Not of the media.
Of what we left upstairs.
The driver opens the door.We get in.The world narrows—leather seats, muted city noise, my pulse loud in my ears like a drum that won’t stop.
As the SUV pulls away, the cameras fade behind us, but my mind stays in that apartment—the couch, the blanket, her promise, the way she said it like it cost her something.
Tomorrow, we have a game.
Today, I have to act like my world didn’t just tilt.
And I have to do it beside the one man who might be the only person alive who understands exactly why my lungs keep refusing to fill.
“How the fuck did they find us?”I ask again once we’re moving, because the question doesn’t leave my mouth until it finds an answer.
Cally huffs like he’s annoyed at the universe.“Earlier today, I found some reporters outside the hotel when I went to get my things.”He shrugs, too casual.“They probably followed me.”
My stare burns into the side of his face.“I’m going to fucking kill you.”
“Not my fault,” he shoots back quickly.Defensive.His knee starts bouncing again, barely controlled.
“We have to do something to protect Ves,” I remind him.
“Like I said yesterday, we need a house outside of Portland,” he states.
“But no one should know about her.You understand what happens if they find her, right?”I glare at him, hoping that he does.
His smile is gone now.Good.
“Harvey’s working on it,” he says.“He’s got a couple of properties.One has indoor and outdoor pools.”
He looks satisfied, and I have to fight the urge to put him through a wall for reasons that have nothing to do with pools.
“You have to know that I would never put her in danger,” he adds, and this time it sounds real.“Do you think I’m happy they tracked me?She’s—” He stops, like the wordpregnantis a blade he doesn’t want to touch.Like saying it makes it permanent.“She’s already one bad day away from disappearing.And you know it.”
I do.
That’s what scares me most.
Vesper doesn’t leave with her feet first.She leaves in silence.With jokes.With a smile that says, “I’m fine” while she packs her pain into a suitcase and checks it at the gate.Then ignores our calls and leaves us in limbo until she’s ready to reappear.
“Well, show it a little more.You’re just on your phone,” I say, because I don’t know how to stop pushing when I’m scared.“Doesn’t seem like it bothers you.”
His head snaps toward me.The anger in his eyes is hot and immediate, but there’s something under it.Something bruised.
“I’m texting Harvey,” he says through his teeth.“What happened is unacceptable.Never once in my life have I had reporters waiting for me like I’m some Hollywood toy.They’re putting my girl at risk.”His voice drops, rough.“And she’s fragile right now.One fuck up, and she’s gone.So no, Alberto Montoya Navarro Wade, I didn’t do this, and yes, I’m making sure it never happens again.”
My chest tightens at how he saysmy girl,like it’s instinct, like it’s a prayer.Like he doesn’t realize he’s giving me something I can’t afford to want.
“Glad we can agree on something,” I mutter.
He leans closer, just enough that I feel him in my space.It’s not friendly.It’s not joking.It’s Cally showing teeth without smiling.
“You think I like seeing the people I love in danger?”he asks, voice low.
“I don’t know you well enough to trust you,” I shoot back, because my mouth has never been smart when my heart is involved.“Isn’t that what your parents do?Fuck with people’s lives so they get what they want?”
The silence in the SUV turns dense.
