All eyes in the room were locked on the television, on the news anchor.
“Thirteen days after the tragedy at Vantage, authorities have finally released a list of the confirmed deceased, all of whom were reportedly in attendance at a house party hosted by the property’s owner, Jameson Hawthorne, who was miraculously rescued from the rubble, along with his brother Grayson; Hawthorne heiress Avery Grambs; and her head of security, John Oren. Among the deceased are American heiress Evelyn Blake; her father, Tobias Hawthorne the Second, publicly known in his later years as Toby Blake; twenty-one-year-old Freya Jónsdóttir and her mother, Agnes, to whom the Hawthorne heiress had reportedly reached out as part of recent philanthropic efforts in Iceland; and Sheffield Grayson, the heretofore missing American businessman and estranged father of Grayson Hawthorne.
“Ranking among the biggest sinkhole disasters of all time, the collapse at Vantage is thought to have been caused by erosion in the underground cave system on top of which the famed manor was built.”
Gigi turned off the television. Her mom put an arm around her. Gigi had told her everything.Everything.The Grayson family didn’t have secrets anymore, and Gigi’s dad was officially no longermissing. His ring had been found in the rubble. Rohan had helped with that and with convincingsomeoneto add another name to the list.
And now it was done.
“Are you okay?” Savannah asked.
“I am always, never okay.” Gigi closed her eyes, just for a moment. “You?”
“I’m quitting basketball,” Savannah said. “And thinking of taking a gap year.”
“I can stay,” Grayson told the two of them. “For as long as you need.”
“But can you tolerate Rohan?” Gigi asked. “Code Name—”
“Please don’t,” Savannah and Grayson said at once.
“I was rather looking forward to it, actually,” Rohan said, his British accent pronounced. “She’s been calling me Consuelo von Heroic Pants for days, and I’m ready for a change.”
“I don’t know you’re out there,” Gigi admitted, her feet dangling off the roof as she stared out into the night. Slate’s body still hadn’t been found, but it would be weeks or maybe months before the wreckage was fully cleared. “I am a force, and you are always, never fine, and I don’t know.” She didn’t know if he was out there. She didn’t know if he ever would be again. “Idon’tknow, Mattias.”
And then, a voice spoke from the darkness. “I do. I know, sunshine. I have known everything I needed to know about you since before you knew I existed.”
“Slate?” Gigi didn’t know why she’d made that a question. “How did you—? When—?”
“I woke up on the wrong side of the isthmus.” Slate’s voice might have sounded flat to anyone else, but not Gigi. “I must have been drugged. Someone dumped me there. Someone got me out. And by the time I woke up, Vantage was…”
Slate couldn’t even finish the sentence, so Gigi finished for him: “Gone.”
“Nothing but ruins.” Slate swallowed. “Someone saved me. They shouldn’t have.”
“Mattias,” Gigi said. “No.”
“I couldn’t save Eve. By the time I came to, there wasnothingIcould…” Slate couldn’t finish that sentence, either. “I should have tried,” he said fiercely. “I should have at least fought past the barricades, so I could look for her.” His voice caught. “For her body.”
Even in the dark, Gigi knew: Mattias Slater had a new line tattooed on his arm.
“And I’m sorry, sunshine. I’m sorry that I couldn’t make myself come back to you sooner, couldn’t call, couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror—”
“I’m jumping off the roof now,” Gigi warned. She believed he would catch her, and he did. The impact forced them both to the ground, her body on top of his.
“You are a hazard to yourself,” Slate said—not for the first time.
“Thank you,” Gigi replied, laying her hands flat on his chest and assuring herself that he was here, that he was real, that he was alive.
“Wasn’t a compliment.”
“Sure it was,” Gigi said, her heart breaking for him. “And I know that, because you are the kind of person who looks on the bright side. Even when it feels that there couldn’t possibly be one. Even when everything hurts.”
“Youare the bright side,” Slate said brokenly. He sat up, his arm curving around the small of her back. “And I had to—”
“Pardon me for interrupting,” a British voice called.
If Gigi had been able to drag her eyes away from Slate’s, she would have glared at Rohan, but she wasn’t, so she didn’t.
