Page 25 of Veil of Secrets

Haven’t even tried.

I walked for hours after I left the club. Around blocks I stopped recognizing, past windows that blinked shut before I could see inside. Back here again, to the pier I’ve tried to avoid since I was sixteen.

And still—I sit.

Because I don’t know where else to be.

The chain around my neck is cold. I twist it once. The padlock taps against my chest, and for a second, I think about taking it off.

I don’t.

The last person who tried to remove it got a scar across his knuckles. Tommy. That smug bastard used to call it my pretty collar.

And now Nico Drago’s voice loops in my head the same way Tommy’s used to.

Except Nico didn’t try to claim me.

He just watched like he was figuring out where I fit.

I don’t know if that’s worse.

I think of Vince’s face in the dressing room. That smirk that wasn’t a smirk. That warning he thought I was too dumb to catch.

He talks like I’m still crawling.

Thing is, I already learned to walk through fire.

I take another drag and blow smoke up into the fog. It curls out of my mouth in a thick line that dissolves before I can follow it.

“I came out here to breathe,” I mutter. “Instead, I get ghosts.”

Footsteps behind me.

Sharp. Direct. Not drunk.

I don’t move.

Could be another security guy looking for a place to piss. Could be someone with a gun, coming to tie off whatever thread I accidentally tugged by speaking to Nico.

Or it could be nothing.

But my gut tightens.

The steps get closer.

Then stop.

“Elara.”

I freeze.

The cigarette falls from my fingers and rolls down the planks, spinning to a stop near the bench leg.

That voice.

Low. Confident. The kind that made me flinch before I even realized I was afraid.

I stand slowly.

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