Page 109 of Pretty Lies

“That’s fair.”

That pack of emergency cigarettes was nearly half gone, now, though. Not just because of Della, but for him, too. Cigarettes became far more appealing when something stressful was involved. That was just a fact.

“It’s on my face, isn’t it?” Della asked. “I didn’t want to look.”

Cory leaned against the doorjamb, his bicep acting as the cushion to keep him mostly comfortable. “The blood?”

“Yeah.”

“A bit of spatter.”

Across her forehead—dotting her eyelids. She must have wiped at a spot near the corner of her mouth because a line of blood had smeared upward at the very edge like a morbid smirk. Nothing too bad. He’d seen much worse. Hell, he hadwalked out of situations looking far worse than she did. That didn’t mean this was any better for her. Taking a life was still taking a life. It was harder when that life once belonged to someone who meant something to the person who pulled the trigger.

“I’m so fucking stupid,” she whispered.

The floor took her attention away from him.

Cory hated that.

“But are you? Are all of us?”

Della glanced back up. “What?”

“You’re talking about Jennika, right? You missed her—didn’t see her until it was too late. Yeah, but so did the rest of us. None of us were looking at her because why would we? She hadn’t given us a reason to. Was she unstable? A little. Fuck, so am I. That’s not always a reason to distrust someone, babe. We all missed her. Not just you.”

She dragged in a rattling breath.

Cory felt it all over.

His words were the truth. No doubt, she knew it too and wouldn’t deny it. At the very same time, it didn’t make things much better. The reality was still right there staring both of them square in the fucking face.

Mistakes had been made.

They paid for them.

Did they come out on top? Maybe. Look at all they sacrificed for it.

“Not just her,” Della muttered, giving him a smile that didn’t feel entirely true. “I missed a lot more than just her. It was everything she was doing, too. Everything she had done. I thought … well, what’s it fucking matter what I thought about her, right? Bitch is ashes, now.”

“It matters because it does—your heart wants an answer. Your brain might have to accept you’re never going to get one that satisfies you. That’s where you decide whether or not it’s worth it to keep giving it energy and attention.”

Her smile was real, then.

And beautiful.

“You really do say all the right things when it counts, Cory,” Della murmured.

“Do I?”

“Even when it hurts.”

Right.

It was a learned gift.

Cory decided to say some more things that were both right and true. Things he’d been waiting to say because life and business and everything else just seemed to keep getting in the goddamn way at every turn. He’d thought it might be selfish to focus on his feelings and what happened between him and Della while the rest of the world burned around them. It seemed so little in the grand scheme of things how he’d managed to fall entirely in love with this woman across from him.

Except it wasn’t little at all.