Did you find what you were looking for…? I’m sure it will reappear when we least expect it.
“No…” Cassie shook her head.
“Cass…” Jagger said, reaching for her.
“No!” Cassie held up her hands to keep him — to keep us — away. “No. We did this. This is our fault.” She glared at Hawk. “You should have told me.”
Then she turned her gaze on me and the anguish — the accusation — in her eyes almost broke me.
“You should have told me.”
None of us tried to stop her when she ran from the room.
47
CASSIE
I wokeup in my own bed, my eyes dry and swollen from crying. It had been light out when I’d run to my room, Anna’s face swimming in my mind, her final words echoing:I held you once.
Now the room was dark, the house silent.
I sat up and reached for a tissue to blow my nose, then stared at the room in shadows around me.
Anna Reed was dead and it was all my fault.
I couldn’t even blame the Hawks for this one, as much as I wanted to, as much as Ihadwhen we’d argued on the patio. I’d just been deflecting, blaming them for what I’d done by bringing the people behind Imperium Fratrum to Anna’s door.
But really, the blame was mine. I was the one who’d pushed to get answers both before and after my accident. I was the one who’d wanted to talk to Anna.
I was the problem.
I got up, turned on the bedside lamp, and used the bathroom.
Then went to the closet to pull out the suitcase I’d brought with some of my things after I’d gotten used to the idea of living with the Hawks after the Hunt.
I pulled dresses and blouses off the hangers in the closet and dumped them in my suitcase before loading up my two tote bags with clothes from my dresser and my toiletries.
I didn’t bother changing even though I was still in my pajamas from that morning when I’d gone out onto the patio to work with Vigo and Jagger. It didn’t matter. I was just going back to my apartment.
Where I couldn’t hurt anyone else.
I was barefoot when I headed for the hall. My sneakers were downstairs by the front door. I’d have to grab them on my way out.
I’d barely opened the door to my room when the door next to mine opened.
Hawk stepped into the hall so fast I wondered if he’d been listening for me, although it was more likely that he just couldn’t sleep.
And even now my breath caught in my chest at the sight of him, dark hair falling to his shoulders, chest bare over gray sweats, muscled arms at his sides.
“Everything okay?” His gaze dropped to my suitcase. When he spoke again, his voice had hardened. “Where the fuck are you going?”
“I’m leaving. I’m going back to my apartment.”
He stalked toward me. “The fuck you are.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
He pulled the suitcase out of my hand. “The fuck I can’t.”
