Page 100 of The Encore Effect

He rocked back on his heels. “I never—”

“But you knew he knew, right?” When he didn’t immediately answer, she shook her head, a self-recriminating smile twisting her lips. “So much for complete honesty.”

“I didn’t tell him anything. He figured it out.”

“How long have you known?”

Beckett swallowed, delaying the inevitable. “Since New Mexico.”

Air escaped her lungs in a shocked burst, the disappointment in her eyes scraping at his skin. He watched as her guard went back up, the walls he’d spent weeks systematically destroying re-erecting themselves in a matter of seconds.

He reached for her, but she pulled away, wrapping her arms around her middle. “I should have told you.”

“You’re always protecting him before you protect me—before you protect us. You knew how this could affect me and you didn’t let me in on it.” Her voice wavered. “What else aren’t you telling me?”

A sour taste rose in the back of his mouth and cold spread through his hands and arms. A heavy, tingling sensation settling over his chest that made everything feel far away, like it was all happening through the muffled weight of a thick winter blanket. His voice was rough when he spoke, jagged edges grasping at the words. “I fucked up. I’m sorry.”

She dashed away a tear. “I have lost everything, Beckett. Do you get that? My job, my chance to build a different future—God, the way Zach and Logan were looking at me. I have nothing.”

“You have me.” He took a halting step towards her, his hands itching to touch her but unsure if that would make it better or worse.

“I’m not sure I do.”

“You do,” he insisted. He tugged her against his chest, clutching her to him. “Tell me what to do. I’ll do whatever it takes to prove to you that you and me, Luna, we’re endgame. There is nothing I am more sure of than that. I love you.”

“Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t say that to me now. Not like this.”

“Why not?”

“Because you can’t just say the words and make it better, Beckett.” She shoved lightly on his chest, stepping out of the circle of his arms as his world crumbled around him. “You have to mean it. I have to feel it. And right now…” She broke off, shaking her head.

He swallowed down the panic rising in his throat, a hot, hard lump he refused to acknowledge. “Are you ending this?”

She ran her finger over the band of the engagement ring on her finger and shook her head. “But I don’t know where we go from here. I can’t keep begging you to let me in and I can’t keep being blindsided by it when you don’t.” With shaking hands, she began sliding the ring off her finger.

“Don’t even fucking think about it,” Beckett growled.

“We’re not engaged,” she whispered.

He closed his hand over hers, sliding the ring back into place at the base of her finger. “Not yet. But you own me, Katerina Luna. I told you before. Nothing about this has been fake for me. Not a fucking minute. You are mine. You have always been mine. Whether you call yourself my fiancée or not doesn’t change that.” He kissed her finger just above the sparkling diamond and then pressed her hand to his chest, holding her palm over the thudding of his heart. “We can make this work.”

“I hope so, but I don’t know how.”

“We will.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “You’re it for me. Say you believe me.”

“I believe you.”

He kissed her, slow and tender, his heart breaking with each movement of his lips over hers.

She pulled away, pressing her fingertips to her lips. “I have to go or I’ll miss my flight.”

“You’ll see, love. I promise. When the tour is over, I’m coming for you.”

Chapter Forty

“And step, two, three, four, and spin, two and pah pah pow!” Lana shouted over the music as she led the remaining members of Midnight Storm through a choreography review on the empty Cleveland arena stage. She spun around, “Remember, you’ll need to interact with the audience there, Becks, since Jackson isn’t going to be with you.”

“Got it,” Beckett panted, doubling over and planting his hands on his knees. As if he needed a reminder that, for the first time in his career, his twin wouldn’t be on stage with him.