Still With Me

Jessica Cunsolo

Also by Jessica Cunsolo

Dedication

Prologue

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Publisher

Also by Jessica Cunsolo

She's With Me
Stay With Me

Dedication

To my dad, Bruno Cunsolo. Thank you for your
unwavering support, and for wholeheartedly believing
there’s no limit to what I can achieve.

Prologue

When I was in elementary school, I thought being normal was the worst thing I could grow up to be. Maybe I was six or seven. We had to imagine ourselves as a grown-up, pick a career from a preapproved list, and then do a project. There wasn’t an option I wanted, so I picked doctor and went straight home to complain about it. My dad was thoroughly confused when I explained that I didn’t want to be a doctor or lawyer or teacher, but wanted to be a hairdresser exclusively for gorillas, who also juggled part time while in a traveling ukulele band.

He tried throwing logical facts at me but I was undeterred by the fact that gorillas probably didn’t need hairdressers, or that I didn’t know how to juggle or play ukulele, and that no one even wanted to see a juggling ukulele band in the first place.

Then he hit me with the that’s not a normal career path speech. I replied, in my cutesy, little-kid way, that being normal sounded boring, and I’d much rather have interesting things happen to me, even if they made my life harder. Looking back now, I would do anything to slap six- or seven-year-old me silly and eat my words out of existence.

My dad wanted me to have a normal, boring life without hardship. I scoffed at the idea. It’s ironic how in the end he was the one who set into motion a chain of events that ensured my life would never be completely normal again.

There have been multiple attempts to end my life made by two different men, all within in the last year. There’s Tony, the man who’s quite possibly a real psychopath, and the reason I’ve had to move three times and change my identity each time in order to keep myself safe.

Then there’s my boyfriend Aiden’s biological dad, Andrew Kessler, who’s ruthless and clearly has no problem getting someone to murder a teenage girl in order to send a message to his estranged son, who’d threatened to blow the whistle on his true, shitty past and ruin his chances of becoming governor.

My mother is having an affair with the father of one of my best friends, and I have no idea if or how I should tell Mason. Plus, there’s the whole Mason’s most likely in love with me thing that I really don’t even want to think about addressing right now.

Annalisa’s half brother, Luke, is going to stand trial for murdering Aiden’s stepfather, which he claims he doesn’t remember doing because he wasn’t sober at the time, and Annalisa is just now realizing that she can’t bear to not have Luke in her life.

Noah and Chase are in a weird we’re friends but not really stage because Chase walked in on Noah in bed with the love of Chase’s life, Charlotte, who really doesn’t know if she even likes either of them as more than friends.

My middle (and favorite) finger is dislocated from punching Ryan, Aiden’s now ex-stepbrother, in the face. My nose is swollen and bruised from walking into Mason’s elbow, and there are a bunch of cuts and bruises on my body from Aiden’s dad’s attempt to murder me.

And to make all of that worse, I’m being relocated as soon as the agents assigned to my case finalize our new location and identities. King City is the one place that feels like home, where I have friends I adore and a boy I love. But Aiden already knows all about me, and I decided to break some small rules so that I don’t have to completely give him up—namely the no contacting anyone from your old life rule. But what my mom and the agents don’t know won’t hurt them, and I’ll be supercareful. When the time comes to leave, I won’t feel like my heart is being ripped out; I’ll still have Aiden.

But in the meantime, while I’m still here in King City, not only do I have Kaitlyn and Ryan trying to make my life miserable, but my best friends are all in the middle of their own dramas, and I still have two grown men trying to kill me.

Nice.

Honestly, Julian’s the only one in this group who has his shit together and is living a relatively normal life—except for the fact that he hangs out with all of us.

After the accident when Aiden and I were run off the road by Harvey, Andrew’s right-hand man, Aiden and Mason gave the cops a pretty convincing story about what had happened, mostly sticking to the truth but omitting any mention of me or Julian. As far as I know, the detectives don’t see any discrepancies in their story.

