I Love You More Than I'm Afraid (Our Forevers #2) by Rebel Hart (the first e reader .txt) 📕

Or so I thought.

“Kiana?” the security guard said—my name according to the ID.

“That’s me,” I said.

“Spell the last name?” he asked.

I let out a sigh as if this was an incredible waste of my time. “Q-U-A-L-I-T-I-C-C-O.”

He looked down at the ID and then back up at me, then down at the ID, then back up at me, then he grabbed the mic on his lapel and said, “Dave. Can I see you up front please?”

My heart started to pound a little faster. Had he seen through the facade somehow? In order to not seem too suspicious, I held my ground, seeming annoyed and even said, “Is there something wrong?”

The guard looked down at me and said, “Probably not, I just need to clear it with my boss.” I hadn’t heard of any changes to the ID or anything lately. The guard nodded, as if he was getting a response via the earpiece in his ear, before he replied, “Yeah. That one we’d been warned about. Kiana Qualiticco.” I narrowed my gaze. Did someone tip the security guard off to my fake ID name? “Okay,” the guard said, “I’ll wait.”

“What’s taking so long?” someone yelled from down the line.

The security guard looked at me and motioned me off to the side. “Can you wait here? My boss will be out in a second and we’ll get this all cleared up.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”

I was tempted to bolt. The last thing I needed in the midst of everything that was going on was to get arrested or something stupid behind a fake ID. It wasn’t just that it could risk Y.I.I.P. for me, but I’d have to listen to Aria, and probably Hannah, say they told me so.

Stepping off to the side, I watched as the security continued to check IDs and pass people into The Undersound until, all of a sudden, someone stepped out the front door. I watched with a dropped jaw as Codie walked over and hung off the security guard’s shoulder and started whispering to him. The guard watched Codie with actual hearts in his eyes, nodding along to whatever he was saying, until finally Codie fished my fake ID out of the security guard’s hand and then turned and walked up to me.

I held out my hand for the ID, but Codie shook his head. “No. This is mine now.”

“What?” I barked. “Give me my ID.”

He took me by the arm and led me away from the line into The Undersound and over into the parking lot. “Go home, Arden.”

“What the hell is going on?” I said. “Give me my ID back.”

“No. I’m not giving it back to you. Hate me if you want to. This is for your own good.”

I crossed my arms. “You know I hate people telling me that shit. I can make my own decisions.”

“You can, but I talked to Aria. She said you’ve been stressed lately and she thought you may try and come here. She asked me to keep you from coming in here, and I think she’s right. This isn’t good for you. I told security your fake name so that they’d confiscate your ID if you came here.”

“Are you insane?! I could have been arrested!”

“No, because I have a good relationship with the boss, and he swore he’d contact me if the ID got snagged so that either I or Aria could come and get you.” He reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. “Me and Aria, we’re just doing this because we love you.”

I snatched backwards out of Codie’s grip. “Fuck off! I don’t need a goddamn chaperone.”

Codie just put his hands in the air. “Call me when you cool off and we’ll talk about it. For now, you need to go home.”

Codie walked around me and I tried to grab him and pull him back, but he wiggled free and made his way back to the front. I chased after him, but he batted his eyes at the security guard, jumped in line, and slid his way back inside and out of sight. I tried to call him a couple of times to get him to come back out, but he was ignoring my calls.

I was fuming.

The only thing I could think to do was storm back to my car and make my way to Aria’s job. She was going to get a piece of my mind for thinking she could control me and make my decisions for me.

13

Arden

I knew that Aria was working until nine, so I had about an hour to kill waiting for her to get off of work, but that was just fine because it gave me a chance to determine what I was going to say. Aria and I were close. She was the best friend I’d ever had, but that didn’t give her the right to make decisions for me. To actually call Codie and convince him to have my fake ID confiscated? I didn’t care what her history with her dad was, that was overstepping.

It was actually closer to ten when Aria finally came walking out of work, and she was dragging like she was totally exhausted. She had an armful of files and looked like an actual career woman in a skirt suit, but none of that was going to stop me from why I came.

“Aria!” I bellowed.

Aria was halfway to her car and looked over and saw me standing there. She got a huge smile on her face that almost convinced me to drop it—she looked so happy to see me—but as flattered as I was, I was twice that angry.

“Give me a sec,” Aria said. She unlocked her car and put her files in the back seat, then she shut and locked the door and walked over to me. “Hi! This is such a nice surprise.” She opened her arms and tried to take a hug, but