Free Lost Boy by Tara Brown Page B

business with him is private. That just cost him his pay for a month. Why did you leave the car?"
    She ignores me and screams into the phone, "HOW DO YOU KNOW I LEFT THE CAR? WHERE ARE YOU? YOU FUCKING FREAK! STOP SPYING ON ME!"
    I hate what we're doing to her but we need this anger to surface. If she can get mad enough we don’t need Plan B. "Are you finished?" I ask calmly.
    "Yes."
    "Why did you leave the car?"
    She laughs, "Why did you hire a boxing UFC champ as my driver?"
    I laugh by accident and hold my breath until she starts talking again. "I wanted to be alone. She made me feel dirty. I didn’t want to be with them.”
    I nod and give her the answer we have discussed, "Because I am a rich man and if anyone ever knew that you were my ward, they would hurt you to get to me. I need to know you're alright. At all times. Stuart can protect you. I cannot. I am busy."
    She is silent for a second, "What? Wait…who wants to hurt you and me?"
    "My business." I snap.
    She takes a breath and mutters, "Can you find Sebastian for me?"
    "Why?" She isn’t over him like I thought she was. Jane was right.
    Her voice sounds broken, "I need to tell him that I'm sorry. It's killing me inside that I made him feel so awful."
    My guts burn. I almost whisper my words, "Do you love him?" Is it worse than I let myself see? Was I so busy watching her and loving her, that I failed to notice her falling in love with someone else? Not just a regular someone else either, Jane's perfect choice.
    She answers me the way I would answer her, "I don’t think I'm capable of that." I hang up the phone and know Jane is right. She is me, but a girl. The two of us together would probably cause the apocalypse, but I want her more than I ever have. I want to be incapable with her and make her capable because we are stronger than anything else.
    I want her to know that she isn’t alone and the lonely isn’t the only thing that can touch her.
    I swallow hard, acknowledging the process is the only way to crack the shell.

Chapter Nine
    December 19th

    Stuart swings wide, clipping my chin. My head flies back, but I manage to come back with a strong upper cut when I catch my balance.
    He staggers slightly, winking at me, "Easy, boss. Don’t want to mark my face before we even start. I need to look pretty in the beginning."
    I roll my eyes, trying not to let the acid in my stomach eat me up completely.
    The crazy is in his eyes. He's helped on a couple and each time he gets a crazed look in his eyes. The adrenaline and anxiety are like heroin for Stuart. He lived, his brother didn’t, he likes to suffer to make sure every cell in his body remembers it's alive. He likes to fuck hard, fight savagely, drive crazily, and gamble with his own flesh and my money.
    His gaze narrows, "I see you doing it."
    I shake my head, raising my hands again, "I wasn’t doing it."
    His stare gets dark from the furrow in his brow, "I can fucking see it, Eli." He points a glove at me, "We're done. I hate that fucking face. Feel sorry for someone else. We lived asshole, remember that. I'm better, I don’t need your pity." He climbs over the ropes, stalking off to change, and maybe trash the dressing room.
    Lance glances at me from the corner post, "You boys alright?"
    I shake my head. I'm tense and scared and forget to be cool for just a second. My lips break into a grin, "We're better than alright." As long as he doesn’t look too hard into my eyes, he won't see the truth. He nods, "Shower up then, Eli."
    I nod back, "Yes, sir."
    I start to chew at the tape and climb over the ropes.
    Stuart doesn’t talk to me again, even when I offer him gum. He takes it and looks in a different direction, never meeting my eyes. We change in silence.
    Finally I speak, "I didn’t mean it."
    He shrugs.
    It's his way of saying that it's alright.
    I slap him in the arm, "Meet you in the parking lot."
    His crazed look reappears, "It's going to be the best one. I know it."
    I shake my had, "I just