Page 95 of Always: A Legacy Novel

Cross must have felt it as he smiled against her skin. His voice was quiet when he spoke; too low for someone else nearby to hear his words. “You good?”

“I am now.” Catherine swallowed hard. “I didn’t look in your phone.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“How?”

“Because you didn’t really need to, babe. I think you already knew that, too.”

Guess who has a very big house all to themselves this weekend?

Catherine’s text scrolled across the screen of Cross’s phone. The single sentence promised a whole lot of fun without saying very much at all.

“What the fuck are you smirking about over there?” Zeke asked.

Cross ignored his friend, typing back to Catherine, Why?

Mom and Dad took Michel to Detroit to look at housing for when he moves there in the summer for school in Ann Arbor. Won’t be back until Sunday night.

You should throw a party, Cross messaged.

His phone started ringing not thirty seconds later. He picked up Catherine’s call, and turned his shoulder to Zeke. Familiar streets and buildings stared back at him out the passenger side window as they drove to the heart of Hell’s Kitchen.

“I did not let you know I had the house to myself for you to say I should have a party,” Catherine muttered unhappily the second Cross picked up. “I don’t want to throw a party.”

“I can hear how hard you’re pouting right now, Catty.”

“Well!”

“And now you’re whining.”

“I am not, Cross”

She so was.

Cross laughed under his breath. “No?”

“You’re under some sort of impression I could get away with throwing a party; I couldn’t.”

“But you think you could get away with having me there?” Cross asked.

“No, but I do think I can shut off the outside cameras when you get here. You could come in through the back property where my enforcer can’t see, and why not?”

“You’re going to get me killed. You realize that, right? Your father would kill me, Catherine. And then my step-father would somehow make sure I was bought back to life, so he could get the pleasure of killing me, too. Is that what you want?”

“You’re being ridiculous,” Catherine replied blithely.

“No, no I am really not.”

But he also wasn’t too keen on saying no.

Cross was walking a very fine line.

“You know what, no, I’m more worried about your father than mine,” Cross added after a moment. “He doesn’t like me. He never has, and this would give him every excuse to get rid of me.”

By killing my stupid ass.

“Yes, if he knows, but he won’t. See, fun weekend, no killing, and everyone is winning.”