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It tipped over and hit the floor with a thunk. And there was no blaring music in the house to cover the sound.
Hell, Rafael would probably have woken up even through a blast of alternative rock.
I’d swear it took all of two seconds for his door to creak open. Knowing there was no way I could scramble into my room without him realizing I’d been up to something, I instead spun toward the kitchen, only a few steps away.
When he reached the top of the stairs, I was standing by the fridge with my hand on the door. I glanced over my shoulder at him.
“Oh, hey,” I mumbled as if half asleep. “Sorry I woke you up. You’ve got to stick those bottles someplace else.”
My bodyguard squinted through the darkness, looking like he was suppressing a yawn. “Lou? Is something wrong?”
I cocked my head in what I thought was a pretty amazing performance considering my heart was jackhammering at my ribs. “What? No, I was just grabbing a midnight snack.”
He frowned. “You got hungry at two in the morning?”
I raised my hands in the air. “It’s hard to get back to sleep when your stomach is grumbling away, you know. It’s got to be all those calories I’m burning in practice.”
Rafael studied me for a moment longer. My skin prickled under his gaze.
I was pretty sure he was suspicious, but my explanation didn’t offer any holes for him to poke at. He sighed and turned back toward the stairs.
“Better eat up then. Try to do it more quietly.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I shot back in typical snarky fashion, and managed not to topple over in relief when he tramped down the stairs.
To completely sell the story, in case he was listening from below, I opened the fridge and grabbed the tin with the last slice of the cherry pie we’d gotten for dessert a couple of days ago. I carried it to my bedroom and set it on the dresser.
I wasn’t actually hungry. My stomach had clenched tight.
Well, I could have it for breakfast without Rafael knowing the difference.
As I climbed into my bed, the clenching sensation spread through my entire abdomen.
I didn’t like lying to Rafael. He’d been my partner in crime—often literally—for so long.
But he’d proven that I couldn’t trust him. What he didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt him.
And when I got rid of that bungling gang for good, I wouldn’t have to sneak around anymore anyway.
SEVENTEEN
Luciana
The next day,the reality of the previous night sat heavy on my shoulders. I couldn’t seem to get my bearings in training.
Jasper had been short with me before we began and barely deigned to look me in the eye after my first slip-up. When I fumbled the landing of one of my double jumps, which normally would have been child’s play, I thought he’dreallyfreak out.
Instead, he remained silent, his eyes trained on the stands over my shoulder, deliberately not looking at me. We were back to square one, all our progress and connection dashed against the ice.
Explaining why my head was in the clouds was out of the question, so I just kept quiet and hoped I was keeping in sync. My mind kept racing back to the stunt I’d pulled at the gang hangout last night, replaying every detail.
I’d felt good about what I’d accomplished right before I fell asleep, but the second I’d woken up, the full anxiety had hit me like a freight train. Here I was, back in the place where one of those assholes had threatened me with that stupid doll.
What if they came back? What if they did something worse next time as payback?
What if one of them somehow realized who I actually was or brought in allies who would? It seemed impossible that these bozos could have any connection to my mom all the way back in Austin, but the Deadly Rose had people all over the place.
And even that tiny chance niggled at me, eating away at my focus.
