she smelled something foul.

“Yes, Alissa. I’m with her now.” Jake stopped in his tracks and turned to flash her with a look of pure anger, strong and stern. Alissa looked scared, I could see her shaking. Her mouth was open like she was trying to speak but couldn’t. “You should know that if I find out you’re talking shit about Abby, I’m not above laying you out, too.”

I could still see Alissa in the same spot we’d left her, gawking at us with an open mouth as we rode away on Jake’s bike.

***

The second the door of the apartment closed, Jake turned to me. There was fire in his eyes. “You need to tell me what happened with Owen the night I picked you up by his house. I need to know because I’m about to blow his fucking head off as it is, and I don’t need my imagination making me trigger happy right now.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Did that motherfucker touch you?”

“You believe him? He was just trying to get a rise out of you.”

“Did he fucking touch you?”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“I’ve got trust issues like you wouldn’t believe, baby. But this is about more than what I believe or what I don’t. So, for both our sakes right now, just fucking tell me if that motherfucker touched you.”

“Yes,” I answered quietly. I sat on the floor next to the couch and rested my head on my knees. Jake paced in front of the TV.

“Did you want him to touch you?”

Did he know me at all by now?

“Why are you asking me this? Why do you care if he touched me? Let me remind you that when I first met you, you were being sucked off in a junkyard,” I spat. “By Alissa.”

“Just answer the goddamned question!” he yelled so loud the sliding glass door shook. I flinched as if his words had landed on my face.

“No,” I whispered. “I didn’t want him to.”

“I fucking knew it!” he roared, drawing the gun from the waistband of his jeans. He headed for the front door.

I threw myself in front of him, blocking his exit. “Do you want to know what happened, or not?”

He put his arms around my head on the door, and pressed his chest up against mine, caging me in. “I know all I need to know.”

“You can’t kill Owen,” I said sternly. “They’ll catch you and put you in jail.”

“Never been caught before.”

“There’s always a first time.”

“This is what I do, Bee.”

“Killing Owen isn’t like whatever it is you do at your...job.” I didn’t know what else to call it.

“No, you’re right. It isn’t. It’s more important. Because it’s about you.”

He still wasn’t getting it. “Listen asshole! I don’t want you to go because I don’t want to lose you!”

It was true. I wanted to care about what happened to Owen, but the honest truth was that as little time as we’d spent together, I’d already gotten used to life with Jake in it. I couldn’t afford to lose him. Not now. “Owen turns up dead on the very night that you knocked him out in front of a ton of people, and everyone will know it was you.”