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I rewatch it again, my dick hard as a rock by the time I finish.
Delete.
The pool one.
I want to rewatch all of them again, already hard and wanting to get off. But it feels wrong, almost illegal, especially after the effect of that pool picture sent out to the entire party.
Delete. Delete. Delete.
It fucking hurts—erasing parts of her, one memory at a time.
There was another video—the night my dad died. I watched it once, on the mainland, the way things went down, how Kat ran into the villa. I deleted it right away, couldn’t have the evidence of the night I failed myself and Zion.
I turn off the villa cameras. There aren’t any videos of Kat left, only pictures. The ones from the Eastside and the pool one. My thumb hovers over the neon-blue screen and the delete button, but I don’t have it in me to get rid of this one. I need something of her. Just a morsel.
There’s one more.
Two weeks ago, Marlow sent a picture from Cece’s party.
Marlow: I thought you might want this to cheer up.
I pull it up again, though I’ve stared at it so many times that I have it engraved in my mind.
It’s a shot of Kat facing the camera, in her high heels, red dress, and loose hair, head turned sideways as she smiles to herself. I’m behind her, my hands on her waist as I gaze at her like the guy who just met the girl of his dreams. We are dancingbachata, two of us caught in the darkish shadows of the night and the soft glow of the lanterns and party lights. It’s the only picture of us, but I’ve never seen anything more beautiful and intimate.
I’m keeping this one. Even if there’s no more chance of us being together, I’ll keep this as a reminder that once upon a time, we were happy.
10
KAT
I stareat Dad on the computer screen, not believing my ears when he tells me a story of how he extracted Raylin from some compound where she was kept against her will.
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” I ask, almost hurt that he kept this secret, as well as the meeting with Archer. Archer met my dad—the news is shocking yet heart-warming like we have one more connection despite being so badly broken.
It’s not even nine in the morning, but I’m already at the Center, and my heart thuds in my chest when I see Archer come in.
“We’ll talk later,” I cut off Dad and say, “Hey,” to Archer, who only nods and disappears into his office. The brief seconds of seeing him after so long, in his usual black t-shirt and jeans, make me nervous like I just saw my idol.
After summoning my courage for ten minutes, I knock on his door.
“Hi. Can we talk?” I take slow steps toward his desk, studying him.
“Sure.” He gives me a work smile that doesn’t reach his eyes as he clicks on something on his computer like I’m one of his assistants who interrupted his morning.
“Can we talk about what happened?” I ask, my heart racing.
He flicks his eyes at me only for a second. His professional mask is too familiar. “Thank you for what you did.” His expression is icy-cold.
There’s a loud knock at the door, followed by Margot walking in without waiting for a reply.
“Oh, busy?” she asks with pretend-concern but keeps sashaying toward the desk, giving me a condescending look like I got lost.
I roll my head. It’s the first time I get to talk to Archer, and she’s interrupting.
“Will you just fucking disappear for a minute?” I snap.
She stops and stares like I have a third eye, then glances at Archer as if waiting for his response and back at me.
