Didn't You Promise (A Bad for You Novel) Read Online Free

want to think about needing this one. The contingencies only escalated in terms of how much I hated them.
    Haithem didn’t open his envelope, just tucked it into his pants pocket.
    Avner held an electronic car key out to Haithem. “It’s clean.”
    “Thank you.” Haithem took the key and a long look passed between them. Tension expanded. Silence throbbed over the hum of electronics with a force that seemed to want to push me from the room.
    “There’s a bathroom just through there, Angelina.” Avner pointed behind me. “It’s going to be a long drive.”
    Leave us .
    I’d heard the suggestion he wasn’t bold enough to put into words. Not a chance. We were in this together. No more secrets or lies.
    Maybe Avner didn’t get that.
    My gaze narrowed at him. Of course he didn’t. Avner and Haithem might look similar with their dark looks, but their differences were striking. And it wasn’t that Avner was leaner, or sleeker, or the shape of his jaw, the difference came from underneath.
    Haithem wore his power on the surface, so bold and glaring I’d worried there was nowhere he’d ever pass unnoticed. Not so Avner. As I watched him stare a man like Haithem down, blast a silent message at him with a stare, that same power rose from where he kept it hidden.
    My lungs filled with a silent gasp.
    Avner lived incognito.
    Unlike Haithem, you’d never notice him coming unless he wanted you to. There was no guessing what kind of man Avner was. I glanced at Haithem. He continued to stare at his friend. My chest clenched. There was never a time I didn’t feel Haithem’s attention on me, even without his direct gaze, it warmed me. As though he had extra wide peripheral.
    We’d never been with other people long enough for me to notice this though. How he tried to put extra space between us. Space from his gaze. A gaping foot of distance between his body and mine. Distance so unnatural it practically vibrated.
    There weren’t many times I’d known Haithem to be wrong—but he was wrong then.
    No amount of space, no matter how long he averted his gaze, would fool anyone. It only took one look, one tiny look in my direction for anyone to see the way he loved me.
    I glanced between them again. The level of ricocheting chin-notching stubbornness reached soap-opera levels. I sighed. Let them have their secret boy talk. The urge to pee had become a nuisance about half an hour ago anyhow.
    “Thanks,” I said, leaving them to whatever catching up they had to do.

Chapter Three
    “Leave her with me,” Avner demanded the instant she passed through the door.
    My hand snapped closed. I kept my focus on the door she’d gone through. If I looked at Avner after that statement, I’d risk a decade of friendship and loyalty. “Careful.”
    “You don’t trust me?”
    I turned to him, the only friend I’d ever called brother. “Do you think I’d be here if I didn’t?” I clasped his shoulder. Avner might deal in danger but he’d always offered me caution. He’d caution me against this. “I won’t let her go.” I squeezed. “Unless...I absolutely must.”
    I didn’t need to elaborate further. Avner knew what we were up against and was fully cognizant of the risks we took. He was in this with me. Except, Angelina was not the mission he signed on for. To a man who considered dangers personal challenges, keeping Angelina around was a strategically terrible move.
    Avner clasped my shoulder in return. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” He lowered his voice. Not that he needed to worry that she’d overhear, we’d switched to Arabic the moment she’d left. “She’s safer here. You know there is no one who can hide her like I can.”
    “She’s safest with me.”
    He dropped his hand. “ You’re safer with her here.”
    I let that statement drift right where it belonged—into irrelevance. Then took a step back toward the master computer in these lavish headquarters I’d helped fund. We’d been partners since college.