“You think I’m overreacting?” I ask him, not accusingly, but genuinely wanting to hear the answer.

He brushes the hair out of my face. “I think you’re already leaving anyway, so there’s no point in leaving before it’s time.”

“There’s always a chance, Aiden. And I’m sorry for accusing you. I know you’d never let me down. You’re the only person I can truly trust, I mean it. That was all the panic talking.”

He brushes off my apology, wrapping his solid arms around me as I rest my head against his muscled chest, and his chin rests on top of my head. I instantly feel better now that I’m cocooned in his arms.

“If it makes you feel better, call Agent Dylan. Tell him about it. Your safety comes first and foremost.”

I think about Aiden and my friends. Is it selfish of me to not say something about this because I want to spend more time with them? Mom’s face pops up in my mind. No matter how at odds we are with each other right now, I don’t want her to get hurt because of me. I know what she’d want me to do. I know what I should do.

“I’m going to call him and let him know.” The words come out strong even though I feel anything but.

“That’s a good idea. You can also find out exactly how much time we have left together. I hate waking up and not knowing if it’s the last day I have with you.”

The sincerity and vulnerability in his voice bring tears to my eyes. “Me too,” I whisper. I pull back to look at him. “Did you just run out of a live interview?”

He shrugs, a sheepish smile tugging at his lips. “Maybe. But you scared me.”

I pull him back to me and laugh into his chest, my own full of love for him, and so grateful to have him.

“Worst case, he comes here looking for a girl with long, strawberry-blond hair.”

I look up at him. “It can’t be as simple as just dying my hair.”

“Of course not. But at least it’ll throw him off if—and that’s a very big if—he does come here.”

I don’t want to leave. And Aiden’s right. What are the chances that Tony even finds the video and figures out where it was taken?

Aiden picks up a strand of my hair and lets it drop. “It’d have to be something drastic.”

Platinum blond, here I come.

14

The morning after Aiden’s interview is Friday, and I waste no time calling Agent Dylan as soon as I wake up. I pace my room as the phone rings, nerves making me jittery. What if he’s mad at me? He puts so much effort into keeping me safe, and here I am, getting on video within a few weeks of moving here. Plus, there’s the whole I hid the video from him when it was first posted before the break thing. Maybe I won’t tell him that part. I have no idea what time zone he’s in, but he picks up on the fourth ring.