Stay With Me (Book 2, the With Me series)

Prologue

Life laughs at you sometimes. Perhaps people like me are boring to watch, so every once in a while life goes, Hey, why don't I mess around with Amelia a bit? Don't you think that'll be funny?

And then life's friends, drama, pain, uncertainty, and unfortunate events, say, Hell, yeah, dude! We got your back. Watch the shit storm we can cause.

And they all get to work inserting themselves where they don't belong, stirring up the pot. Then they sit around with cold beers clutched in their hands and some boxes of pizza shared between them and laugh uproariously. At least, that's how I think it happens, because sometimes it seems like my time here on Earth is just one long episode of let's see how we can screw with Amelia today.

There's a man out there intent on murdering me: Tony. He has hurt and killed other people in the name of revenge. And I care very deeply about someone I'm destined to end up hurting—someone who discovered that he was being deceived from the start, and then was promptly arrested for murdering his step-father, whom he'd been worried about harming his brothers ever since Greg was released from jail. Aiden is not a murderer; he's not capable of doing something like that. Or is he? He's a fierce protector of those he loves, and he would do anything to protect his brothers . . . but murder?

Aiden hates Greg with a burning passion—I'm pretty sure he abused Aiden as a child. But I can't see Aiden taking his life then coming over to my house to watch movies like it's any other day.

Why do the police think Aiden did it? He was at my house all night, and he was with Mason before that . . . right? When did Greg die, anyway? He's been out of prison for a couple of weeks—wouldn't he want to spend some time with his son, Ryan, and not bother with Aiden?

Ryan.

I wonder if Aiden's stepbrother has heard about the death of his father. I wonder if he's heard Aiden was arrested for Greg's murder. Ryan hates Aiden for being Aiden; I don't want to know what he'll do if he thinks Aiden's responsible for the death of his father. Before, this was just a petty rivalry, but now someone's dead and Aiden's in jail accused of murder.

I can't lose Aiden. Not right now, not when he's come to mean so much to me. Everyone here in King City has. All my friends are the people I never thought I'd ever have in my life; people who make me feel like I belong, like I have a family. I can't let anyone, not Ryan, not Tony, and not even the police, take that away from me.