Now she’s telling me she’s falling for me, and all I can think is that my time is running out. Time with her. Time to pay my debt. My life has boiled down to these last two days and how much of it I can save before it’s too late.

And right now, my only priority is to keep her safe before it all implodes and drags her down too. I grip the soft cotton of her light blue dress and push her away.

“Listen to me, Sierra. I can’t keep you safe, not safe enough. That business with Hale is worse than you think.”

“How bad could it be?” she asks, pulling herself closer.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why not? Let me help you, Logan. My dad is a lawyer—”

“No. I am not getting you any more involved than you already are, and your parents aren’t interested in helping me.”

“If they knew how much you meant to me…”

“It would be in their best interest to let me end up in jail, Sierra. Don’t you understand? They don’t want their daughter with a drug dealer. A criminal. An addict.”

She reaches for me again, and this time I move away before she can touch me.

It’s time for some damage control. I had been pushing away the fact that Hale was pursuing Sierra, that he was with her yesterday, threatening her. It’s time to scare Sierra away…for good.

Turning back in a fit of frustration, I push her against the wall of the storefront as I say, “Did you think Hale was bluffing yesterday?”

She’s staring at me with her eyebrows fixed downward and her crystal blue gaze trained directly on me.

“He’s using you to get back at me, Sierra. I owe him a lot of money, and if I don’t get it back to him by Sunday, he’s going to have me thrown in jail…or worse. And he’s threatening you to get at me.”

I watch the color drain from Sierra’s face as her hand drifts up to cover her neck.

“But you didn’t do anything…”

“I owe him ten grand, which he probably pays most of to someone even scarier than him. Someone who won’t hesitate to frame an innocent guy for murder. Or kidnap a pretty young girl to find other ways to make that money back.”

She shakes her head and steps backward, away from me. That’s what I wanted her to do, but it still hurts.

“I know you trust me, Sierra, but I cannot protect you. I can hardly protect myself. And if I can’t guarantee your safety, then you have to leave me. Tell your parents you’re ready to go home. Get off Wickett, and forget about me.”

Sierra’s face is blank, like she’s thinking through the events of the week, all the times I kept her around when I could have warned her. All the times I put her in danger for my own selfish desire to be near her.