Page 89 of Burned

She rolls her eyes deeper than I thought possible. “Have you met the man? He looks at you like he wants to murder the air for touching you.”

Despite everything, a laugh bursts out.

“Listen to me,” she says. “If you hide this and Carlos tells him first, or Caleb has more dirty messages stored up. Caleb gets to hurt you again.”

I flinch. She’s right.

“You don’t have to tell him every detail.” She eyes me with that secret knowledge only a big sister has. “I know you didn’t tell me everything. And nor should you.”

She shakes her head. “I know it’s too much to tell.”

“Thanks.”

She sighs, “But he needs to know enough that Carlos can’t use it to make you run.”

“I wasn’t going to run.”

Cass gives me a look. That big sister language. No words.

“Fine.” I pause.

She doesn’t relent.

I confess. “I may have been considering a small strategic disappearance.”

“To go find Carlos and kill him yourself to save the rest of us?”

“Possibly.” I lean my forehead against hers. “But I thought better of it. I don’t want to be predictable anymore.”

“Then do the thing Carlos thinks you won’t,” she says softly and kind. “Trust someone before you’re cornered.”

A knock comes at the door. This one is different.

Low. Controlled.

Lucian.

His voice comes through the wood. “Erin.”

My heart tries to crawl out of my chest. Cass squeezes my hand.

I close my eyes.

“If you let Carlos tell him first,” she whispers, “then Caleb gets to hurt you one more time.”

I breathe in.

Out.

Then I say, “Come in.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

LUCIAN

When Erin tellsme to come in, I know the world is about to change.

Some instincts arrive before facts.