Free Dirty South Drug Wars by Jae Hood Page B

thing. I tried in vain to pull away from him, but he held me against his body and stared down at me as tears formed in my eyes.
    “Please don’t cry,” he whispered, his face bunched in worry, the words, his voice suddenly so familiar. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
    “Oh my God,” I whispered.
    I covered my mouth with one hand and reached out to cup his face. The teenager transformed before me, morphing into a ghost from the past—a little boy clutching a bouquet of flowers.
    It was him . He wasn’t just any Montgomery. He was Tanner Montgomery, the little boy from the funeral home. The boy who gave me the lilies. The boy I’d thought about constantly since the age of twelve. He stood there, right in front of me, in the flesh, smelling like heaven and looking like sin. Gone was that little, sweet boy. In his place stood a grown man.
    “Just … just pretend like tonight didn’t happen,” I whispered, stricken.
    The horror and realization of his identity washed over my body. My hands fell from his warm, smooth face. A look of hurt and anger crossed his features as I continued to speak.
    “Believe me, it’s best this way.”
    His fingers lost their grip and he rubbed his temples. Tanner shook his head and laughed dryly.
    “Is it that easy for you? To pretend that something amazing didn’t happen back there on that pier?” He pointed over one shoulder with his thumb, glaring at me. I backed away. His hands no longer held me back.
    “No.” I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand. “I know something amazing happened back there, but believe me when I say you need to stay far, far away from me before something horrible happens to the both of us.”
    “What do you mean? I’m not letting you leave until you explain.” He reached for me once more.
    “I need to go,” I choked out.
    The sound of someone yelling my alias drifted in the stiff, warm breeze. Josie stood on the back deck of the house screaming for Mandy.
    “That’s my cousin looking for me. I have to leave. Let me go, please.”
    “I’m not letting you go,” he countered, his expression stubborn. “And you don’t want me to. Deny it, but I see it. I see it in your eyes, in the way you kiss me.”
    “I have a boyfriend.” I avoided his stare. “The guy I was talking to inside … that’s my boyfriend.”
    “You’re lying to me,” he said without hesitation. “It’s because of who I am.”
    Tanner pulled me into his arms and captured my lips. Nothing seemed to matter when he kissed me, not either of our surnames or the fact that our relatives had a long, bloody history. Time stood still, and I grew lost in his lips, in his arms, in the warm sense of protection he provided. For the first time in my life, something as simple as a kiss sent shockwaves throughout my body and I felt free, floating in the space of someone’s heart.
    Tanner’s heart.
    Josie’s voice grew louder as she searched for me, her persistent yelling pricking through the hazy fog of lips and tongues, of something more . I pushed myself away from him, breathless.
    “Stay away from me,” I told him weakly, trying to convey my seriousness with my firm stare.
    Everything within me screamed to run, to stay, conflicting my thoughts, but not confusing my words. Simply speaking to me was placing Tanner in imminent danger, so I lied. I lied with my words, with the way I retreated, step by step.
    Jaw clenched, he shook his head, looking absolutely lethal. “Impossible. I’ve never felt anything like the way I felt on the pier, and you haven’t either. Tell me why you’re fighting it.”
    Tanner followed me, moving forward with each stumbling step of my boots against the grass. He continued to blame himself and his family for my reluctance, not understanding the truth behind my reason to run from him. I begged him to let me be, but he followed me up the hill. My pace quickened the closer I got to the deck.
    Josie’s voice intermingled with an unfamiliar