Page 27 of We Are the Match
“Don’t ruin my goddamn rug,” she snaps.
Perce rolls his eyes. “Well, I’ll leave you two to sort this out then,” he says. “Good night, not-friend and not-wife.”
Thea and I snort at the same time, both near-laughs that sound so similar I want to turn around and get the fuck out of there right now.
We were close, so long ago.
“You know something,” I say when we’re finally alone. “I know you do. I’m going to look into the other queens. You know that, too. But I came to you first, because if you’re doing shit with any of them behind Zarek’s back, I’m going to find it. You know I am.”
I don’t say the rest: I’ll burn them all on my way to ending Zarek, because while this is personal—he took my fuckingfamily—it is bigger than just him. Bigger than just me.
The girls of Troy have never rested quietly, and I intend to make sure that all my sisters—Kore and the others, Cass and Milena and Yara and all the rest—have their vengeance.
Thea’s eyes blaze. “I don’t know you anymore, not really,” she says finally. “I will not insult you by pretending I do. But I know this isn’t about an investigation or a bomb-maker. I know you don’t give a fuck if they all kill each other.”
I can hardly breathe, cannot look away from her.
Sheknowsme, she does, and I cannot deny that it is almost a relief to be known, even like this, especially when I had thought her largely cold and indifferent.
“Paris,” she says. “You can’t win, especially if you pull Helen into your games. But you can still get the fuck away from them.”
I hesitate, and then shake my head.
“Paris,” she says my name again, softer this time. “I know. Iknow.”
My stomach drops, fear heavier than it was when the bomb went off beside me tonight, thicker than when Zarek had me pinned to the wall. Because part of me thinks shedoesknow, that she can see in my eyes that I am here to destroy them. She could tell them that—could tell them with one line in a text message, and I’d be dead by morning.
She has enough power in the Families to be believed, and I have nothing.
Finally, Thea sighs, jaw tightening into something unyielding. “Whatever it is you’re actually planning—whatevershityou intend to dig yourself into. If it comes back on me or my husband—”
“Yeah,” I tell her. “Got it. I promise not to come for any more nighttime heart-to-hearts.”
“I didn’t saythat.” A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. “You can come any night you like, so long as you’re here for the right reasons. Though I think your nights may be occupied for the foreseeable future.”
I scuff my boot against her rug again. “Thea, what I said about you leaving us—”
“No,” she says. “Stop.”
We stand there, staring at each other, the years hanging between us. The moment is as tense as if the gun was still between us. I could apologize, or I could—
I grab the front of her jacket and haul her toward me, press my mouth against hers. She gasps against me and then kisses me back, hard, her tongue pushing into my mouth.
“Ah,” Perce says as he pokes his head through the door again, and I spring backward, but there is humor in his eyes. “So itwasforeplay, then. Are you staying, Paris?”
“No,” I say. Bergamot and bullets. Whiskey and poppies and gold-plated grenades. “No, I’m not staying.”
“You’re always welcome.” His eyes sweep down Thea’s body, hungry, but too soft, too emotional.
I cannot fall into bed with these two tonight, because they—they care too much, tonight has showed me that, and I cannot be a person others care for, not if I want to do what I have to. Not if I want to survive.
It solidifies, too, what I told Zarek: that Thea could not have planted the bomb, that she has made the mistake of falling in love with someone who can be ripped from her. That she knows better than to risk someone she loves this much.
“Good night, Perce,” I say finally. “Goodbye, Thea.”
He nods to me, slips back down the hallway, but Thea remains where she is, feet planted.
“Whatever you think Zarek deserves, whatever you plan todoto get yours,” she says softly, so, so softly. There is aclick, the safety sliding back on her handgun again. “You’ll do it, and I won’t stop you. But whatever else may come, youkeep my husband out of it.”
