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Shelby backed up a step, retreating into the hallway.

“I brought dinner up here earlier. Had a steak that I was eating while I did homework. I needed the knife. No big deal.” Margot’s fingers curled around the steak knife.

But the blade of that knife was completely clean. No meat residue. No food left on it at all.

“I am your best friend,” Margot told her. “Tell me that you forgive me. Tell me that you understand.” She stood on the threshold of her room. “You couldn’t stay with him. Nate is evil. He’s a liar. He’s a user. He will hurt you. I was just looking out for you.”

But she still gripped the knife.

“Tell me that you forgive me.” A tear leaked down Margot’s cheek. “You’re my best friend. Tell me, please. Just say you forgive me.”

Then blood started pouring from Margot’s throat. From her chest. All over as she fell in the doorway and⁠—

Shelby jerked upright, a choked scream stuck in her throat.

“You’re safe.” Quiet, reassuring words. “It was a nightmare. You’re in bed with me. No one else is in the room. It’s you and it’s me. There are no threats here.”

She shuddered, and her gaze whipped toward Hunter. Shadows cloaked the bedroom, but he’d left on the light in the bathroom for her, and the faint glow spilled toward the bed.

His eyes were on her. His body curled toward hers. She’d shoved down the covers, and they pooled near his waist, revealing his broad, powerful chest.

“Why do you go through this?” A ragged question from her. She hated that she kept doing this. “I wake you up every time.” Her head angled toward him, the better to hear him.

“I sleep like shit anyway, so…no big deal.” Easy words from him.

But she suspected they were a lie. She believed it was a big deal. Him, comforting her. Him, staying with her through the nightmares and screams. “You’re good to me. Too good.”

“Impossible. I’m a cold-blooded bastard. Ask anyone. Good isn’t usually the descriptor for my personality.”

She thought it was.

“Would you like for me to hold you?” Again, easy words. Careful ones as Hunter waited patiently for her response.

Her head moved in a jerky nod. Hunter opened his arms for her. She curled into them. Against him. He was warm and solid and being so close to Hunter chased the cold from her body.

“Another nightmare?” he asked after a time. “Or a memory?”

“Both.” A long exhale. She liked his scent. A crisp, masculine scent that teased her nose. Her right ear pressed to his chest. They were so close to each other that she could make out all of his words with no problem. “I was talking to Margot. I was in the hallway. She was at her doorway. She was apologizing to me.”

“For what?” He began to stroke her back with one gentle hand.

“For sleeping with Nate.”

He paused mid-stroke, then continued. “I…see.”

“I didn’t fuck Nate. I was telling the truth about that before.” Her head tilted back so that she could try and see his face. “He would have been my first, and I just—I was waiting because things kept feeling off. I wanted it to be special. I wanted it to matter.” The first time was supposed to matter, wasn’t it? Or maybe that was just bullshit. Her first time had wound up being eminently forgetful with Andre. Meanwhile, she didn’t think she’d ever forget what sex was like with Hunter. Unforgettable. “I-I walked in on Nate and Margot. At the sorority house. I’d come home from a study group, it was nearing midnight, and they were right there, on the couch.”

The same couch where Kali had later been found.

“She said—Margot told me that she’d done it all deliberately. That she had to prove he wasn’t the good guy I thought he was. Tonight, in that dream—” Nightmare, memory, whatever. “She was telling me that he’d been with plenty of girls. That I didn’t know him. Not the real Nate. She wanted me to forgive her. She kept saying I was her best friend. That she only did it for me.”

“Got to point out, she could have tried telling you. Fucking the guy seems like a lot.”

Shelby swallowed. “Margot told me Nate was wrong for me. Told me not to trust him. But I wanted him to be perfect. I wanted him to be the one. I’d gone all through college, barely dated. Always wanted to be in love.”

“Were you in love with him?” No emotion.

“I don’t think I was. Not truly. I don’t know if I’ve ever—” Shelby stopped. Because even as she said them, the words felt like a lie.