Page 57 of Snake

My fingertips prickle violently as I take a hurried step back.

Muddled thoughts spool into my mind like a dozen reels of film tossed into a tornado.

Everyoneknows Vicky Pellegrino. But no one knows her better than her son. As soon as I grasp onto that thought, the rest fall away. I follow it, slowly working backward. It’s like I’m being led through the dark, and all I have is a rope. If I let go, even for a second, I’ll be lost again.

That slight frown when I asked Knox if he knew Vicky Pellegrino.

The dark hair. His tall frame. That mouth-dryingly handsome face.

The way he walks, full of grace.

His blank look, back in the Silverash Forest, when I said I was staying with Vicky Pellegrino. The way the other two glanced at him, like they were waiting for his reaction.

“Nothing more tragic than a beautiful gown that will never be worn, is there?” a voice says quietly from the bedroom door. “Except the girl who turned it down.”

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