Page 68 of Reignite

Serenity

We were back in the loft and I had not yet let him take me to bed. Don’t get me wrong. We were going to spend a long, long, long time fucking each other’s brains out.

I had a little more mad to get out first. “You tell me everything right this second.”

“It’s a long story, and I’ll tell you all of it.” He sounded exhausted, as exhausted as I’d felt for the last year.

He’d never offered to tell me all of anything before. A burden had lifted from him. Good. About time.

Gray picked me up and carried me to the couch and sat. He covered my face in kisses, stroking every bit of my skin he could get to. I needed to touch him too, to inhale him, to know that he wasn’t a ghost.

The sound of the doorbell broke our reunion bubble. It was okay. We’d been expecting her.

We’d left Serena to take care of the business of Foster’s remains. It was her mess. She needed to clean it up.

“Angel, I’d like you to officially meet Serena.”

“Serena.” The line from the poems drifted back from the blackest parts of my memory.

Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Serenity.

“Serena.Serenity. You were Foster’s Serenity.”

Serena’s eyes went wide and then she sunk into the chair across from us and sighed. The suited and staunch composed woman who’d come into my club, who’d brought me Gray turned into a sad, lonely girl right before my eyes.

“Yes. I am. I’m also the reason you had to think Gray was dead.”

No manches.

My fists balled up and every muscle in my body tensed. This chick was going down. Now.

Gray stroked a hand through my hair. “Calm down, my love. Listen to what she has to say.”

This better be good. It had better be god damned amazing.

Serena rubbed two fingers over her forehead, the way one does when they’ve had the same headache for a long time. When she began to speak, her voice was quiet.

“I was there that day. The day of the explosion. I’d been tracking Foster. Watching him get more and more volatile. It broke what little bit of my heart I have left to see him devolve that way.” She sank into the chair, and farther away from me.

“You knew he was psycho.” I wanted to hurt Serena like she’d hurt me. For a fraction of a second, I understood what Foster had done.

“I didn’t know he would go this far. I’m sorry, Angelina. It’s my fault. All of it.” Her voice sounded hollow.

“She saved me.” Gray announced it like she was a fucking hero. Like my world hadn’t gone up in the flames of that explosion.

A terrible anger bubbled up from the darkest part of my heart that never thought it would see the light ever again.

I turned to Gray and unleashed my fury. “You were alive, and you let me think you were dead. You were alive all this time, while I slowly died a thousand deaths missing you, grieving you.”

“I didn’t want to stay away. But I didn’t know how else to keep you safe.” His heart, the one that belonged to me, was on his sleeve. I saw the hurt and anguish in every line on his face, heard it in the tired tone of his voice.

I couldn’t rail against that, against him. I was mad, yes, but I’d lost a lot of time without him already. I touched my forehead to his.

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