1
CLOE
The lightabove the dryer flickered, once, then twice. My pulse boomed loudly in my ears and for a hopeful second I prayed it’d hold, until it didn’t, plunging me headfirst into the dark. My pulse stuttered, my heart slamming against the insides of my ribs too fast to control. But I kept myself steady, exhaling hard as that ugly yellow glow from the bulb sparked back to life once more.
You can do this.
I squeezed my eyes closed.
You have to do this.
There was no choice anymore, was there? I made damn sure of that. There was no going back. No undoing what’d already been done. Not the lies or the betrayal or that desperate longing inside me. One that didn't belong anywhere near the Lawlor men, but somehow—like that fragile light overhead—it roared to life in the recesses of my heart and stayed there.
An ache tore down my knees from kneeling on the cold concrete. I winced and adjusted. Pain soaked through my jeans. I deserved it all. My hands shook so hard it took effort just to keep the ledger from slipping out of my lap.
It felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.
I hadn’t opened it since the night I ran. Since Wolfe looked away long enough for me to make the worst decision of my life. I took what was important to him—loyalty—and ripped it apart.
My fingers moved clumsily, tugging a thin shirt from the bottom of my bag—a soft, old thing I’d left behind once in Wolfe’s apartment. My fingers trembled fighting the need to lift it to my face and inhale the scent of him. God, I missed the scent of him like cedar, smoke, and want.
So much fucking want.
It made my throat tighten. I wrapped the ledger in it. Slowly. Shamefully. Each fold a betrayal. My phone buzzed on the concrete beside me.
Selene:We still meeting?
My thumb hovered. Then I typed:
Me:On my way.
I didn’t ask where. Or who. Or why it felt like my chest might cave in. Instead, I pressed my palm against the panel I’d already loosened behind the dryer. The drywall gave way with a reluctant crack. I’d used this space before—for rent money I couldn’t explain, bills I couldn’t face. But this wasn’t that. This was the end of me. The end of the woman I’d become.
I pushed the book inside. It caught at first. The corner snagging on something sharp. I gritted my teeth and shoved harder. It slid in with a dull scrape. And then it was gone. Just a shadow behind the wall.
I stared at the hole, breathing like I’d run five miles. Then I sealed the panel. And whispered, “Stay safe.”
I stared at the panel, breath caught in my throat.
Would he find it?
I imagined Wolfe standing in this room—silent, unmoving, eyes like storms. I saw him peeling back that drywall with steady hands. Saw the moment he realized I had touched what wasn’t mine. What never was.
He once told me,‘If you lie, lie all the way. But don’t think I won’t know.’But I hadn’t lied all the way, had I? No. I wasn’t even good at it. Just another failure in my life. Now that shit—failing—that I was good at.
Loser boyfriends.
Failing my friends.
Failing everyone really.
But only one who ever mattered.
Camille.
And now I was failing her all over again.
The shirt I wrapped the ledger in—it wasn’t just old. It was his. One I used to wear when I stayed too long, laughed too loud, slept too close.
