Chapter 27
Dante
I walked out of the art shed with my pulse still hammering, every muscle wired so tight it felt like my skin didn’t fit.
I’d wanted to hurt her. That much was true. The second she’d said spy, it was like someone ripped the ground out from under me. Dustin was right, she was shady. I’d been played.
But now? Now that I had a chance to clear my head? Every step across campus felt heavier.
I scrubbed a hand down my face as the night air greeted me. The cold wind slapped me, but it didn’t cool the fire in my chest.
The truth? I wasn’t angry at her. Not really.
I believed her when she told me she hadn’t told her dad anything.
Not that it mattered now, I’d trusted her.
Why? Because she was gorgeous? Funny? Clever?
She was all that, but she was also . . .
Sav. She’d come to mean a lot in a very short time, and part of that was because of how easy it was with her.
This fucking sucked. I wasn’t angry at Sav for being told to spy on me and not actually doing it.
I was angry at myself for letting her get this close, for forgetting even for a second that I couldn’t have things like her.
Distractions.
She made me reckless. She made me forget the rules of survival.
The worst part was, even as the words I’d said echoed back at me like poison, all I could think about was turning around, knocking on her door, and taking them back.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I jammed my hands into my hoodie pocket, dropped my head, and told myself the lie I’d been running on for years.
Better to be cold than to be careless.
So why the hell did it feel like I’d just lost the only warm thing worth holding on to?
I didn’t go back to the dorms right away. The thought of Dustin’s easy questions or Noah’s too-perceptive silence made my chest feel tighter.
My eyes narrowed as I thought of Noah. He was allowed to call her Savvy, but she’d never told me that I could.
How did Noah, whom she’d met, what? Three times?
How did he become a fucking friend of the untouchable Savannah Cole, and all I got was in between her thighs?
I snorted at my own ridiculousness. I had sex with her — he got a hug. What mattered more?
I chewed my bottom lip. I won, right? Sex trumped a hug . . . right? Jesus fucking Christ, what was she even doing to me? I felt as insecure now as I did the first time I was waiting to find out if I was the starting quarterback for my middle school team.
I needed to walk this shit off.
So I walked. Past the library, past the athletic center, and I found myself at the stadium.
Locked, dark, empty — but still humming with the ghosts of past victories.
I used my access pass, which I hadn’t handed over yet, and sat on the lowest row of bleachers, elbows on my knees, staring at the turf.
This was supposed to be my whole world. Football. Winning. Everything else was just noise.
Now there was her.
Savannah Cole, with her sharp mouth and sharper eyes, made me feel like she could see straight through the armor I’d spent years welding together.
I’d called her a snake.
I tipped my head back and stared at the sky, groaning low in my throat. I could still feel the heat of her skin, still hear the break in her voice when I told her to back up.
But even here, in the dark, with nothing but empty seats around me, I couldn’t stop the truth from bleeding in.
I didn’t want her to hate me.
I just wanted her.
And that — more than the threats, more than the whispers about payouts and cover-ups — was the riskiest thing I’d faced yet.
I heard a buzz coming from my bag. The burner. I thought the fucking thing was turned off. I didn’t want to deal with his shit tonight.
The buzz came again. Longer this time.
I pulled out my phone, my thumb hesitating over the screen when I saw the number. Not saved. Never saved. Just digits I knew too well.
I thought about ignoring it again, letting it ring until silence returned. But silence never lasted. Not with him.
I swiped to answer. “Why are you calling me?”
“Rough night, golden boy?” The voice was smooth. Smug. “Your tip on the hockey game was shit. You lost me money.”
My jaw clenched. “It’s called gambling for a reason.”
A chuckle. “Do I need a little insurance that you’re still playing ball?”
“What do you want?” I kept my voice low, flat, trying to ignore the pulse in my temple.
“I think you’re holding out on me. You wouldn’t be so stupid, would you?”
I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I don’t have anything.”
“Well, you’d better find something. Because accidents happen, Spence. And your sister? She’s always been so . . . unlucky.”
My hand tightened around the phone until the case creaked, “Don’t.”
“Then don’t make me.” Another oily laugh, then the line went dead. I stood in the middle of the field, the phone still pressed to my ear long after the call ended, fighting the urge to hurl it into the bleachers.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Jiana. The phone rang and rang, and my jaw ached from clenching it.
It went to voicemail.
I called again.
“Dante?” Her voice was low against the background noise.
My eyes were closed as I listened. “Ji? Are you at a party?” My pulse was thumping.
