Chapter 17. Ordinary

Silas

My father didn't speak until we were out of town.

That was how he did it. He let the silence sit in the car with you like a third passenger, until you were the one who broke.

I'd learned not to break at about fourteen.

So I watched the dark pines slide past the tinted window and said nothing, and my knuckles throbbed, and Wren's last look stayed in my head. Her face when he'd said her father's name. Like he'd reached into her chest and moved something.

"You told her what happened to your hand," my father said finally.

"She asked."

"And you answered."

"We have a deal. She asks, I answer."

He turned his head and looked at me for the first time since I'd gotten in. "A deal."

"It's part of the cover. Fake girlfriend. Real rules." I kept my voice flat. "If she trusts me, she stays close. If she stays close, I can