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Yet here she was, being honest, beingraw.And I was still hiding two of the biggest things someone could hide. My mind turned to the life inside me. The life growing and blooming, becoming more of me than it ever could be ofhim.
“Shit, Anna., I murmured. “How deep are we talking here?”
“Are you talking about my heart?” she asked with a sad smile. “Because I’m pretty sure I saw a sold sticker on there somewhere.”
“I fucking knew it,” I muttered, swallowing a flare of jealousy.
She had everything she wanted and didn’t want in one man, and here I had…lies and deceit.Haunting blue eyes filled my mind. I could still feel the kiss we'd had, still feel that hunger inside me, still feel the way he allowed me to feel when I'd taken control. “It all makes sense now. All the weirdness around him and the night of the party. You’re into him and he’stotallyinto you, like head over heels into you.”
“Bullshit,” she protested, her cheeks burning.
Oh, she knew alright. She knew what kind of effect she had on Finley Salvatore. “Like totally take a fucking bullet for you,” I finished, watching her flinch.
As soon as I said the words, Lazarus burned even brighter in my mind. Christ, I didn’t need to be catching feelings where he was concerned, and yet here I was…
I licked my lips and tried to pull away the moment my heart gave a twinge. “I might not be the best person to talk to about the kind of things you’re feeling here, but I’m a good listener,” I commented, rising from the sofa. “My door is open.”
“That’s because you have no door,” she called as I turned.
I smiled, unable to argue with that. “True.” I stifled a yawn. Pregnancy was taking more out of me than I'd realized. “But the offer is there in any case.”
“You sound tired,” she said, rising behind me.
“I should be,” I said with a wink, swallowing the sick feeling inside me.
Just play the game a little longer,that voice said inside my head.Just a little longer, and you’ll be free.
My phone gave abeep.I grabbed it and looked down.
Unknown: I’m thinking of you, Katerina.
An image followed. One of a white mask against a black satin sheet.
It could be only one person…
Hale.
24
Lazarus
Lightning erupted through the steel gray sky. I rolled over and watched the savage display, not even twitching when thecrackof thunder came. In an instant, I was back there, in that four-wheel drive with Gravel behind the wheel and Taken rising up beside me to fire through the rear window at the car behind us.
Gunshots became thunder.
Roaring in my ears.
Making my heart race once more.
Just like it always did. Stupid fucking heart. I shoved the sheets aside and slipped from the bed. The wind was howling, tearing bits of palms free to hurtle across the Institute’s grounds. Chaos. That’s what it was out there, fucking chaos. I strode toward the bathroom and shrugged out of my boxers. The place was too quiet without those two assholes under my feet like my damn mother every second of the day.
I bet Logan was already up by now, drinking his acid-tinged black shit and scanning the camera log of the island for the last twenty-four hours. Overbearing sonofabitch. Fuck, I loved him.
They were my family.
My brothers.
The only ones I had and the only ones I needed. I hit the faucet and waited until the steam drifted from the water, then stepped under the spray. My muscles relaxed and my mind drifted…right to her. The redhead that was turning my life upside down.
