“When did you see her?”
I scoff. “You answer my question, I might consider answering yours. I’m not on your leash anymore, Dad.”
“You might wish you were when this is all over.”
I roll my eyes and take another drag from the cigarette before I flick it over the balcony and start pacing again. If Dax doesn’t want another circular scar, he better be on the opposite side of the couch when I walk into Sloane’s apartment.
“Tell me about her brother.” I say it slowly, coldly, even though my heart is trying to drive its way through my ribcage.
I keep pacing in Dad’s fucking silence and I want my hands around his throat. The hotel room, Lynx, my mom’s heartbreak over the years.
Fuck them all.
“Listen to me, Storm, very carefully.” He’s cold, his words like ice. He rarely uses this tone anymore with me, since he’s been trying to piece together everything in our family he broke.
I stop pacing and bite my tongue to keep from screaming at him.
“Stay the fuck away from Lydia, and don’t you darebreathenear her brother.”
“I don’t even know who her?—”
“You do, you just don’t realize it, and trust me, son…” He trails off. I hear him exhale and it’s the most honest sound I’ve heard from him in years. “You’re better off in the dark.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
SLOANE
There’s a knock on the door and Dax glances at me.
I’m tangled up in his arms, my lips numb and probably red from kissing him, his cock hard beneath me. A movie is on, some thriller he wanted to watch, but I don’t know a thing about it and couldn’t tell you who’s in it. My white polo is unbuttoned as far as it’ll go and my orange wrap skirt is shifted to expose my white lace underwear.
When I got back from the library, my outfit was drenched.
I’d called Dax, fear still sluicing through my veins, and he’d told me he was pulling into my parking lot. It took me two seconds to put this outfit on and since then, I haven’t had time to think about Remi’s weird call or those elevator doors opening in the library.
Or the figure I thought I saw outside.
I texted Rem’s but she hasn’t replied and I’m forcing myself to assume she accidentally called me in her sleep, maybe haphazardly scrolling through her phone half-awake while feeding Lyle or something.
“Do you need to get that?” Dax asks against my mouth, a hint of a smile in his words.
It’s probably close to one in the morning.
In my head, I see the lightning flash again through the library entrance doors.
My heart picks up speed.
I’m glad Dax is here.
Ishouldn’tget the door. Either it’s a drunk partygoer who has strayed from their party palace or it’s someone…bad.
I was worried about Henry being in danger at Mom and Dad’s but until tonight, I didn’t really think about the fact thatIcould be in danger.
Coffin nails. Maybe it’s a threat I should’ve taken more seriously. But even now in the hazy hours of the morning, even with the library memory and the elevator chime, with two empty wine coolers on my artsy coffee table and Dax on my couch, it doesn’t feel real.
Sure, I was spooked being alone by myself at the library but it can’t be tied to any of Storm’s shadiness.
