Bye-Bye Jerk, Hello Mr. Right by Rosie Steppe

""Where did you bury that urn?"

The question blindsided me.

A faint smile tugged at his lips. "Don't worry, I'm not trying to bring up old stuff," he murmured.

He shifted, clearly struggling, like he wanted to get closer. I leaned in, bringing my ear near him. His voice was barely above a whisper, but the weight of his words hit me hard.

"Listen carefully. That urn has a data sync device inside. My phone's synced to it. There's... a lot of critical info in there. If anything ever happens to me, take the device and give it to the authorities."

I froze. The urn... it had been hiding something this huge all along?

It was Yara who gave it to me. Did she know about this, too?

The thought of her made my stomach twist a little. "Why not have Yara deal with this instead of me?" I blurted.

Hayden let out a quiet laugh. "You're jealous right now? Really?"

I huffed, but he kept going. "She and I are just comrades. Nothing romantic, I swear. And besides..."

He took a shaky breath before continuing, "She doesn't know what's inside. She handled the ashes, sure, but that's it."

I frowned. "Then how did you even get the device in there?"

He smirked faintly. "What do you think?"

out. "You messed

sharp," he said with a soft

natural, so familiar-was the confirmation I'd been waiting for. He

froze, guilt washing over me. Instead, I pressed a soft kiss to his

all it did was make the

of sight, 1 grated my hand dialed

started, best I

was you, wasn't

was

run off the road, then ambushed and beaten. Don't even try to tell me this wasn't

he finally said, "You think I'd do something

think?" I shot

grateful

all calm and reasonable, which honestly made me even madder. He apologizing and acting like he had zero beef

I stayed quiet.

is he now?" Wayne finally asked, like he didn't already

hospital.

hurt?" He still sounded way too

think I'm weak" plan, I decided to lean in. "Wayne, if anything

could say another word, staring back at

me not to stress, but yeah, sure. Like that was even possible. He'd bled so much. Those guys had gone hard. There was no way he

worse, until-boom-Wayne and Cole showed up. Like, one after