Page 76 of Where We Ended

His whistle echoed over the loud music and bustling bodies, making me laugh.

“Stop.”

“Seven years, damn…have you ever even been with anyone else?”

I shifted on my stool, so I was facing away from him, cradling my glass. “I’ve never needed or wanted anyone else.”

“Okay, I won’t argue with you about the semantics of only being with one person. Tell me what you exchange with him.”

“Love letters we’ve found in poetry, books, music…things that have inspired us. Each year, it’s a gift to see what the other found because it’s always something that reminds us of the other person. Last year, Silas found this beautiful poem written by someone who had observed the love Edgar Allen Poe had for his wife. The extreme lengths he’d gone to in order to have her, protect her and love her. Even in her death, you know he kept her bones under his bed for a time.”

Alec’s face soured. “That’s fucking gross.”

I shrugged, feeling a blush heat my face. “I mean it’s all gross when you think about it. He married his cousin, but in a different time, a different space where those things weren’t viewed through the same lens we’re looking through…it was considered beautiful.”

“I can see now why you and my brother are such a great match.” Alec’s gaze moved, watching a group of guys who had gotten closer, one of them had been watching me from across the room, and was now sitting beside me.

Ignoring the man at my back, I sipped my drink hoping he wouldn’t?—

“Excuse me.” There was warm breath against my neck and a hand on my shoulder.

Shit.

Alec leaned past me, invading my space. “Fuck off.”

The man behind me leaned over my shoulder, getting closer to Alec and I was just caught in the middle. Not an ideal place to be.

“Are you her boyfriend?” the guy asked, and I let out a sigh. If Silas were here that guy wouldn’t have ever walked up to me in the first place.

“Don’t have to be. I’m here talking to her, and you need to go somewhere else.”

I slid off the stool and faced the man, giving him a flat smile.

“I’m not with him, but I do have a boyfriend. I’m not interested.” It burned me not to say husband. I had a fucking husband, not a boyfriend.

I was a married woman. But I was also all alone…in a city that I didn’t belong in.

The reminder that I was being kept from Silas by this invisible line drawn by his father threaded through my breast, tugging and poking like an aimless needle.

My feet carried me out of the bar, back into the cold, and when the door closed a second time, I knew Alec had followed.

“What are you going to do if he doesn’t show up in time?”

I turned, taking in the gray sky, the clouds pregnant with snow. The ground was frozen, and our breaths clouded in front of us. Alec’s features looked crisp and sharp under the December sky.

“What do you mean?”

He stepped closer and tentatively pushed a lock of my hair off my shoulder. “If Silas doesn’t show up in time for Christmas, will you spend it alone?”

The mere notion made me feel physically sick. I hated being alone.

My mother had left the Death Raiders a year ago. No note. No goodbye. Just gone.

Sasha was my family in theory, but it was like living with a cactus. She was prickly and protective. Her only priority was Silas, and she made that clear every chance she got. If I didn’t have Silas, I had no one.

I must have waited too long to respond because Alec took a step closer until his chin was nearly at my forehead.

“Don’t spend Christmas alone, Artie. Promise me you won’t.” His whisper landed as a hot breath against my skin.

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