“It’s really not—”
“It is and you know it. Neither of you are over it, anyone with eyes can see it. So don’t fool yourself and don’t lie to me.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say. Yes, I’m still drawn to him, just as much as I ever was.” I rubbed my chest. “But he hates me, Nick. I feel it every time he looks at me. And do you know what the worst thing is?” He waited. “I did it to myself when I chose not to tell him I was a hunter.” I shook my head. “So as much as you want to paint Rys as the bad guy in this, I’m afraid it’s all on me.”
He went to speak again, but I shook my head. “Let it go.”
Max said nothing about what he’d overheard as I walked over to him. “Ready?” he asked instead.
“Yeah.” So, so ready. “Let’s go.”
RYS
He didn’t kill him.
The words went round and round on a constant loop in my head. I accused him of being a liar, but he’d never actually lied. He hadn’t told me the truth, but he’d never outright lied, and I knew he wasn’t lying now.
I’d ignored his calls and his messages because I couldn’t get the image of him with that knife out of my head.
Fuck Gabriel for making me feel guilty about that.
But he never came after me.
I leant on the balcony, watching the scene below, but none of it registered. All I could see was Gabriel’s face before I’d walked away. It was pretty much the same expression he’d worn that day in the forest.
Stricken.
I hadn’t given him the chance to explain himself then, and I’d done the same thing down at the bar.
Do I want to?
I closed my eyes, blocking out the sounds and smells of the club. If I concentrated hard enough, I could still smellhim, his scent as familiar to me as my own pack. He’d told me all his truths, but I’d kept mine secret.
He felt it. Felt the pull of what we could be, I saw it, even if he didn’t realise that was what drew him to me. Our breakup would’ve hurt him almost as much as it hurt me, and he wouldn’t even know why.
Who was the liar now?
But I couldn’t bring myself to tell him.
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
I wanted to know the reason why he’d not come after me, though, because I knew there was one, and this time I’d let him explain. Whether it changed anything or not, I needed to know.
The crowd had thinned a lot since I went upstairs, the night coming to an end. It was easy to spot that Gabriel and Max were nowhere to be seen even before I approached the bar.
Nick was there though.
What a fucking treat.
He scowled as I approached. “He left about ten minutes ago,” he announced without preamble, tattooed forearms resting on the bar as he watched me.
I scowled back. “Wasn’t aware I’d asked.”
“Why else would you come back here. I know it’s not for my sparkling company.” He cocked an eyebrow, and if I didn’t want to claw his throat out for being all over Gabriel, I might actually like him.
“I need to talk to him.”
