Page 74 of Fall Into Me

I finished cleaning with a little grin on my face, officially excited about being roped into Mags’s shenanigans after having the day to strew on it and think about how I could both gently torture Fane and also use the experience to my advantage.

After locking up I looked around, but I didn’t see him out front. It was only once I walked back down the alley beside the café did his truck roll into view, right on time.

My heart tripped over itself, stuttering in a way that felt sharp and heavy. The sight of Fane—right there, so real, so grounded—did something to me that I couldn’t name, and it frustrated me that I didn’t hate it as much as I should’ve. He wagged his fingers at me, that ever-infuriating smirk tugging at his lips, and I responded with a dramatic roll of my eyes. Too easy. Too natural.

Then I saw it.

I was three steps away from my car when I saw it—a piece of paper tucked under the windshield wiper. My heart lurched, slamming into my ribs with a force that left me breathless.

I knew Fane was watching me. I could feel his eyes on my back. Knew he’d see even the smallest way I tensed up.

I knew what it was before I even picked it up, but I forced myself to unfold the paper and read the crudely written words.

That was fun, wasn’t it? I told you I love to play.

I felt his words like a noose tightening around my throat. My resolve, the very same I’d demanded of myself the morning after he’d chased me, felt brittle. Made even more so by the trembling in my hands.

I folded the note back up, stuffed it in my back pocket, and whipped my head around to see what I already knew would be happening.

Fane. Door open. Half out of his truck, and a storm brewing behind those wild violet eyes.

That look. I knew it. Controlled fury, tempered by something more dangerous. Something I refused to acknowledge.

Quickly unlocking the car, I jumped in and shoved the key in the ignition. I pulled the note out of my pocket where I knew he saw me put it and shoved it to the back of the glove compartment like the thing was made of hot coals. I didn’t glance back. I didn’t let my eyes so much as flick to the rearview mirror.

The car jolted into drive, and I pulled out without looking back. I couldn’t.

Even as my hands shook and my body tingled with the sensation of a thousand tiny ants crawling just under my skin. Even as the irrational thought struck me that there was someone in my back seat, breathing down my neck.

I knew there was no possible way for him to be hunting me while I was in my car, but still, I swear I could hear the way his shoes slapped on the road behind me, gaining on me no matter how fast I drove.

Fane couldn’t know. Couldn’t think it was his responsibility to step in. Not because he wasn’t capable, but because I wouldn’t let him. Whatever guilt he felt for the past, whatever silent penance he thought he owed, it didn’t give him the right to become entangled in this.

Declan wanted a reaction, but I wouldn’t give it to him—not through Fane, not through anyone.

I forced my lungs to pull in air and lifted my chin. Rolled back my shoulders and kept my eyes on the road in front of me. My fingers were still trembling, but I tightened them on the wheel, forcing that steadiness into my grip.

The weight of it made me want to crumble, but I had carried much worse.

24

Fane

After

Cali flew out of her parking spot like she was fleeing a goddamn crime scene.

“Fuck,” I muttered, getting back into my truck and slamming the door. It took two seconds to catch up with her.

I should’ve known better than to think her stubbornness would have dulled in any capacity in our time apart. It hadn’t stayed the same, though. It was sharper now, more desperate in the way she clung to it.

Calista was always the perfect blend of being independent and handling shit on her own, but also self-aware enough to step back and ask for help when she needed it. I knew she thought that needing to ask for help made her incapable in some way, but I’d always been in awe of her ability to do it. To know her limit.

The thing was, even after all the days that had separated me from her, I knew her better than I knew myself.

And the things I didn’t know? Well, I’d always been an exceptionally fast learner when it came to anything to do with that woman.

The fact that something was going on frustrated me like nothing else because it felt like it was right under my fucking nose, and I couldn’t pick it.

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