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Logan nods. “And he’s right. We do all have work to do.”
“What?Logan. You know that’s not what I meant!” I yell at his back when he heads up the stairs toward his room, hands on my hips. Behind me, Dante snickers, and I round on him. “Was he doing that on purpose?”
“Doing what?”
“Not answering me.”
“Who? Logan, or Maddoc?”
“Both! Dante!” I smack his shoulder. “Now you’re doing it too.”
He grins, catching my hand and holding on to it. Then his smile slowly fades into a more sober look. “We really do have to get to Chloe before West Point does, princess. Maddoc’s right about that. McKenna ain’t gonna fuck around. Not now that he knows the kind of money at stake with your sister’s inheritance. And not now that…”
“Now that what?” I prompt him when he pauses, my stomach full of nerves.
Dante sighs, then turns my hand over and strokes his fingers over my wrist. “Now that McKenna knows itispersonal for Maddoc.”
And then the fucker drops my hand and heads up the stairs after Logan without bothering to explain that comment either, proving that there’s more than one way the man makes me want to scream.
26
RILEY
My first impulseis to follow, to track him down—hell, any one of the Reapers—and demand a straight answer about what Maddoc said. But the intensity of that meeting with The Six left an impression on me, and I take at least some of Maddoc’s words to heart.
Now more than ever, we have to be the ones to find Chloe first, and the last thing I want to do is get in the way of whatever it is they’re all putting into motion to make that happen.
It’s late, so I head up to my room and try to convince myself to get some sleep. Instead, I’m stuck on the same emotional rollercoaster as before, and when it finally feels like I’m about to vibrate out of my own skin from pure frustration, I give up and go looking for answers.
Not from Maddoc. If he’s coordinating efforts to find Chloe, I’m going to leave him to it. And not from Logan either, since I still never know what to expect from him no matter how my feelings about him may have shifted.
I go looking for Dante, and I finally find him in his studio, painting.
He looks up when I walk in, and any worries I had about whether or not he’d mind me intruding here without an invitation go up in smoke when his eyes crinkle at the corners, a pleased smile spreading across his face. “I was just thinking of you, princess.”
“Were you?” My eyes are fixated on the brush in his hand. It drips with familiar thick red paint, and my body instantly reacts with some kind of sense memory that heats my blood in a way that’s far too distracting given that I came here for answers. I drag my eyes off it and meet his heated stare. “So this is the important work you had to rush off to do?”
Dante laughs. “Nah. I already did what I needed to, and we’ve got things in motion. Don’t worry about that. This is… you know.”
I do. He told me. It helps him get his head in the right space, and knowing that about him feels intimate in a way that goes way beyond the times we’ve been physical. It’s just one more reason I have to know if Maddoc meant what he said.
“What’s up?” Dante asks, turning back to the canvas he’s working on and giving me the opening I need.
“I don’t understand what Maddoc’s problem is,” I say, frustration coloring my voice. “Why can’t he just give me a straight answer? Was he just fucking with me?”
“Cut him a little slack,” Dante says as I cross the room. He adds a violent burst of paint to the center of the canvas. “Madd’s got a lot on his mind right now.”
“When does he ever not have a lot on his mind?” I mutter. “I’ve got no idea where I stand with him. No way to tell if he’s telling me the truth or lying. How am I supposed to know—”
If I can trust him, is what I want to say. But admitting that, showing that I want it, makes me feel too vulnerable right now.
So instead I go with, “If he really wants to help, or if he’s just using me again.”
Dante turns to me, finally putting the brush down. “Maddoc has reasons for not opening up to people.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “We all do.”
“Fact,” he agrees. “But not gonna lie, princess. His reasons probably make it a little harder for him to be straight with you than if it was someone else. Actually, scratch that. If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t even try.”
