Echo Into Darkness: Book 2 in The Echo Saga (Teen Paranormal Romance) Read Online Free Page B

all of which he'd gobbled without so much as a thank you. He was stinking up my car, and now he was acting in that annoying, manipulative way.
    I crossed my arms. "Well, why not?"
    "You already said why. The portal is officially closed."
    "Then do you mind telling me what you are doing here?" Before I kick you out of my car? I wanted to add.
    "Avoiding trouble that your ex-lover got me into."
    I winced. Connor and I never reached what I would call lover status. Almost. Not quite.
    "After President McCabe shut down the portal, he went after anyone who helped your ex travel here. Apparently we should have known better than to let His Highness jump time. Me and Philip and Carina were all going to lose our jobs." He picked at a chunk of gristle lodged in his teeth. Waves of contempt filled the car.
    "Oh, no. Jaxon, I’m sorry." I was partly responsible. Every time Connor traveled to be with me, he'd put their jobs in jeopardy.
    "You should be. Your precious ex-boyfriend tried to send me to jail. I told the president the truth, that we were all forced to cooperate with Connor, no questions asked. Of course, he found a way to blame everything on me."
    "He would never say something like that."
    "Oh really? You only knew him for a couple of months, Princess, and he had one thing on his mind where you were concerned." Jaxon's gaze strayed down my body.
    I tightened my crossed arms. "That's not fair. You know nothing about us."
    "And you know nothing about what Connor would or wouldn't do, so don't tell me I'm wrong. People with that much power have a despicably thin moral code."
    "So you came here to stay out of jail?"
    "I was on the run in West Region for a while." That explained why he looked and smelled like a homeless person. "I got tired of hiding. And guess who has the backup code for the portal?" One eyebrow lifted.
    "How long are you going to stay in Portland?" I asked.
    "As long as possible."
    "Don't you worry about how the time travel will affect you? Connor kept fading in and out when he first came here," I said.
    "Nope."
    A few beats passed.
    "Oh, well, don't bother to expand on that," I said. He didn't.
    God, this guy was a first class jerk. Connor didn't seem like the kind of person who would punish someone for helping him, not without a good reason, at least. Still, I couldn't turn my back on Jaxon. He was one of the reasons I'd had the most blissful, romantic few months of my life.
    I sighed. "I can call my stepmom, Kimber, and see if you can stay at our house for a couple of days. How does that sound?"
    He ran a grubby fingernail under another. "Oh, all right, if you insist."
    *******
    Jaxon stepped into our house's broad entryway and gawked at the huge staircase winding to the third story. His eyes toured the ancient Oriental rug hanging on the wall and the crystal chandelier that was as big around as our kitchen table. His reflection stared back at him from the hardwood floor, daring him to tread on it with dirty boots.
    "Royalty attracts royalty," he muttered.
    "I know a nice bridge you can sleep under," I replied. "In fact, that's where you're going to end up if you make any more rude comments about Connor. Or me."
    He huffed quietly.
    Kimber was out, thank goodness, because it would have been hard to explain why he looked like he'd been sleeping in a sewage drain. I lent him some of my dad's clothes and stuffed his in the washer. Then I showed him the guest room, pointed him toward the shower, and went to my bedroom on the third floor.
    I never lost the desire to smack the smirk off Jaxon's face, but having him land in front of my car had snapped me out of my gray mood. He was my sole connection to a place and a boy I loved, and I was grateful for that.
    I stripped off my magnetic bracelets, dumped my book bag on my bed, and flopped down next to it. My life was erratic enough to make a sane person's head spin. Between the time jumping and attempted suicide and the just-in-case note I'd left for my parents, who