Page 143 of Jig's Last Dance

“It was my brother,” I say in a rush, raising my voice to be heard over his.

He pauses, looking at me with a weird glare before he murmurs, “I know.”

“I’m so sor—wait. What?” I rasp.

Running a hand through his multicolored locks, he sighs. “Alice, she was with Ben all the time. And then nothing? No one says a damn thing?”

“You knew?”

His blue eyes flash to mine. “I did.”

“So, the revenge?” I ask, bowing my head.

“Shit,” he says, pulling to the side of the road. Quietly we sit beside each other until he exhales and closes his eyes. “I was punishing Ben through you.”

Rubbing my chest, I stare at his gorgeous face. Can I take more revelations? Can he?

“How?” I ask.

Flipping his eyes open, he looks at me with his blue, blue eyes and pulls his lips into a wretched smile. “Because Ben had to wonder and worry every single fucking day that I would ruin you.”

“Was that the plan? To ruin me?”

“Sunshine,” he says, grabbing my cheeks and searching my eyes. “I don’t even fucking remember because the minute I laid eyes on you, the rest fell away. Yes, I lied and I’m so fucking sorry, but with everything happening, I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. Still, I waited for you. I wanted you. It was you.”

Mulling it over, I shake my head at the shit we kept from each other when it would have been so much easier just to set it free. But it doesn’t matter now. This is what I want.Heis what I want, and I won’t let Ben’s mistakes or my father’s shit ruin it.

His eyes light up when I smile, and he kisses me gently on the lips. “Thank fuck.”

Laughing through my tears, I nod and touch his hand over mine before I exhale and say, “I think I know where Mandy is.”

He rears back, his eyes wide, and I grab his arm. “I’m so sorry. I meant to tell you, but we fought . . .”

Rubbing his chest, he says, “How?”

I explain what I found in the shack and how I kept the necklace, now resting on Mandy’s dresser. Jig is silent, his hands clenched around the wheel.

I know this is hard and I need to give him time to process, but my heart is still in my throat when I go to move away. Something had to break this fragile peace. Maybe this was it?

I don’t get far before Jig grabs me up and wraps his arm around me, rasping, “Thank you.”

My stomach swoops, and I relax, kissing the side of his neck. Thank fuck.

“For what?”

“Now I can find her and bring her home.”

“Oh, Jig,” I whisper, wrapping around him like a vine.

He shudders and hides his face in the crook of my neck. We rock together like this until my arms ache before he pulls away with a stoic expression.

Once more, I lean on his arm as he pulls back onto the road, and I smile. Maybe we’re making progress after all, and it feels so fucking good to have the truth laid bare.

Too soon, we’re pulling up to the decrepit house where this all began, and I wish I had told Jig about his sister at another time. Now we have to focus on Iris, and it doesn’t seem right, but nothing ever does with her.

Jig follows me up the steps with a solemn smile, and sighing quietly, I peek through the door, still hanging awkwardly on its hinges.

The room is empty, and I fight back a surge of irritation as I step inside until I spy her on the floor.

---