Page 69 of Barinov

“¡Madre mía! Fix your turns!” Javi yells. “Every dancer on this team has learned this routine and if you four can’t figure this out, I swear on my abuela’s grave, I’ll lose my mind.”

“Goddamn,” I whisper. “I thought Rico was bad.”

Cade nods as the doors click shut behind us.

Knox kills the music with a smooth flick of a button.

“Ah!” Ellie squeals as she jogs over to us, her skin glittering under the studio light.

“You guys came!” Haley adds before they both wrap us up in a quick and sweaty group hug.

“Lex? Cade?” Javi beams, his arms fluttering. The poor bastard almost topples off the chair. “Take five girls. Actually no,” he snaps, dismissively flicking his wrist at the freshmen. “Go into the corner and suffer with your technique. Work on those turns! I’ll be damned to the lowest circle of hell if my dancers cannot figure out simple shines! This is salsa ladies, not a stumble. Go!”

The girls scatter off in a flash of burgundy and black.

Javi turns to us. “Any updates?”

I shake my head. “Still waiting on the next round of his game.”

Javi sets his clipboard down, muttering something vicious in Spanish. “If I ever get my hands on that man.”

“Same,” I add.

Javi softens, just a touch. “I’m glad you two are here. It’s good to see your faces.” He nudges me with his elbow. “Rico will be furious when he finds out he missed you.”

I force a quick nod.

“Miss Whitmore,” Javi barks suddenly, snapping his fingers toward Ellie who’s still wrapped around Cade. “You’re up mija. Let’s show these boys how you’re going to win us Wexley’s first World Championship.”

Ellie saunters out barefoot to the center of the dance floor as Knox cues up her set.

“How’s your face?” Briggs asks Cade.

“Better than my spine,” Cade answers, sitting down next to him.

I take the empty seat on the other side of Briggs. “You two are talking?” I ask, raising a brow at the both of them.

Cade nods. “Yeah Caleb came down to The Pit and helped me with my form.”

The lights dim to a soft pale-pink as the first notes of Lindsey Stirling’s “Shatter Me” fill the space.

“Wait,” I say, leaning over and glancing across Briggs to see Cade. “I thought Khoza was—”

“Hush,” Briggs whispers. “I love this one.”

He pulls out his phone to video, his golden-brown eyes never leaving Ellie as she moves with an elegant grace. “I bet I’ve seen this dance so many times in our livin’ room but damn,” he says as we watch her go into this long, reaching gazelle-jump move. She lands in a tight spin that makes even my muscle-bound ass lean back in appreciation.

“Each time I see it, it still takes my breath away,” he whispers.

I fucking get it. It’s the same way I feel every time I watch Bella do one of these soft and sweet fairy dances.

“Wait,” I say, my brain finally registering his words. “Did you just say our living room?”

“Yep,” Briggs answers. “Rented an apartment a while ago. I was about to shoot myself in the foot if I had to spend one more night at Rosethorne with all those screamin’ Legacy gals running around all hours of the night.”

I laugh, but before I can speak a flicker of pale-blond movement catches my attention. Rez’s feet are burning a line into the floor along the back wall. His arms are folded, one hand firmly planted on his chin. He’s got his gaze locked and loaded on Ellie’s feet. Watching the way she pivots. Studying the timing of her turns and the angle of her upper body.

“Damn. Hales was right,” Cade mutters. “Rez does look like a pacing wolf back there.”