“What you wanted.”
“Don’t give me that. You wanted it too.” I wrapped my arm around her and picked up her hand. She let me take it, but it was limp in my grip. “You were just scared of what Julian would do. Now we don’t have to be scared anymore.”
She laughed, but the sound made me wince.
Nothing about this made sense. “Your dad’s approval means we can stop sneaking around. We can actually?—”
“You don’t understand.” She shuffled away from me on the sofa, putting more distance between us. “His approval isn’t a blessing.”
“Are you allergic to good news, Carter? Or do you just get off on finding problems where there aren’t any?”
Her head snapped up, the devastation on her face sharpening into a hard, brittle mask. “Maybe,” she said, her voice dangerously low. “Or maybe I know that with my father, the victory party is just the setup for the crash.”
“Christ.” I scoffed, the sound harsh in the quiet room. Frustration bled into every word. “Your dad finally stops being a prick to me, finally accepts that we’re together, and you’re acting like it’s the end of the world.” I dragged a hand through my hair. “I don’t get it. You two have this whole dynamic. You defer to him. You do what he asks. Why is this different?”
“This. Us?” She pulled her hand away and stood. “It’s over.”
She rushed into our bedroom while confusion slammed into me like a bad pit stop.
“The hell it is.”
I stalked into the bedroom just as she yanked her suitcase from the closet. She tossed it onto the bed and unzipped the case before moving to the dresser with a single-minded focus.
“Vi, stop.” My chest ached as I watched her open a drawer. “We’re not breaking up.”
“This isn’t a negotiation.” She grabbed a stack of clothes.
“Everything’s a negotiation.” I caught her wrist. “And this is one you’re going to lose.”
She jerked free. “You don’t get a say in this.”
“Like hell I don’t.” I stepped in front of her, blocking her path to the suitcase. “You’re panicking.”
“I’m being smart.”
“This is a tailspin, not a strategy.”
Her jaw shifted. “I’ve lived my entire life with Julian. I know what he’s really like, so if I tell you his happy mask is trouble for you, it’s fucking trouble.”
She shoved past me, dumping the clothes into the suitcase. I grabbed the t-shirt before she could move away, pulling it back out.
We had to leave for Mexico today. Logically, I knew she had to pack. Except she’d said we were over, so what if she were really packing to leave me?
My hands moved on autopilot, pulling out the next thing I could reach.
“Griffin! Stop it!”
“No, you stop.” I grabbed another pile of clothes and dumped them back in the drawer. “Your dad’s been threatening me since day one. This doesn’t change anything.”
“Yes, it does! He told me to keep you focused. That’s myjobnow.” She grabbed more clothes, scowling at me as I undid her work.
“So? You already help me stay focused. That’s not?—”
“He had us watched.”
That stopped me. “What?”
“Dorian has been following us for who knows how long.”
