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“She replied! Sydney says “Omfg drew of course you can bring 2 members of Atlas falling over. we were just having a chilled night anyway, but we have some booze leftover from my birthday. Come in 45?”

Luca is already standing up.

“I like her,” he says. “We can work on the music tomorrow. I’ll shower first. I stink after travelling, and I can’t meet your friends like this.” He grins at me, and I glare back.

“We’ll go,” I say. “For a couple of drinks.”

Drew punches both fists into the air.

“You calm down. You’re probably still hungover from the other week.”

“I told you my drink must’ve been spiked!” He looks at Luca. “Bro, I promise you I can handle my liquor.”

Luca slings an arm around him. “Don’t worry. Uncle Luca will look after you.”

“That sentence has never made anyone safer.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Bea

Amino acid side chains. I am working on my memorization of them.

I write the names from memory, adding their single-letter codes down the left margin.

Alanine. Arginine. Asparagine.

Cal’s hand sliding beneath my shirt.

I stop writing.

Aspartate.

His palm closing around my breast. The rough drag of his thumb over my nipple. His mouth at my ear while he told me, in that low, ruined voice, exactly what he wanted to do to me next.

You’re going to come for me again, Doc. I want to feel it this time.

My entire body heats.

Cysteine.

I press the pen harder against the page.

I am a scientist. I have spent years training my brain to separate useful information from distracting stimuli. I should therefore be capable of memorizing twenty amino acid side chains without producing an unsolicited sensory reconstruction of Callum Fox’s hands.

Glutamate. Glutamine. Glycine.

His fingers tightening around my hips.

Him in bed with Violet Marlowe.

I draw a dark line through the word and start again.

The photograph might be nothing. It might be two people eating a meal. Or it might be his girlfriend.

Histidine.

Isoleucine.