“Wait, wait, I need quiet.” I heard her shouting to get out of the way, and then the background noise was quieter, and I heard her take a deep breath. “D, that you?”
“No, dumbass,” I said with a small smile. “It’s someone else who sounds exactly like me and calls you from my number.”
Jiana laughed. “Why are you calling me, little brother? Man, you’re like freaking Spider-Man.”
“Spider-Man?”
“Your spidey senses tingling at your sister out on a Wednesday night,” she teased, but I heard the slight tightness underlying her playfulness.
“You know I live by my control freak tendencies,” I said as I looked out over the field.
Jiana was silent, and then she sighed. “I’m okay,” she told me quietly.
“Where’s Nicky?”
“Your nephew is with his grandfather,” Jiana said, and I heard her moving. “Mom’s working night shift.”
Of course she was. “And where’s his father?”
“Working.” I heard her shiver and just knew she’d left the party with no coat on. The fact that my sister was responsible for another human being still blew my mind.
“Is that fucker there?” I asked, my tone low and even.
Silence.
“Ji, tell me you aren’t out getting high when Nicky’s with Pops.”
“I’m not getting high.”
And my name wasn’t Dante Spence. “Ji?”
“I had one smoke. One. Nothing else. I promise.”
“Stay away from Knox, Ji. Come on, you know this. Tell me you know this, sis.” I was on my feet walking back and forth as I tried to talk sense to my sister who was hundreds of miles away.
“He just turned up,” she protested weakly. “I never knew he would be here.”
“A party in our neighborhood, and you didn’t think the local dealer would be there?” Anger was leaking through, and I pulled it back, control held tight. “Do you think I’m stupid?”
“No. But I think you’re annoying.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Fuck you.”
“Fuck you back, little brother,” she teased. “I had one smoke. I’m not stupid either, D, I know what I almost lost.” Her voice was quiet now, serious.
“If I ask you to go home and hug Nicky for me, and make him a D-cup hot chocolate special, will you do it?”
“He called you?” she guessed.
“No.” I lied.
“I know you too well.” She sounded bitter. “Only two things scare you: not being able to play ball, and Knox Ward.”
“That fucker doesn’t scare me,” I told her honestly. “I can and will break every bone in his fucking body if he ever sells you shit again.”
Silence. I heard her breathing. “I’ll go home.”
Hope surged inside me. “Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Pinky promise?”
“How the heck will you even know if I pinky promise?” she said with a laugh.
“Are you joking? I’m freaking Spider-Man, remember?”
“I pinky promise,” she told me, and I believed her, though a million people wouldn’t, and experience had told me I probably shouldn’t. “So . . . you doing okay?”
“I’m hanging in there,” I answered honestly.
“Have you met a girl yet?”
“Nah.”
“Lie, lie, lie.”
I laughed. “Fine. I thought I had, but probably not. Don’t tell Mom.”
Jiana made a happy squeal of pleasure. “I want details!”
“Call me with Nicky and I’ll tell you everything . . .”
“Wow, you’re a sneaky bastard,” she said, but I could hear her grinning. “Fine, you got half an hour, and I want details.”
“I will give you all the details you can handle.”
I heard her gasp, and I heard the mouthpiece get covered, and I just knew who was in front of her.
“Ji?” My foot started tapping.
“One minute,” she said hurriedly. Her hand was over the phone again, but not the same as before. “I don’t want to talk to you, asshole. Leave me alone.”
I was pacing again. If he touched her, God himself couldn’t stop me from putting that motherfucker in the ground.
“Hey, it’s me,” she sounded breathless. “I’m getting my coat, right now. Stay on the phone with me?”
“Always.”
I sat back down, wincing as the background decibels sounded like static through the phone. I heard muffled voices, too much chatter, a loud bang, and then suddenly silence.
“Ji?”
“I’m here.” She was out of breath. “That party got huge really quickly.”
“Did he hurt you? Threaten you? Tell me.”
“No. Neither.” She inhaled. “He told me to tell you he said hi.”
“Asshole.”
“What did you do?” she asked suspiciously. “Why’s he being a dick about you?”
“Nothing.”
“You have spidey sense when I’m at a party, well, I have them for when you’re lying.”
“Bullshit.” I chuckled, trying to relax. She was okay; she was going home. “You walking?”
“It’s two blocks to Pops’, D.” Her breathing was picking up, and I knew she was walking fast. “Now give me details. Is she pretty?”
“Gorgeous.”
“Is she like that skank, Brooke?”
I smiled despite myself. “You always hated Brooke.”