Page 143 of Crossover

“What’s wrong?” I pressed Jace, my voice low but insistent.

“It’s nothing,” he claimed, but the lie was etched across his face. The tension in his jaw, the crease between his brows, the slump in his shoulders—it all betrayed him.

Whatever he’d read on his phone screen just three bites into our family dinner had hit him like a physical blow.

In front of everyone else, heclaimedhe was fine, but I could see the lie as easily as I could hear it, so I had pulled him into the great room, where he and I could talk alone.

“It didn’t look like nothing,” I challenged.

“Let’s just get back to dinner.” His tone was clipped, defensive, which wasn’t like him.

“Does this have anything to do with the CIA or?—”

“No,” Jace assured. He seemed to be telling the truth, but I could also see he was hiding something. “Now, come on. Tonight is supposed to be a family night.”

As he tried to brush past me, I placed my hand on his chest, stopping him.

“Jace.” Our identical green eyes locked, and I felt that familiar twin connection—a mixture of intuition and shared history that told me he was far from okay. “Does this have anything to do with the cryptic comments you made in the car the night we rescued Ivy?” I pressed, memories of his words flooding back.

“Let’s just say that I’ve had a dark past.”

“I’m not the perfect, squeaky-clean brother you’ve always thought I was. We all have our sins and secrets, and mine are better left buried.”

Jace stared at me for a second before putting his hand on my shoulder in a gesture that felt oddly final. “Let’s just have a nice dinner with family, yeah?”

This time, he walked off before I could stop him, and as I watched him leave, I couldn’t help but wonder,Did he fear this family dinner might be his last?