Harvey, the man who ran Aiden and me off the road and tried to shoot me, wasn’t found, but “Aiden” didn’t deliver a kill shot, so authorities believe Harvey is injured. They ran the prints on the knife that he held to Aiden’s throat and they were matched to a Harvey Vedenin, who, to no surprise, has been arrested before. It’s also not a shock that Harvey Vedenin is a known associate and bodyguard of Andrew Kessler, which gives validity to Aiden’s story. Of course, there’s no evidence that actually proves Andrew Kessler was behind Harvey’s actions, but we know the truth.

Aiden and Mason stayed at the beach house for an extra week to sort everything out, and the rest of us returned home, Noah driving Jason and Jackson back to Mason’s house. During that week they stayed back, I didn’t dare go to school. While I couldn’t really afford to miss any more of it, I felt guilty returning to school and pretending everything was fine when it was anything but.

Aiden did end up speaking to Vivienne Henfrey, the reporter who’d made it clear she was not a fan of Kessler’s, and who’d practically begged Aiden to go on air. I watched Aiden on the news from home, my heart exploding with pride at seeing his handsome and determined face as he shared a part of his life that I knew he’d rather bury so far inside of him that his subconscious didn’t even know it was there. I know how hard it was for him to share his past, but he was confident as he told the world about how he is the son of Andrew Kessler. He explained how Andrew left when his mother was sick and pregnant, and how he hasn’t tried to contact his family since she died.

He was the same Aiden as usual—cold, stoic, and deadly beautiful, looking even more intimidating with the bruised jaw and ten stitches on the side of his forehead. And the world couldn’t help falling in love with him, right then and there. That’s the thing about Aiden. He has that presence and charm—even on camera, even when he’s not trying—that just makes people gravitate toward him, that makes people like him, makes them want him to like them, even when everything about him screams don’t mess with me.

Vivienne took Aiden’s story and old family photos and ran with it, destroying Kessler’s platform and family-friendly agenda with it. She basically proved that Kessler is the biggest hypocrite on the planet and doesn’t actually care or live by any of the issues he campaigned on. Obviously, Kessler denied everything. His team worked quickly and efficiently at his response and recovery from this new revelation, and as far as I know, he has no plans of dropping out of the race for governor.

We were all together when we heard Kessler say as much, and Charlotte asked, “He’ll never recover from this, right? People will think he’s an awful person or a phony or a hypocrite and won’t elect him if he chooses not to drop out? Right?”

Annalisa snorted as she replied. “You never know—worse people have done worse things in this country and have still been elected to high places of power, so . . .”

We all deflated a bit after that, knowing it was true, but at least Andrew’s under more public scrutiny and won’t make any attempts to take my or Aiden’s life anytime soon.

Hopefully.

1

No matter how many times I’ve seen my face and body all bruised and scraped up, I’ve never gotten used to it. Even though it’s been just over a week since Aiden and I were in the car accident, I feel like the bruise on my cheek is taking way too long to go away; like it’s stubbornly remaining just to mock me, to remind me of what I’ve been through. My nose has healed from the accidental elbow to the face Mason dealt me at the beach house, but the rest of my bruises are taking their sweet time. Aiden’s injuries were worse than mine—I didn’t need stitches, at least—but every glance in the mirror reminds me of Harvey, of Andrew, and of how they’re still out there, getting away with their crimes, with their attempt to kill us.

A few days after school started, while I was stubbornly refusing to attend until my friends could join me, Makayla Thomas, Kaitlyn’s best friend, saw me at the grocery store, still banged up and bruised from the accident. She told everyone that my face is fucked up from botched plastic surgery, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when Charlotte told me about that rumor going around the school. This means everyone’s going to try to get a look at me when I return today with Aiden, but that’s nothing in comparison to what he’s going to face when he steps in the building.

