Traitor's Son: The Raven Duet Book #2 Read Online Free PDF

make the connection and dump him. Just as well to get it over with.
    It wasn’t as if he couldn’t get a date. He could pick up a date just by driving down the street. It was only when they discovered that he wasn’t as interesting as his car that girls finally dumped him and moved on.
    Because no one could possibly be as ’treme, as
terminal,
as Jase’s car.
    His mother said he should try to get to know a girl, and let her know him, before he showed her the Tesla.
    Ferd said that two girls didn’t make a pattern, and the last thing any guy needed was dating advice from his mother.
    It didn’t help that when he came out of school that afternoon, he found Raven sitting on the hood of his car. Jase hoped there were no studs in her jean pockets to scratch the finish. Then he noticed how well the jeans hugged her curving butt and stopped caring about the finish.
    A long moment later, after she’d stood up, held out her hand, and said something he didn’t quite remember, it occurred to Jase to wonder how she’d gotten out of her school uniform and into casual clothes so quickly.
    The stretchie wasn’t as tight as the jeans, which was just as well. The note of patience in her voice told him she was repeating herself when she said, “I think I got off on the wrong foot with you too—though this time I don’t think it’s my fault. Can we take a walk somewhere and talk? There’s a park at the foot of that ridge, with a trail up the hill.”
    She pointed to the west end of Flattop’s plateau, where Jase knew there was a parking lot and a trailhead leading up into the higher mountains.
    The cynical part of Jase’s brain told him this was a blatant setup. The rest of him didn’t care. He hesitated.
    “Please? It’s important, and it’s already taken me too long.”
    “What’s important?”
    Thick lashes veiled her eyes as she glanced aside, then the warm dark eyes met his.
    “I’ll tell you all about it, if you’ll come with me.”
    She was clearly concealing something. Curiosity stirred.
    Jase pulled out his com pod and left a message for Ferd. “Canceling, bro. Tell you later.”
    He smiled at Raven. “I’m all yours.”
    “I hope so,” she said. “It will make things ever so much simpler.”
    But she didn’t sound like she expected it.
    For once, the afternoon was clear enough for him to leave the top open. Raven didn’t fall the last six inches into the seat, like his mother still did sometimes, but she didn’t look at the dash with the avidity of someone who cared about cars. On their first ride, both Nia and Ressa spouted questions about the Tesla, mostly about how fast it could go.
    “You’re not a car person, are you?” Jase asked, turning on the motor and pulling out of the lot. If she wasn’t a car person, why was she so interested in him?
    Setup,
a voice in the back of his mind muttered.
    “I’m fine with cars,” she said. “Though why does this one have tires? It doesn’t look like the other off-road vehicles I’ve seen.”
    Jase snorted. “What are you? Some kind of space alien? This is as far from an off-road vehicle as you can get!”
    She frowned, adorably. “Then why does it have tires?”
    Jase talked about braking and drift until her eyes began to glaze, and then tried to think of something else to say. The speed limit on residential streets was low enough that conversation would be possible all the way to the trailhead, but the sight of her hair whipping in long black ribbons wasn’t helping him think.
    “Tell me,” she said quietly, “why should I have heard of Michael Mintok’s son?”
    So much for romance.
    “Why do girls always bring up subjects guys don’t want to talk about?”
    “Why won’t guys ever talk about the things that matter? Come on. I can see this is important. I don’t want to be tripping over it every time I say something. So talk!”
    The smile that accompanied the command almost made it worthwhile.
    “Michael Mintok is the lawyer who