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After shooting me a clueless look, she steps into the hall, and I'm alone with Cross.
“What's wrong?” I walk slowly to him, crumbling under the weight of his horrible, accusing gaze.
“Why did you do it?” he asks hoarsely.
“Do what?”
He swallows, and for the first time he looks upset instead of mad. “Why did you think that I would be okay with that?”
Obviously he knows I went to Love Inc. I feel like a kid getting scolded by my dad, and I play like I don’t know what he’s talking about. “Okay with what?”
“So you’re going to deny it?”
“Deny what?”
“You sold yourself. For me.” His voice cracks, and I'm filled with awful, ice-cold dread. Cross steps toward me, and for the first time I notice his limp. His face still looks the same. Except colder. “My father told me. You know how he feels about Vegas. He's got spies there. Lizzy, tell me what would make you do a thing like that.”
“Why do you think?” I croak. “I couldn't stand to see you in that awful place they transferred you to! And,” I add quickly, “I didn't need to be a virgin. What's the point? At twenty-three, it's almost a joke.”
He opens his mouth, looking anguished, and I hold up my hand. “It went just fine, Cross. I'm okay. Right here, in one piece.”
“You went home with Hunter West.” His voice is soft fury—and it makes me mad.
“What do you have against Hunter West?”
“He fucks Priscilla Heat. Don't you know that, Lizzy? Don't you care?”
I can't say anything to that. It's not my secret to tell, so instead I say, “Do you believe everything you hear?”
“I saw them that night. They were having sex before the party. Did he tell you that?”
“I didn't ask.”
“So you don't care.” His mad face crumples into hurt. Frustration. “What is it about him, Lizzy?”
I still don’t have the answer to that question, and I definitely don't want to talk about it with Cross. “I’ve got a better idea: Why don’t you finally tell me why you hate Priscilla Heat.”
“She fucked my father,” Cross says bluntly. I blink, and he rubs his eyes with his right hand. “I told you that he had affairs.”
“With her?” He chose Priscilla Heat over Cross's beautiful mother? My mouth hangs open.
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Cross rolls his eyes. “He likes hookers.”
What pops out of my mouth next is unplanned. It's only meant to be a thought, but I guess it's so powerful, my lips forget the message and I murmur it aloud. “One of them was Missy King.”
Cross’s eyes pop. “What do you know about Missy King?”
I bite my lip, not sure what to say now that I've divulged that I know something. That was stupid. I don't want to point anything back toward Hunter, so I shrug. “What do you know?” I ask him.
“What do you know?” he snaps.
I hug myself, feeling small and stupid, but I've already put my foot in my mouth. Might as well keep going now. “Is that why you and your dad don't talk? Is that the secret you found out last year? That he was seeing an escort, and she disappeared?”
Cross's eyes squeeze shut, and my heart pounds—hard.
“It is, isn't it?” Holy shit, this is big news. I fumble for the other name I heard in Hunter's conversation with his father. “Cross, have you ever heard of someone named Lockwood?”
He frowns and shakes his head. “Who is that?”
