Chapter Twenty-Five Alejandro
Chapter Twenty-Five
Alejandro
I managed to avoid Ryder and Reed the rest of the night—because I hid like a coward. Like that inner magician I just couldn’t seem to shake no matter how much I tried.
I’d volunteered to patrol during the storm to avoid talking to anyone.
Wound up spending half the night walking in a frozen tundra (mildly exaggerating, but I grew up in Vegas, so sue me) when there was no need to.
I’d been numb to the cold, too focused on what Reed had said to me and what had happened with Audrey.
Now I was about to come face-to-face with her, and I wasn’t sure if she’d even open the door when I knocked after I’d told her not to last night.
I knocked on her door like I was a salesman hoping the door wouldn’t open so I wouldn’t actually have to do my job. Barely a tap, then I turned, planning to tell Ryder to come up himself when he was off the phone with his mother.
I was mid-escape when the door opened.
“Thought I told you what to do if there was a knock,” I muttered, swiveling back around, not prepared for the sight in front of me.
Blonde hair in a messy bun with a few loose strands that begged for me to reach forward with my hand and brush them behind her ears. Her skin was pink, as if she’d been scrubbing away evidence of tears, matching her reddish eyes.
And then there was the white sweatshirt with piano notes on it that hung off her shoulder, paired with black leggings that hugged her long legs. Bare feet and pink-painted toenails.
Basically, she was a vision I’d give anything to come home to every day after work. Minus the possibly-just-cried part.
“You okay?” I rushed out before she could tell me why she’d opened her door for me.
“Chase misses me. He’s worried. We were FaceTiming.”
Yeah, that’d do it. And I had no way to help fix that problem. Not yet, at least. Not until Mitch and every potential enemy were dead and buried for good.
She moved out of the way like an offer to come in, one I probably ought to refuse after what had gone down last night.
I, of course, did the opposite. At this point, it’d be more shocking if I actually heeded my own commands to stay away from her for once.
She set her back to the wall by the door and bent her knee, propping up her foot.
I caught a whiff of the perfume I’d packed now that I was in the room with her. Lanc?me Id?le. I’d memorized the label, telling myself it wasn’t because I planned to buy a bottle after this op so my place would smell like her. I wasn’t that obsessed. Or so I kept telling myself, at least.
“Breakfast.” The word came out like a rough demand as I remembered why I was up there alone with her again. “Reed’s cooking. One of the few things he does well, aside from killing people. Well, that and memorizing every detail involving human history.”
She began tracing the piano notes on her sweatshirt, and I followed along with every swipe of her finger as she whispered, “I thought you were here to talk about last night.”
Talk? Doubtful that was possible. But I kept doing the same shit over and over again while expecting a different outcome anyway.
“Though I have a feeling you’re going to tell me we should lock that up in the Never Happened box, along with seeing me naked and talking about my underwear.”
“Who saw you naked?” Ryder’s question, and his sudden appearance, had her shoulders startling and me damn near jumping out of my skin.
If anyone were to get the drop on me, it’d be Delta One.
“Rodriguez?”
And you last-named me. Great. I met Audrey’s eyes, unsure what to say and how to save my neck here before I faced him.
“I forgot to lock my door at the lodge,” she said, taking the bold and brave route of honesty.
I kept forgetting that was an option since I’d been lied to so often by Beth in the past. “He thought it was his room,” she continued while sidestepping me, “and I’d just been getting out of the shower. It was an accident.”
“I’m sorry, what?” The disbelief in his tone felt like a mercy kill was coming. He’d make it fast and painless, but the end result would be the same.
I was a dead man walking.
“Any news yet? And all good so far with our families? Protected, yes?” Her attempt to redirect Ryder was appreciated, though I wasn’t sure how effective it’d be.
“All safe,” he confirmed. “But you’re not about to speed by what I overheard. Naked. Underwear talk. And what’s the other thing that you’re supposed to forget happened?”
Ah, you know, nothing. Just the fact I almost put my face between your sister’s legs. I was certain that’d go over really well if I actually spoke my thoughts out loud.
“Alex.” At least he’d reverted to my first name. “Why can’t you look at me? What the hell happened?”
“Nothing, seriously,” Audrey whispered, her tone giving away that everything had almost happened.
But it didn’t. And I focused on that while finally manning up and facing my best friend.
Audrey set her hand on his forearm, imploring him to turn his attention on her instead. “There’s nothing between us. You need to relax and let this go.”
Nothing.
Between.
Us.
Those words cut that wound of mine open again, sending me backward and over the threshold of her door.
You’re not mine. Can’t be. And maybe Reed hadn’t correctly Freuded me. What was going on between us wasn’t real.
Just two people thrown together in extraordinary circumstances, mistaking this for something more. That was more plausible than anything else. It couldn’t be that I was falling for my best friend’s sister. It couldn’t be that I . . . well, had already fallen.