Page 207 of Revv

Cece: Lose my number.

Everything in me goes cold.

“No.”

Lena watches me carefully, but I’m already moving, already unlocking the phone again like maybe I read it wrong the first time.

I didn’t.

She thinks I left.

She thinks I got what I wanted and fucked off the second things got real.

And after looking her in the eyes today and promising I’d always come back, I somehow managed to hand her the exact fucking proof she needed to believe I was just another man who wouldn’t stay.

Lena’s expression changes the second I look at my phone.

I call Cece.

Voicemail.

I try again, then open our thread and type instead.

Me: Cece, call me.

It doesn’t deliver.

My stomach drops.

Me: Please.

Still nothing.

“She blocked you,” Lena says quietly.

“Yeah.” I shove the phone into my pocket and drag a hand down my face, because of course she fucking did. After everything she told me about her dad, about men loving the chase and disappearing once they got what they wanted, I handed her the exact nightmare she was waiting for.

“I have to go.”

Lena nods immediately, but before I make it more than a few steps, I stop and glance back at her. Old habit. Doesn’t matter that she’s grown now.

“You okay?”

“I’m okay enough for tonight.” She gives me a tired little smile. “Go, Revel. Fix your own life for once.”

That drags a laugh out of me despite everything.

“Bossy.”

“Yeah well, I learned it from you.”

I kiss the top of her head, tell her I love her, and then I’m gone.

The rain starts before I’m even out of the station lot, Florida apparently deciding tonight needs one more fucking problem.

Within minutes it’s coming down hard enough to turn the streets glossy beneath me, water hammering against my visor while headlights smear across the wet pavement.

My hands ache inside my gloves every time I tighten them around the grips, but I barely notice.