Page 10 of Fall Into Me

“Will you go along with it?”

My eyes were still on her throat. At her tone, they snapped up to meet her hazel gaze. She was glaring at me, but like she was trying hard not to. Like I had inconvenienced her by showing up and making her out herself in the lie she’d wrapped us both in.

“I don’t know anything about Australian mines.” I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off her the moment she stood beside me. So, I did the only thing Icoulddo. I matched her glare with my own.

Matched hernothingwith my own.

It wasn’t fair, but I reached for that kernel of rage that simmered deep in my soul that sparked to life when I woke up and found her gone. The one time in my life that I’d let myself fall into a deep sleep, an exhausted sleep, and my biggest fear had come to light. That I wouldn’t wake up in time to stop something bad from happening. From losing someone I loved.

She had no idea what I’d done. What I’d sacrificed.

And it was all for her. There was no time to explain. She hadn’t given me even a second from the moment she asked me to move home with her, and all that came out of my mouth was, “No.”

And now, she didn’t know the fucking half of what it had taken to get here. To be here forher.Like seeing her was easy for me. Like losing her wasn’t the most fucked-up thing that had ever happened to me.

If Calista wanted to fight with me, I was more than happy to step into the ring with her.

“Yes, well, I’m sure you can Google it.” She crossed her arms and kept her narrowed stare firmly in place.

“What’s in it for me?”

“What?” Her face went blank.

“If I go along with it…” I enunciated every word like I was talking to a child. It was condescending and mean, and the wayher nostrils flared in anger made something zap down my spine. “What’s in it for me?”

Her foot started to tap on the ground. Brows drawing close while she pursed her mouth to the side. Calista wasn’t just thinking. She waspanicking.

“What do you want?”

“I’ll let you know.”

“That’s not fair,” she blurted. Her brows drew in further.

“Yeah, well, that’s life.” I let my stare turn into a glare. The sick sort of satisfaction I got when her eyes narrowed further was borderline sociopathic.

We were locked in a silent, unmoving battle. She, I was sure, was trying to think about all the ways she might get away with killing me. While I was still trying my fucking hardest not to step closer to her, to wrap my hand around her throat just to see what she would do.

I was caught between wanting to squeeze until she gasped in that way I knew she did and fucking begging her to put her hand back on my arm where I could still feel the burn of her touch on my skin.

Cali surprised me when she nodded her head, mouth still pursed and brows still drawn, but that was a nod of agreement nonetheless, and I felt like I’d just won the fucking lottery somehow.

“I’ll—I have a new number now,” she said, looking anywhere but at me.

“I know,” I said. Saying more in those two words than I really meant to. The only way I’d know that was true is if I had tried to call her. Tried to text her. I had done both of those things. Many times.

Her face registered that, and then, like she’d made herself delete that bit of information, her face went blank again, and her voice went flat. “What’s yours? I’ll message you the address.”

“It’s the same.”

“You never changed it?” She dropped her arms to her sides, and her body swayed like she wanted to step toward me too.

I just shook my head.

“Why?”

I didn’t give her a reply to that one. I couldn’t. I just let my eyes fall over her, taking her in. Real and healthy and right in front of me. Gut-wrenchingly fucking perfect. With a last nod goodbye, I turned to leave her café.

“I didn’t give you the address.”

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