I lower the weights slowly, knuckles white. “Apparently, I have to.”
He studies me for a second, then shakes his head. “So what, you just let Locke talk about her like that? Aboutyou?”
I swallow hard. “What do you want me to do? Go break his face again? That worked great last time.”
He shrugs. “I’m just saying, man. You don’t let someone like that control your story.”
I glance up at him, and for a moment, all the noise of the gym fades. “You think I don’t want to hit something? You think I haven’t imagined knocking that smug look right off his face?”
“Then do something smarter,” Gabe says quietly. “Don’t give him the satisfaction of proving his point.”
I don’t answer. My jaw flexes. I pick up the weights again, push through the burn until it blurs into anger, into exhaustion, into nothing.
The iron crashes back onto the rack, echoing loud enough to turn heads.
Gabe claps a hand on my shoulder as he walks by. “Just remember, Voss—silence can be power too. Depends on how you use it.”
I stare after him, chest heaving, his words rattling around in my head.
Silence. Power. Control.
None of it feels like me.
By the time I get home, the apartment lights are on. Sage’s pacing in front of the couch, phone in her hand, thumb hovering over the screen like she’s debating whether to throw it or use it. Her hair’s pulled up in a messy knot, her cheeks flushed, fury radiating off her in waves.
She looks up when I shut the door. “He’s doing it again,” she says, voice tight. “Using me to stay relevant.”
I hang my keys on the hook, trying to stay calm. “I know.”
“No, you don’t.” She tosses the phone onto the counter—it skids to a stop beside mine, both screens still lit up with Grayson’s smug headline. “He’s not just writing about you, Leo. He’s rewritingme.Like I’m some desperate groupie who lucked into your orbit.”
I cross the room, every step measured. “He wants a reaction. That’s all this is. He pokes until someone bleeds, and then he feeds on it.”
She shakes her head, pacing again. “You really think ignoring him’s going to make him stop? He’s getting clicks. He’s getting attention. That’s the whole point.”
My pulse spikes. “And if I give him what he wants, he wins.”
“If you do nothing, he still wins!” she fires back, spinning toward me. “He keeps talking, people keep listening, and I—” Her voice breaks, just for a second. “I keep losing.”
I take a breath, steady but sharp. “He won’t touch you again. I’ll make sure of it.”
She laughs—a short, bitter sound. “You can’t fight him, Leo. You’ll just give him another headline.”
My voice drops, low and dangerous. “I’m not letting him drag you through this again.”
Her shoulders rise and fall, her eyes blazing. “Then what, Leo? You’re going to fight everybody for me?”
I don’t answer. The space between us crackles. She steps closer, close enough that I can see the tremor in her hands, the fury behind her fear.
Her voice softens, barely above a whisper. “You can’t save me from this.”
I meet her gaze, heat tightening in my chest. “Watch me.”
The silence that follows hums with everything neither of us can say.
The silence stretches until it feels like another body in the room.
Sage’s chest rises and falls fast, her jaw tight. She’s still close—close enough that I can see the pulse fluttering in her throat, close enough that I can feel the heat rolling off her skin. The fight hasn’t burned out; it’s just changed shape.
