Page 266 of Cross Checked
A knife.
That was the difference between me and him right there. I had come looking for my phone because Bliss was outside waiting for me. Luke had come looking for a corner without witnesses and brought a blade like the coward he was.
I didn’t move back. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing even one inch of retreat. My pulse slowed instead, brutal and focused, every part of me locking onto the same cold truth.
He hadn’t come here to talk.
Distance between us. Twenty feet, maybe less. Service door behind him. Locker room behind me. Main corridor to my left. No cameras visible in this stretch, which meant he had chosen it on purpose. Of course he had. Monsters loved corners.Loved blind spots. Loved places where they could pretend whatever happened next was an accident or a misunderstanding or someone else’s fault.
My pulse slowed because my only concern was Bliss, and she was safe outside.
That was the only thought that mattered.
Luke smiled like he had been waiting to see whether I noticed the knife.
I did.
I don’t know what he expected, but I kept walking anyway.
His smile twitched. “Mercer.”
I stopped far enough away that he couldn’t reach me without committing to it, close enough that he could see I wasn’t backing up.
“Glory Days,” I said.
His jaw flexed, and there it was, street hockey all over again, only stripped of daylight and Bennett noise and Daniel calling for no blood before dinner. No kids on curbs. No brothers laughing. No Bliss stepping forward because she thought she could protect everyone by placing herself between a loaded gun and the people who loved her.
Just him and me.
And the thing I saw the first time I met him.
I should have dragged that truth into the light the first time I saw his eyes follow her like she belonged to him.
“You look lonely,” I said.
Luke’s smile thinned. “Funny. I was thinking the same about you.”
“I’m not lonely. My girl’s outside.”
The words hit exactly where I wanted them to.
His eyes changed. There were men who got angry from insult, and there were men who got angry from truth. Luke wasthe second kind. He could handle being called old. Could handle being called washed. Could probably smile through a room full of people accusing him of things he had done because he knew charm worked best when everyone else got emotional first.
But Bliss being mine?
That got under his skin and made the mask crawl.
“She’s not your girl,” he said.
I let my head tilt slightly, like I was considering him. “Yeah, she is.”
His fingers tightened near the knife. “You don’t know anything.”
“I know enough.”
“You know what she told you.”
“I know she looks at me without fear.” I stepped closer, just one slow pace, and watched his eyes flicker. “That part bother you? Knowing she crawls into my bed and sleeps like nothing can touch her?”
