Elude by Rachel van Dyken Read Free Book Online

could have fooled me, and here I was just getting ready to build an I–heart-Sergio altar in my closet and light some incense. Damn, thanks for killing that dream."
    "I take you more for a voodoo-doll type of girl."
    "And the dream's reborn!" I smiled. "Look at that. You are good for something."
    "I'm not," he whispered. "Not really good for anything anymore."
    Cue awkward silence.
    "Wanna talk about it?"
    "I'll talk about it the day I grow tits."
    I frowned. "To be fair, you already have tits."
    Sergio sighed.
    "All animals do."
    "Heart-to-heart time is done now." Sergio shoved his hands back into his pockets.
    "Oh wow, that was a heart-to-heart? You didn't even cry!"
    "I've cried twice in my life. Believe me, I won't cry over you. Ever."
    That I could work with. In fact, he had no way of knowing — but that was a promise I needed him to keep. I didn't want to be the cause of more pain in his life, regardless of how he treated me. I wasn't sure I could live with it.
    "Promise." The word was out of my mouth before I could stop it.
    "What?" His perfect eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Promise you what?"
    I licked my suddenly dry lips. "Promise me you won't cry over me."
    "That's a really strange request."
    "Think of it as my wedding gift."
    He exhaled. "Fine. I promise I won't cry over you."
    It felt like a thousand-pound weight had been lifted from my chest. "Awesome." I held out my hand. "Now let's go get hitched."
    "That's it?"
    "Huh?" I chewed my lower lip, pondering how I was going to get some of the dirt out of my perfect dress.
    Sergio, to his credit, gripped my arm and helped me walk across the field. "You just forgive me like that?"
    I shrugged. "Forgiveness is never given in order to make peace with the offender. It's given to make peace with yourself. Besides, I can't hate you for being honest."
    "Yes, actually you can."
    "But I don't." I stepped over a large rock and leaned heavier on him. "But I am curious…"
    "I knew it couldn't be that easy."
    "Did they get chocolate or white cake for the reception?"
    "Huh?"
    "Well, I like both, but if I had to choose, it would be a type of swirl concoction… ohh… with amaretto. You know, I could have totally been a baker in another life."
    "Who are you?"
    "Andi, your soon-to-be wife and future baker."
    Sergio stopped walking and stared at me, his blue eyes blazing a fiery trail all the way up and down my body. "I'm never at a loss for words."
    "Shock." I winked. "Now hurry up. I want cake."
    We walked in silence the rest of the way to the house. But sometimes you don't need words. And with Sergio, I was beginning to realize he might say one thing… but his body language said quite another.
    Case in point?
    His hand never left my back the entire way to the house, and when I took the stairs, he gripped my hand — hard.
    His words said he hated me.
    His body said he wanted to keep me safe.
    I wondered… in that moment… if he was going to be able to keep his promise after all.
    Because I was dying.
    And the last thing I wanted was to take the remaining pieces of his humanity with me to the grave.
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Sergio
     
    NUMBERS.
    Numbers made sense.
    Code.
    Computers.
    There was a certain kind of beauty about numbers, about their certainty and meaning. Writing code was no different. It was just numbers, letters, mixing together, creating, evolving. It made sense. It was my comfort. It was my life.
    Women, however, made no sense at all.
    I expected Andi to be pissed. Hell, after seeing how all the wives treated their husbands I fully expected her to pull a semi-automatic out from underneath her dress and point it at my face.
    And I honestly wouldn't have been angry had she pulled the trigger.
    I deserved it.
    See, that was the thing about anger. It allowed you to act out — to react, even though you knew it was wrong. It was like jumping off a cliff without a parachute, you thought the air would somehow slow you down, but it didn't, and you eventually