“Alright. That’s it.” He ripped off the covers and wrenched me into his arms.
“Kane!” I gasped. I was naked, but that didn’t deter him as he lunged for the balcony door and ripped it open. The night air hit us, the wind thrashing. “Christ, fine! Let me put the suit on,” I demanded.
“Oh, goody.” He gently set me down and dangled the bikini in front of me, turning his back to give me privacy.
I shoved my legs into the bottoms, then pulled on the top, crossing my arms with a scowl. “Is there a reason you want to go swimming so badly? You do realize it’s just an overpriced version of The Tank, correct?”
Kane turned back and grabbed my wrist, dragging me toward the pool. “See, that’s where you’re wrong, Miss Creed. This, here, is a pool at a penthouse in Manhattan—not the compound. There are no guards, no commanders, no Halden, and no stupidly hot teachers.”
I lifted a brow and he rolled his eyes. “Florence was pretty,” I gave him.
“Fucking gorgeous,” he grumbled and stopped us at the edge of the deep end. He cleared his throat. “My point is, we’re always going on and on aboutmaybe in another life.Well, this is it, Arden.Thisis our life. We only get one. So we can treat our goddamn pool as a goddamn pool, or we can look at every body of water until the end of time as a form of torture. Me? I’m choosing the first. Leah? She would’ve chosen the same.”
I froze. “What?” I breathed.
“Yeah, I knew Leah,” Kane said, surprising me further. I blinked up at him, noticing the glassy sheen to his eyes.
“You did?” I whispered.
“Arden, of course I did. I went where Rafe went, and when he wasn’t sold to a Buyer, he was in that damn courtyard hoping to catch a glimpse of you. When that happened, you were always with Leah. You two were inseparable. It reminded me…of Thorne and me.” His throat bobbed. “I don’t know what the fuck I’d do if I lost him, but I’d hope someone would remind me that my brother—before all the fucking shit we’ve been through—loved fast bikes and city lights. I’d want someone to tell me to look at a pool and see a fucking pool; to stand in front of one of the most beautiful cities in the world and still see the beauty, because that’s how Thorne would look at it. He’s my fucking anchor, Arden, just like Leah was yours.”
Was. I choked, covering my mouth, and his grip on my wrist loosened.
“He’s right,” Thorne said, startling us both. He was leaning in the living room’s doorway to the balcony, his arms crossed and expression thoughtful as he watchedus. “It’s just a pool, Arden. Those lights out there? They’re just lights, not cameras.” He craned his head back and squinted up, “And somewhere up there past all that fucking pollution is a shit ton of stars. The world isn’t Viktor’s house, and life isn’t Halden’s compound.”
Kane gave his brother a salute. Then he let go of my wrist and backed up several steps with a mischievous grin. I lurched out of the way as he launched himself forward, tucking into a ball and dropping down. “For Leah!” he shouted and whooped before slamming down into the deep end.
Thorne shucked off his suit jacket and loosened his tie. He stripped down to his boxers, giving me a playful wink before he jumped into the pool, shouting at the top of his lungs, “For Leah!”
Their heads broke the water, both of them laughing as they looked over to me.
“C’mon, little flame—ignite,” Thorne said with the brightest smile on his face that I’d seen in a long time. “What would Leah want for you?”
Tears streamed down my face as I took a few steps back.
“Uh-oh, she’s gearing up,” Kane announced and shoved his brother out of the way.
“For Leah,” I breathed and sprinted forward. Thorne and Kane cheered wildly and a laugh cracked out of me as I flung across the pool, plunging down beneath the surface. The water was freezing, shocking down into my bones as it swallowed me. I let myself sink for a minute, blinking against the sting of the chlorine. I could make out Thorne and Kane’s legs swishing in the water further out. The water rippled as I dragged my hands down through it, the pressure harsh in my good ear.
Still, it was peaceful. They were right. It wasn’t The Tank. We had the freedom to actually swim, to break the surface whenever we wanted or sink even deeper. I let myself touch the very bottom, my lungs screaming as I swept my hand over the rough cement, looking up at where the moon glistened at the surface. Leah would’ve loved it, sitting at the bottom of something so soundless, so seemingly vast and staring up at something equally as infinite. My chest warmed as memories surged—not of her lying limp but of us scrubbing the floor at Viktor's estate, of her braiding myhair, of breaking into that car in the garage and wishing for a better life. My chest warmed, some of the anger and grief subsiding enough towantto breathe.
I shot to the surface, gasping as my lungs filled with air. Kane splashed toward me, and I laughed again. Part of me felt guilty for letting myself feel any kind of happiness on the day Leah died, but I think grief is weird that way. It’s incomprehensible, and so incomprehensible emotions often release when it happens. I hated how Leah died, but I was desperate to latch to the pieces of her that were alive—pieces Viktor eventually hollowed out, as he did with all his children, but were beautiful when they’d existed.
Eventually, our legs tired, the three of us floated on our backs, holding hands, our heads bumping into each other. We were quiet, relaxed, looking up at the stars—although looking back, I’m pretty sure they were just satellites and helicopters. Thorne gave my hand asmall tug, running his thumb over my palm. “So, did you get it all out earlier? The screaming?”
I huffed. “Hardly.”
Another round of chuckles went through us, but they died out as a familiar tension strung through the air. It was the same that had haunted us since that day, the day they were forced to—the incident.
"I don't blame you," I said after a long while, their fingers grasping my hands a little tighter with the words. "And we don't need to talk about it. Let's just…beagain. I've missed this. Missed us."
"Agreed," Kane said, his voice cracking.
Thorne ran his thumbs over my knuckles, but he kept quiet at the sound of the balcony door sliding open. We sat up, treading water as Rafe stood in the doorway, frozen. He had a beer in his hand, his tie loose around his neck and his jacket left behind. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, ink curling along his wrists. He swallowed, looking between the three of us, before his eyes finally settled on me.
I felt faint at the eye contact. I’d spent so long avoiding him I’d forgotten just how Rafe Creed looked at me. He had a way of staring so deeply thathe could easily whittle his way back into my torn, jagged heart. I quickly averted my gaze and repositioned on my back, kicking my legs and pushing myself into a floating position again. Only a few seconds later, the balcony door slid closed. I glanced over, finding Rafe gone, both Thorne and Kane whispering to one another.
I frowned. “No secrets in the pool,” I announced, stretching my arms and flapping them lightly like wings so I’d close the distance between us.
