I held his gaze, confessing the truth. “It is. I lovemy life here.” Jesse put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed. I wasn’tsure if he sensed my need for comfort or if he felt responsible for myhappiness, but his warm touch was comforting.
Sayer’s jaw ticked again and those blue eyes flaredfor the first time—the way they used to. Darkening and brightening all at once.I sucked in a breath as old feelings I had worked relentlessly to bury clawedat their internal grave, desperate to resurface.
He’s dangerous, I told them. He’s one of them.
He’s here to kill me.
He’s here to take away everything.
It’s Sayer, they hissed in return, addicted to hisvoice, desperate for his touch, weeping from the separation.
“A tour!” Gus announced, his boisterous voice slicingthrough the sudden tension. “You need a tour.”
“Oh, no,” I rushed to decline. “That’s okay. We wereactually leaving.”
“Caro, come on,” Gus pushed. “We haven’t seen eachother in five years and you’re in a hurry to get out of here? What kind ofassholery is that?”
“I, uh, no, you’re so busy and we couldn’t impose—”
“It’s already happening,” Gus insisted. “The tour ishappening. I won’t take no for an answer.” He spun around, as animated as Iremembered him. “This is the gallery. Our current installation is kick ass asyou can see. Our artist is a real talent. Young, handsome, a legit genius withthe brush.”
Jesse shot me a confused look. “Aren’t you the currentartist?”
Gus grinned. “Oh, right. It’s probably best if we moveon. You can ogle my work later.” He started walking toward the bar. “I’ll evengive you the friends and family discount, Caro. Six percent off.”
I ignored the dig. “Wow, Gus. I don’t know what to dowith your generosity.”
“Right? That’s what everyone says.”
We followed after Gus while he pointed out the inanestshit ever. There’s a table. That’s one of our chairs. Look at the lightfixtures over the bar. That left Sayer to follow behind us. I hated that Icouldn’t keep my eyes on him. I hated that he had the advantage and theperspective and all the things I wanted. In an effort to get out of tonightalive, I had to play the con they’d started without my permission. Which meantI couldn’t let Jesse in on any of it.
I could have run from the building screaming like itwas on fire, but Sayer and Gus had found me. They weren’t going to let go orgive up or walk away. At least not without a fight.So allthat would have done was lead them straight to Juliet.
But along with playing my role in a game I didn’t knowthe rules for, I had to keep Jesse safe too. He couldn’t know any of this. Hecouldn’t suspect anything was wrong.
Jesse was a good guy and he would do what all goodguys did—he would try to help me.
Only his help would only hurt. And probably get usboth killed.
When Gus started skirting the back of the gallery nearthe kitchen, we turned a corner and I took the opportunity to glance back atSayer. His gaze was already on me.
“You okay, Six?” he asked with that cruel, distancedsmirk twisting his mouth.
No. I wasn’t okay. I turned back around.
“More art,” Gus was saying. “That’s the kitchen.” Weapproached a doorway. Gus stepped into it and as we followed after him, werealized it was a darkened hallway leading to a stairwell headed to thebasement. “Okay, enough with the boring stuff. Let’s get to the cool part.”
I froze, causing Jesse to bump into me. “What’s downthere, Gus?”
He was already halfway to the bottom. His cat-that-ate-the-canarygrin did nothing to soothe my nerves. “It’s a surprise.”
Shaking my head, I took a step back. Sayer was rightthere. His muscled chest grazing my back. “I don’t like surprises,” I toldthem.
Sayer’s hand landed on my hip. His fingers wrappedaround the bone, squeezing tightly, cradling intimately. “You’ll like this one,Caro. I promise.”
I couldn’t hide the fear anymore. Pleading with myeyes, I appealed to the more sensible of the two men. “What’s down there, Gus?”
“Aw, come on, old friend, you’ve made it this far.Don’t chicken out now,” he goaded.
