He blinks. “That far back? I’ll need your?—”
I type in the password, too quick for his eyes to catch.
“Here. Just do it.”
He doesn’t make me ask twice.
A moment later, grainy black-and-white footage appears on the screen.
The bar. The dance floor.
And then?—
Her.
Izzy.
“Take a walk,” I order the tech, and he practically flies out of his seat.
I go back to watching Izzy on the screen. Younger. Laughing. Her head tipped back, eyes bright.
I watch myself appear behind her. Younger too. Less tired. Less… hollow.
On the screen, I follow her towards the private hallway. Towards the room where everything changed.
I remember the way she looked under me.
The way she whispered my name.
The way she disappeared like a ghost after that night.
And the boy who exists now because of it.
I reach forward and shut the monitor off. The room goes dark.
Whatever the Pavlovs are digging for… They will not find it.
And if they try to use her against me?—
They will learn exactly what happens when someone threatens what belongs to me.
13
IZZY
Idon’t go back to sleep after Nico leaves.
I lie there for a while, staring at the ceiling, the sheets still warm from his body. My skin still remembers his hands. My thighs still ache the good way. If I close my eyes, I can almost pretend he’s still here. That he only stepped out for a minute and will come back, slide under the sheets again, pull me against his chest like he did in the middle of the night.
But the apartment is quiet.
Too quiet.
And the truth sits heavy in my chest.
Last night was amazing. Seven years ago had been amazing too. The same man, the same pull between us, the same feeling like the world had narrowed down to just the two of us and nothing else mattered.
But mornings always tells the truth.
