“Want you?” I asked. “I’ve been sure of that for years. I think I could ask you the same thing. I thought I was nothing but your best friend’s little sister.”
“Maybe you were at first—we were both young. But then you became something else. Something more.”
“Yeah? What exactly did I become?”
He rolled to his side, keeping me wrapped in his arms.
“Do you know how many nights we’ve spent together?” His voice was low, almost like he was telling me a secret. “Watching movies, going out, working at the garage. And the days—we’ve ridden for thousands of hours, we’ve been shoulder to shoulderfixing engines, eating crap takeout, arguing about nothing. And through all of it—you’ve made me laugh, you’ve challenged me...” His smile tilted, almost reluctant. “You ruined my life.”
“Is this a romantic confession or are you about to scold me again?”
“This is me saying you became my best friend, Evie. And yeah, Rook is, too, but you...” His eyes caught mine, steady and unflinching. “You’re the one I tell the things I can’t tell him. The fears. The dreams. The stuff I don’t even admit to myself half the time. You see me—the real me—and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost that. If I lost you.”
Tears filled my eyes, and he grinned.
“I’ve made my little psycho girl’s cold heart crack.”
I smacked his arm, smiling back now. “I do not have a cold heart.”
He leaned down, his lips pressing against mine before he pulled back the slightest amount. “I think it’s more that you are picky about who you open that heart to, which isn’t bad at all.”
“And am I right to open it to you?”
He stayed still, silent, letting the words hang between us like a fragile thread.
“I’m not sure,” his voice was low, “but I don’t think that’s either of our decisions now. I couldn’t untangle myself from you if I tried. You’re in my blood.”
My chest tightened at the truth of it. Every beat of his heart against mine pressed it deeper. If you go, I go... he hadn’t said it, but it was there. I couldn’t deny it, and I didn’t want to.
I wrapped myself closer, pressing my face into the curve of hisshoulder, breathing in the scent of him—the leather, the faint smoke, the warmth I’d never stop craving. My fingers dug into the fabric of his shirt, anchoring myself in the moment. I stayed there, silent, letting the world slip away. Every second felt infinite, and yet I worried—how many more nights like this would I get?
Chapter 35
Shadow
The house was quiet with no one home, the heavy weight of silence pressing down on the walls as I slipped through the front door, careful to make sure it didn’t click shut behind me. I’d been here before, watching from the outside, learning their routines, but this time was different.
This time, I was inside, and the thrill of it sent a shiver down my spine.
I wove my way through the house, careful to avoid areas I could be seen. No one should be here, but I didn’t want to risk it.
Finally, I made it to the foyer, the stairs leading to all their bedrooms. It wasn’t hard to figure out which room was hers. Everything about Evie felt marked with an energy that was impossible to ignore. I made my way up the stairs, careful to check each step for any loud creaks. The hallway stretched ahead of me, a path leading straight to her bedroom. The door was slightly ajar, a faint sliver of light spilling through from the small neon lamp she’d left on. I pushed it open, stepping into her space.
Her scent hit me immediately—soft and sweet, laced with something sharper underneath. Vanilla, with a bite. It seemed so fitting to her. I breathed it in deeply, letting it settle in my lungs.
The room was neat, almost too neat for someone like her, but I could feel the chaos bubbling underneath. The bed was made,clothes folded on the chair in the corner, but I could imagine the whirlwind of her mind, the secrets she was hiding under the surface.
I started with the desk. If she had found something about Veritas, it would be there. My fingers grazed over the surface, brushing past the papers she’d left out, the pens scattered across the wood. Most of it was innocent—work schedules, notes scribbled about the shop. I picked up a notebook, flipping through the pages, but all I found were more meaningless notes. Nothing useful. Nothing dangerous.
But then I saw it half hidden beneath a stack of papers, a single printed page with an address scrawled across the top. The wordVeritaswas stamped in bold letters at the top, followed by an address in the city. Underneath it, the one scribbled line made my heart drop.
The Order.
Did she know what they were yet?Whothey were?
It wasn’t written like the rest of the document—everything clearly listed. This was scrawled, messy.
This was it. This was the connection she had found. This wasn’t only some coincidence. She was onto something, something that only I knew would get her in a lot of trouble.
