Page 22 of Agony of Our Regret

He tried to smile, but it fell flat. “Call Luca.”

“He can’t––“

“Just try.” He turned his head, and Tessa was talking quickly.

I grabbed my robe from the hook near the door and pulled it on as I hurried to the other side of the room to get myphone from the nightstand. I hit Luca’s contact. The call went to voicemail, so I left a message.

Gavin was still on the phone and lifted his finger to make a circle motion and mouthed. “Again.”

I hit the call button again.

No answer.

Three more times.

On the fourth, he finally picked up. “Ave? Love? What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure.” I crossed to Gavin. “He picked up.”

“Talk to my mom.”

We traded phones, and he leaned against the door frame. “Luca?”

I held up his phone to my ear, watching him. “Tessa? What’s going on?”

“Hi, sweetie,” I’d never heard her so stressed. “There’s been some movement from the AS. We just got tipped off that they released a list.”

“Of what?”

“Our members.”

“What?” I snapped my eyes to Gavin. He was pinching the bridge of his nose.

“We think we’ve caught all the major media outlets, but there’s a chance we missed something.”

“What does this mean?”

I knew but needed to hear someone else confirm.

“They’re trying to expose us.”

“But not their members?”

“Theirs, too. They want to reveal people in powerful positions and what they really are.”

“Powerful positions? Like Bruce?”

“He was included, but more so the people involved with the humans.”

Finally, I understood. “That shouldn’t include us.”

“It shouldn’t, but I saw a copy of the list. They added anyone they knew.”

“Shit.” I hadn’t meant to say that aloud, but she agreed.

“That’s all of us.”

“Because of Juliet.” I didn’t bother using that traitorous bitch’s real name. She infiltrated my life as my dad’s assistant, luring us to move to Arlington Park in hopes of my getting close to the guys.

---