Spark ( Book 3: Stronger Series )

18. Bait

All I could do was blink; blink and pray this wasn't happening.

He baited her. Oh, my fucking God, he baited her.

I closed my eyes as I tried to keep my breathing even, to keep the tears from falling. I tried to conjure up some excuse, some reason for the shit that obviously didn't make sense, but I wasn't that good of a liar. Holly was clearly too set in stone in her convictions for me to have an impact anyway.

Instead, I wrapped a hand around my mouth to try to keep my chin from trembling. Turning from Holly, I fought to reclaim my fears, knowing full well the consequences that were about to play out. It was all my fault. I shouldn't have prodded her. I should have just ignored it and let it pass long enough for her to leave the island because here I was confirming her suspicions with my broken silence.

Why would he do this? Why would he bait her into making this kind of discovery? He must not have trusted her from the get-go. Holly had pushed before, asked questions that could have gotten her in trouble, and I had done a shit job at convincing her that my life with Darren was normal, that I was happy. And now, she was going to suffer for that. Because of me. Again.

"Jaden," Holly urged. I had yet to answer her. I didn't know what to say because the only thing I wanted to tell her was to run, but that was hopeless.

I finally turned back to her, knowing my eyes were nothing but wells filling with more despair than they could handle.

"I'm so sorry, Holly," I whispered, unable to raise my voice. "I'm sorry that you got dragged into this."

"Dragged into what?" she asked angrily.

"The shit storm that is my life," I replied, my voice defeated yet sarcastic.

"Jaden, what's going on? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

I took a deep breath, hoping I might still be able to defuse the situation.

"No, Holly. Everything is going to be fine. You just need to trust me."

"Trust you?"

"Yes, just trust me. Don't worry about the records or what Darren said. Just know that I'm alive and okay and that there's no reason for you to worry. Okay?"

Holly's brows furrowed as she regarded me like I was crazy. "You expect me to pretend like there's nothing wrong here? Like everything's okay?"

I nodded with a soft smile. I knew it wouldn't be enough, but I hoped. Good God, I hoped.

"Have you made your arrangements to return to your residency?" I asked, hoping someone was aware of her future plans.

Holly scowled. "I'm not scheduled to return for another month. Why?"

Fuck.

It'd be better if someone were expecting her like... tomorrow.

"What about your living arraignments? Where are you supposed to stay when we leave?"

"I'm still paying the rent on my apartment. It hasn't gone anywhere."

"So no one knows that you're supposed to come back in the next few days?"

"No, Jaden. There's no one to tell," she said, her tone becoming annoyed with my questions.

I sighed, more annoyed than she was. "Do you at least have a cell phone?"

"Yes, but the signal out here isn't very good," she quipped.

If that were the case, there was no way Darren would be able to conduct business on the island very well. He'd have to have a good connection to get a hold of anyone, not to mention I'd never seen him have trouble on a call before. He must have been transmitting something to jam up her phone's signal. Clever, motherfucker.