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I hated him.
I hated that I stared at the screen, wishing he would send more.
My mind spun with ways I could get back at him just as my door banged open. Horrified that I might have been caught, I waffled with my phone, struggling to hide it.
It was Gabby, and by the look of her, she was too overwhelmed to notice what I was doing. She ran over to the bed and threw herself down, face first.
“Gabby?” I asked, slowly standing. “Gabby what are you doing? Are you okay?” She lifted her head and I could see her fire red eyes. Fresh tears streaked down her cheeks, her new short blonde do in disarray, strands flying in all direction.
“Levi.” She hiccupped the name.
“Oh no, is he…?” I couldn’t finish the sentence. Had he been killed?
“No, but he may as well be!” she screamed, standing to her feet.
“Calm down, someone will hear us,” I said, heading to the door she’d left ajar and looking down the hallway as if someone was going to pop out of the walls. It was nearing dusk; colors were springing to life in the sky and painting the hallway in the purples and pinks and oranges of sunset.
“He never listened,” she sobbed. I shut the door and turned back to her. “He is determined to get to Beast.” The way she said his name made me shiver, with such vitriol, it practically singed off the hairs on my arm. I thought to the phone in my pocket. What would she think if she knew I ached for contact from the man who would kill her love?
“Even after you called his precinct they still let him continue?” I asked quietly.
“No, he fucking permanently transferred to 72 and now he’s doing his own undercover operation.” She sat up, voice ratcheting, and wiped her eyes. “He saved him, Frankie. Beast could be dead by now and all of our problems gone but he saved that monster.”
“I—” My throat constricted at the thought of Anteros dead. “I don’t understand.”
“There was a bomb and Levi pulled him from the flames because he thinks Beast is his only hope at finding his mom. You can’t tell anyone. If Lucia finds out she’ll be furious. Promise me.”
Only a month before Gabby had been so excited to watch movies with Levi. I’d thought that meant she’d found her happily ever after, but now Levi had saved Anteros, and as elated as I was, the consequences for Gabby were like a doomsday clock.
How had we gotten so tangled up?
“Frankie?”
“Of course,” I quickly said. “I promise.” Gabby stood up and walked to the other side of the room, putting her palm flat on the dresser. The room was still, too quiet. The shadows moved as the sun went down and the room got that hot, glowy orange color of sunset that only lasts for a minute, as if the world is being set on fire in a final display before the sun falls to the night.
“I don’t want to be my mom. I don’t want to love a man who will get me killed.” Gabby pressed her head to the armoire and I thought again to the phone in my pocket.
If only we could choose who we love.
Gabby was asleep in my bed when I slipped out of my room. She’d cried herself to sleep and I wasn’t about to wake her up and make her leave. There were no elevators in the building, so I had to walk down the grand staircase and through the club, had to push my way through throngs of beautifully dressed monsters.
I really didn’t want to do this.
I wished I could pretend the basement didn’t exist.
I wanted to go back, crawl under the covers with Gabby, feel the lumps in my bed, and hold the phone, rereading the one text Anteros sent me while drooling over the picture. It was pathetic. It was heart sick. But it made me feel closer to him. Still, the basement was the only hope I had for getting truth, especially as Lucia was intent on giving me nothing. So I pushed my way through the crowd.
It was foolish to take the phone. I should have hidden it, but instead it was in my pocket, burning. I thought everyone could see the bulge as I walked through the club. I definitely wouldn’t have much time before Lucia or one of her soldiers came searching for me—the cameras clearly showed me leaving the room.
I was nearing the basement door when I saw Nikolai and Lucia, so I quickly hid among the club goers. I couldn’t see what they were talking about, but Lucia held up a red flyer—the same one from earlier in the week. She waved it furiously and if I hadn’t been in the club’s heart with pounding music in my ear, I might have heard her actually yelling. I paused because for the first time ever, she was undone. Just then I felt another vibration in my pocket.
Playing hard to get?
I read the text until the screen went blank. How dare he? After the way he treated me at the church and then going days without contact, how dare he say I’m playing hard to get? My face was hot, my tongue felt thick, but I didn’t want him to win. I grabbed the nearest tuxedoed crocodile.
“Will you take a picture with me?” It was dark and I wasn’t going to turn on the flash—lest cameras caught me and my secret got out—but it would be enough. The man was confused, but even still, his lips were on my neck instantly. Wet, slobbery—it was disgusting and I hoped it was worth it.
All I sent Anteros was the picture of the man’s lips on my neck. Then I pried myself off and went to the two goons at the entrance.
