Page 129 of Always: A Legacy Novel

Wait, what?

He hadn’t put Catherine in any sort of position. He wouldn’t blame her, either, because they both screwed up doing what they did, but it wasn’t all him.

Still, Cross kept his expression blank. He wasn’t about to get Catherine in trouble, not in any more than she probably already was.

He’d take the shit for this.

Whatever.

“You don’t think with the head up here,” Dante said, tapping Cross’s forehead with the tip of the gun’s barrel. Then, he clicked off the safety and pulled back the nine-millimeter’s hammer, before pointing it downward at Cross’s groin. “No, you’re too busy thinking with the smaller head down there because that’s easy gratification.”

Cross should have been nervous about the gun.

Anyone else would have been.

He just stayed still.

Dante stood from the chair, and pushed it aside. His gun stayed firmly pointed downward, an accurate shot straight into Cross’s groin should the man pull the trigger.

Then he did pull the trigger.

Cross didn’t flinch.

He didn’t jump in his seat.

The gun clicked.

Empty.

He’d been watching Lucian toy with those bullets and the clip. He knew the damn thing was empty, but the idea of a weapon was enough to make a person nervous.

Cross stared straight ahead, unbothered. “Are we done?”

“You better hope we never have to revisit this conversation, Cross, or one even marginally like it.” Dante dropped the gun in Cross’s lap. “If you ever put my daughter in a positon like that again, this will end far differently for you. Frankly, we shouldn’t have to worry about this again anyway because you’re going to keep your distance from Catherine from here on out.”

Nope.

But for the sake of getting out of that damn room, Cross agreed.

“All right.”

“All right, what?” Dante barked.

Cross stood from the chair, looked Dante in the eye, and smirked. “All right, nothing.”

“Catherine, wait up!”

Cross’s holler seemed to go completely unheard by Catherine, but he knew that wasn’t the case. Even as she slipped into her next class for the day, he caught the sight of her peeking over her shoulder at him with tired eyes.

Sad eyes.

Apparently, Cross was not going to need to be the one to keep a distance from Catherine at all. He didn’t need to do anything. She was doing it for them.

May melted into June, and it all lead him to the same place. A shit place. Catherine was avoiding him, both at school, and through her phone. The more she avoided, the more pissed he got about it.

He suspected it wasn’t entirely her fault.

It still hurt him.