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?"

to figure it out. "You messed

sharp," he said with a soft

familiar-was the confirmation I'd been waiting for. He was admitting it. He was

it, I leaned down and bit him lightly. But when I tasted the faint tang of blood, I froze, guilt washing over me. Instead, I pressed a soft kiss to his cheek and stayed quiet. The ambulance arrived not long after. As they loaded Hayden onto the stretcher, he leaned close. "Don't

was supposed to reassure me, but all it did was make the knot

was out of sight, 1 grated my hand

I

you,

was all fake

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

finally said, "You

do you think?" I shot

an apology for that. But Xander? I'm grateful to him. He stopped me from doing something I'd regret

which honestly made me even madder. He apologizing and acting like

I stayed quiet.

finally asked,

the hospital. Emergency

seriously hurt?" He still sounded

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

could say another word, staring back

possible. He'd bled so much. Those guys had gone hard. There was no way

worse, until-boom-Wayne and Cole showed up. Like, one after the other, both standing in front of me