Page 59 of Dance with the Devil

Cross.

He’s on my mind constantly. I haven’t been able to forget him one bit. But his name… since the moment Damien told me that Cross told me it was better this way before blocking me everywhere… I haven’t actually said his name.

Until now.

She hesitates, then says, “Give him time, Gen. You both went through something really traumatic. You’re healing. Maybe he is, too. And when he realizes that he needs you as much as you need him?—”

I know she’s only trying to help. But that? That’s not helping.

“He doesn’t want anything to do with me ever again,” I blurt out. Blurt out… no. Iexplode. The words I’ve kept bottled up inside of my come out with such heat, I scare the shit out of poor Orion. He yelps, jumping off the bed as I throw open my arms. “Friends, Savannah. He promised me we could be friends. And then when I needed a friend the most, hedisappeared.”

“Gen—”

I’m not done. “I thought he cared about me. I thought there was something there. Going through that together… shouldn’t that have made us stronger? But he threw me away like trash, Savannah! All that time we spent together… before… after… and he walked away without a fucking backward glance!”

Her expression goes soft. I know she’s going to calm me, but maybe I don’t want to be calmed.

Maybe this was the release I’ve been waiting for?—

Savannah turns her head, glancing at my window. “Are you so sure about that?”

The quiet yet firm way she says that takes all the wind out of my sail.

Why is she staring out my window?

“Savannah?”

She moves next to it, gesturing for me to join her. Not sure why, but suddenly very curious, I do—and she points.

“You can’t see him from here, can you?”

“What are you talking about?”

Savannah gestures out of the window with a little more oomph, toward a blind spot behind the back of the house. “There. You can’t tell from this spot, so if he’s been parking his bike right over there, you’d never know.”

I still don’t get it. “Why would he be out there?”

“That’s something you’d have to ask him. But I promise you, I saw him. I’m not the first one, either. Vin ran him off a couple of times recently. Frankie came out, shaking one of his wife’s wooden spoons. He always leaves, but he always comes back.”

He always comes back…

“Butwhy?”

“I don’t know, Genny. But don’t you think it’s time you stop hiding out in your room and find out?”

She’s not wrong. That’sexactlywhat I’ve been doing. “He blocked me. I can’t get through to him,” I argue.

“Over the phone, yeah,” she agrees. “But what about in person?”

She isn’t suggesting what Ithinkshe’s suggesting… is she?

I was too proud to go to his studio to beg, though the thought did cross my mind once or twice. But that’s not the only place where I can find Cross, is it?

I smile, and Savannah lays her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll take care of your brother.”

And I’ll take care of Cross.

“Thank you, Savannah.”

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