Page 35 of Shot Taker

I feel Nova’s eyes on us.

I’m about to say no, until Miles stands.

“Come on, beautiful,” he says to Nova. “I need someone to hold me up.”

I expect her to decline, but she’s rising, letting him thread his hand in hers.

Atlas clears out of the far side to let them through. I watch Miles tug Nova toward the dance floor.

“This isn’t happening, is it?”

“Huh?”

I force myself to look at the woman who asked me to dance.

“That’s what I thought.” She smiles. She’s objectively attractive, but I couldn’t care less. “Still gonna tell everyone I’ve ever met that I danced with Clayton Wade, if that’s okay?”

“Knock yourself out.”

I watch Miles and Nova dance, mostly to punish myself.

Maybe she is over me.

I’ve never been one to accept defeat. I’ll go down fighting and bloody first. But I can’t stand the idea of her being collateral damage again. Not when I’ve already hurt her.

I told myself she was better off, that what mattered most to her was going back to the life she left behind.

But she’s here, living her best life inches away, and all I want is to be part of it.

Brooke’s voice cuts in. “Chocolate.”

I glance over to find her at my side. “Huh?”

“First year of college, I went on this diet. I’d never really restricted what I ate before, but I was trying to fit in at my sorority, and that was how a lot of the girls ate. The way you’re looking at her is how I looked at chocolate all semester.”

I exhale hard. “You don’t know shit, Brooke.”

“She talks about you in her sleep.”

My head cranks around.

“The other night, I went into her room, and she was talking about you.”

I turn back to the dance floor, competing feelings raging inside me.

She still thinks about me.

Fuck, shedreamsabout me.

Mr. Thirty Points loops an arm around Nova’s waist and leans in to whisper at her ear.

Every muscle in my body tightens.

I’m out of my seat and beside them in three steps. My hand closes around her wrist, my grip swallowing up her small arm.

Without a word, I pull her after me.

* * *

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