He doesn’t normally open up—it was a miracle when I got him to tell me even the most insignificant detail about himself, and he liked me. Having a bunch of stupid teenagers knowing your business and openly staring at you and stage-whispering as you walk by isn’t something he’ll especially enjoy. I haven’t seen him since the accident because he and Mason just got back last night, but I wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d decided to skip the next few days. But he’s not; he’s going to meet me at school, and while I missed him and am so excited to finally see him properly after a week apart, I’m also dreading it, because it’ll start the countdown to when I leave. Technically, the countdown started last week when school started, but I can’t bring myself to think about that, about how I wasted a week of my life here in King City before I’m relocated without Aiden, without my friend group. I don’t know how much time I have left before I’m forced to leave and become someone new, but I know I don’t want to throw away another single second. I’m going to make the most of it, even if it means going back to school and facing the gossip mongers who have nothing better to do than gawk and stare at us.

As I walk into the school for the first time since the break, I already feel the stares on me. I fidget with the necklace that Aiden got me for Christmas, feeling calmed by its weight. The necklace with a secret button to release a hidden blade has been around my neck since we left the beach house. Obviously, I know I shouldn’t be wearing it to school, but I can’t bear to take it off now. Besides the fact that Aiden got it for me and that its presence is comforting, I didn’t wear it the night Aiden and I went to meet with Vivienne Henfrey, and we were run off the road and almost killed. I could’ve really used it then against Harvey, so I’d much rather have it on me now, just in case. Besides, it doesn’t look like a switchblade, so I’m sure I won’t get in any trouble since no one will know. Either way, I keep it tucked under the collar of my shirt when I’m not fidgeting with it.

I meet Annalisa in the front hall, and she holds her head high as we walk, a scowl on her face as she stares down the people who gawk at us without shame until they bow their heads in submission. If I wasn’t her friend, I’d be terrified of her. We round the corner to get to my locker and I stop short. Leaning on my locker with his arms crossed, looking perfectly at home but still managing to appear menacing, is Aiden. Talking on the phone and FaceTiming this last week hasn’t done him justice; it’s nothing in comparison to him in person. A sense of peace washes over me at seeing him standing there, waiting for me, looking at me with hunger and impatience. Everything fades away as I walk over to him. Aiden pushes himself off of my locker and studies me as we approach him.

“How’s your face?” is the first thing he says to me once we’re close enough.

Wow. He’s so romantic. The corner of my lip turns up. “Not as bad as yours.”

He smiles at me as he shakes his head and immediately pulls me in for a hug. I melt as he rests his chin on the top of my head.

Yes, FaceTime cannot compare to being in his arms, to feeling the tight muscles in his back. It cannot compete with the feeling of my head tucked into his chest, with hearing his steady heart beating in time with mine beneath my ear, with the feeling of safety and assurance that comes with being in his arms. I can say with absolute certainty that nothing can substitute for the feeling of actually being with him in person.

“Are you okay?” he whispers.

There’s something about sharing a traumatic, life-threatening experience with someone that brings you immediately closer to them. When you think about it, Aiden and I kind of saved each other’s lives. Actually, not kind of. We did. After the car crash, when Harvey’s gun was pointed at me and he pulled the trigger, the shot went wide because of Aiden’s quick thinking. And when Harvey started slicing Aiden’s throat, he only stopped when I shot him. I’m so grateful my aim was good that day. Being with Aiden now, I instinctively know that no matter what happens in my life, he’ll always be close to my heart.

“Yes. Are you?”

He pushes a piece of hair behind my ear and pulls back to meet my eyes. “I’m better now.”

My heart flutters, and I remember when he said something similar to me after we got separated at the Tracks when the cops busted the races, which seems like forever ago, even though it’s only been about a month.

Annalisa clears her throat. “I wanted to know how you were, too, in case you were wondering.”

I laugh and separate myself from Aiden so Annalisa can have her turn with him.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she says when they stop hugging.

Still With Me

CONTENTS

Also by Jessica Cunsolo

Dedication

Prologue

1

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