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I closed my eyes as pain tore across my chest. “No, Dad. That’s never going to happen. I’ll make sure I’m there next time. I’ll make sure I make it.”
“Okay, sweetheart, we’ll try again. And Button, I love you.”
“I love you too, Dad.” The words sounded hollow and strange. “I love you, too.”
But the line was already dead. I glanced at the screen. Thirty seconds and not a second longer. All so they couldn’t track him.
I shoved up from the ground and brushed the sand from my ass. Dad was in trouble and he was risking it all to keep me safe. If anything happened to him…I lowered my head and started walking. If anything happened to him, I’d be my fault.
I lifted my gaze to the buildings in the distance. It didn’t matter what happened between me and Finley. Like Kat said, it was probably a one-and-done situation. I wrapped my arms around my middle as the wind picked up. I just needed to stay away from him and wait for the contact to try again.
Next time, I’d be more careful.
And make sure I was far away from Finley Salvatore.
29
Anna
I got to class just as the other students piled in through the open doors and made my way along the middle row of seats. There weren’t as many bodyguards now. Not like there was before. Four or five hovered just inside the door as I slid into a seat. I was relieved Max or Pavlov wasn’t one of them.
He wouldn’t come to class.
“Anna,” Evan called.
I smiled and waved. No, he wouldn’t come, not with everyone else watching. “Hey, guys.”
Xael sashayed in a few steps behind Evan, wearing her usual men’s sweatpants and open baseball shirt. Not a sweats and t-shirt kind of island, my ass. But that woman took it to a whole other level. I swear she’d make a feed sack look sexy as fuck.
But they kept walking, making their way toward the other side of the room before sliding into their seats, Xael’s thick Welsh accent drifting through the air.
“This seat for me?” I turned at Kat’s voice as she slid into the seat beside me.
“Okay, ladies and gents,” the lecturer called from the front of the room.
It was Mr. Former FBI, shuffling his papers before lifting his gaze and scanning us.
“You okay?” Kat murmured.
“Sure.” I gave her a smile and turned back, waiting for a flicker of recognition as the lecturer’s gaze settled on mine.
But there was none. He just swept past me without even a second glance.
“I so don’t feel like doing this,” Kat muttered.
Movement came from the doorway as Damon strode in. Kat stiffened as he headed our way and slowed at her seat to bend and kiss her cheek. I was absorbed by the movement, trapped by the way Kat seemed to shut down. Still, she lifted her head and kissed him back.
“Anna,” Damon murmured, straightening to block my view.
“Damon, how are you?”
Movement came from the doorway again, but I was drawn by the way Kat became silent as Damon answered. “I’m good. Heard the storm played havoc on your nerves. I told Kat she should’ve brought you over. I’m sure I could’ve kept you both company through the howling winds.”
The way he said it sent a chill along my spine.
“You have somewhere to be, Zakharov?”
I went cold with the tone and slowly turned my head as Finley sat down in the seat behind me.Right behind me.Damon’s smile died in an instant. There was a sneer as he slid into the seat beside Kat in a perfectfuck you.
