Page 111 of Wild Fury (Fallen Royals 6)

“Theo, you can’t just—”

“Lucille.”

I press my lips together again. I have a view of his ass, the sidewalk, his heels flashing. I push myself up a bit, my abs tightening, so I can see where we’ve been. Never mind where we’re going—I have a feeling it’s somewhere private.

I can only guess what he wants to do to me… and I must be coming back to myself, because for once, I’m looking forward to it.

31

Theo

She’s back.

She’s fucking back and acting like no time has passed. She’s exploring my new apartment, tracing her fingers over every little thing, and I just stand in the center of the room like an idiot.

I can’t take my eyes off her, though, because she might disappear.

Lux steps into my bedroom, and I follow along behind her. She pauses at my dresser, at the old phone sitting next to her portfolio.

“It’s outdated,” I say quietly.

“The phone?”

I shrug. I want to pepper her with questions about where she’s been, but I can’t get those words out. I don’t want to let my anger out on her and ruin the moment.

She sighs and drops her backpack. She took it back from me as soon as I set her down outside my apartment door. But now she unzips one of the front compartments and pulls out a plastic-wrapped paper. Glancing at me, she removes the plastic and flips open the portfolio, sliding it into the empty sleeve.

“Me,” I guess.

“You.”

“Can I see?”

She shakes her head and steps closer. “No. We need to talk.”

I cross my arms so I don’t reach out and touch her. God, my priorities have shifted in the past two years. I went from wanting to kill her—I think I once so eloquently told her I’d love nothing more than to smash her skull in—to wanting to protect her.

Which has been a hard pill to swallow when I had no idea who to protect her from.

“Where did you go?” I ask.

She nods, expecting the question. Her hair is a few shades darker, definitely now a light brunette instead of blonde, and she’s lost the glasses. Whether it was surgery or contacts, I don’t know yet. I want to know, though. More than anything.

She tells me everything.

Wilder in her room after she left my apartment. Leaving so she wouldn’t be arrested, so I wouldn’t be drawn into it. Her parents must’ve known, but her sister had no idea. Then the chaos of the wedding, her one chance to see Amelie. Everything got turned on its head, and she was swept away.

“I became a girl named Amy Prague. Upstanding citizen with an interest in private investigation. She finished college. I have a degree in her name—like that’s going to help me if I went back to being Lucy Page.” She shakes her head. “Sometimes the lines blur and I forget which role I’m supposed to be playing.”

My stomach flips.

“I think I should just keep being Amy,” she says eventually, glancing away. “I just… I came back for some sense of revenge. I had to know if it was Ruby or Felicity who let Wilder in—”

“Felicity,” I say. “I went to your room and found your phone smashed. She came to check on you or something and told me the whole story.”

“Probably not everything,” Lucy murmurs. “Not that I accidentally caught her and a professor making out in the woods… and captured it on film.”

I grimace. “No, she left that out.”

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