Page 56 of Ravage

It's close enough to the truth that she has no reason to pry for further information.Of courseit involves money—but my father is too smart for that. Greedy or not, he still obsesses over something else more… something I gave away that I swore I never would. I still haven't even disclosed the full story to Grey yet. Even though it doesn't concern him, it puts things in jeopardy.

"My turn," she murmurs softly.

"Go on then," I say, entertaining her little game with a wave of my hand.

"What I asked you before…" she pauses. "I liked—"

The rest of her sentence is caught in my throat. Her unspoken words linger in the air between us.

I become painfully aware of my beating heart, eyes narrowing suspiciously as she flushes with embarrassment, looking over at the bookshelves.

Before I can inquire further into her incomplete admission, the library door swings open. Grey struts in, a grin wide on his face and arms outstretched.

"I love a good game," he remarks happily to us both, heading straight to Avery. He grabs the sides of her face in his palms, leaning down to kiss her with an overexaggeratedmwahas their mouths separate.

It appears we're all playing dangerous games.

But that's the thing about games—for every winner, there has to be a loser.

Chapter 20

Grey

"Elsher is going to be no match for me," I insist proudly. "I think he was close to throwing his coffee mug at my head."

Avery shakes her head in disbelief. "You willingly went to a session with him? You must love torture."

"Only the best kind of torture," I say with a wink.

My eyes glance over to Deadman, his bored expression masking whatever is running through his head. There's a sharp flash in his eyes before he gives a quick nod, confirming that he's provided Avery with the cell.

To be fair, I thought I was going to have topersuadeChristopher to help. It's disappointing that he was a willing volunteer—I would love to grace my knuckles with his face again.

"Ashwood better get his ass into gear," Damon grumbles. "It will be lunch time soon and we need to get things underway."

"I'm sure he's not far off," I humor him, jumping up to sit on the table next to Avery. She immediately wiggles closer to me when my arm snakes around her waist, dropping her head to rest it against my shoulder. "What did you think of your present?"

She tilts her head up to look at me. "It's great," she answers. "I feel better knowing I'll have a way to contact you all."

"Make sure you send me plenty of selfies when you're in your room—preferably undressed."

I laugh when she straightens up to smack my arm, cheeks tinging pink. "It's aworkcell," she argues playfully. "The last thing we need is you draining the battery by sending pictures all night long."

"You know what else is long?" I tease. "It also gets longer if you send some pictures."

"You disgust me," Damon interjects, groaning. "Knowing my luck you'll accidentally send it to me."

Avery snorts with amusement. "Then you'll really be traumatized."

"Hey!" I gape at her, feigning offense. "I didn't hear you complaining yesterday."

The amusement drops from her face as her eyes flash in alarm. "Grey…" she warns.

I swish my hand around coolly. "Deadman doesn't care. I think we're past that."

If anything, his jawline twitched a little when I suggested Avery sending nude photos. Not in a negative way—almost like he's intrigued.

Seeing them together, relaxed for once, eases the built-in baggage I carry around. Maybe I've been looking at this the wrong way. They have both come far, and if I can trust Theo to look after her, then I should, logically, be able to trust my best friend. But we've reached that critical point where I realize how much of a cockblock I have been.

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