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“Yet? I’m never going to do that. Not ever.”

“I know you believe that now, but if someone’s going to move, it has to be me.”

“I’ve never said or implied that, because I’ve neverthoughtit.”

“We both know you can’t move here. You’d shrivel up. You love your city the way I love Harmony Ridge.”

He did love it here. He loved his condo, loved his family and friends, loved his work and all the contacts he’d established locally that ensured he was never between contracts. He loved the walkable areas downtown, the vibrant vampire community’s many gathering spaces. But there was no reason he couldn’thave everything he loved. No reason at all, unless—unless he’d fooled himself this whole time.

“Don’t do this,” he said, and in his own ears his voice sounded…dead.

“We have to be realistic, Ryker. There’s no way around the problem.”

“So you’re breaking up with me.” She had to say it. If she wanted this, she had to say it. “Leslie?”

“I…I’m…”

She didn’t surrender to the tears; but instead of them, a high, musical keening sounded from the phone. Ryker threw open the car door and got out. He had to make distance from the sound. It throbbed in his ears and in his heart, which felt as though someone had torn it from his chest and stomped on it. He stood half-bent, one hand braced on the roof of the car. He curled his fingers around the edge of the roof and almost left dents in the shape of his fingers.

Over the next few minutes, Leslie’s soft cry faded. At last she whispered, “I…I think I should hang up now.”

“No.” He wasn’t doing this right. He had to fight harder to keep her, to tell her, to show her. He had to. “Don’t leave me, Leslie, please don’t. Please don’t.”

“I have to. I’m so, so sorry.”

The call ended.

Ryker fell to his knees on the blacktop and rocked back and forth. He lost track of time as he huddled there. He’d been wrong. Falling for Leslie had softened him, warped the steel. He should have known better; no, hedidknow better. No excuse. Jacqueline had shown him, and now Leslie was showing him.

He wasn’t worth fighting for, wasn’t worth keeping.

This fall hurt so much more than any other kind. He’d rather plunge over the edge of a mountain and break all his bones than fall like this—in love but not worth it, not really wanted.

Wow. He was pathetic.

He got up from his shrunken posture on the ground. He got into his car and turned back toward home.

He dove into his work with a strangely numb aggression. His headache grew. An hour passed. His phone buzzed and buzzed with calls from his friends. But none of it mattered. He was working. He was accomplishing. He was doing the thing that made him matter.

He smelled the vehicle chock-full of vampires when it turned onto his street. Freaking vampires, what were they thinking?

He’d left the door unlocked. It opened to admit every last one of them. Mackey, Philippa, Nova, Logan, and even Claire. She’d made someone cover for her at the bar. Well, as the owner she could do that.

“Ryker!” Logan hollered at a volume to make all of them wince.

They stampeded into his study one after the other and stood around his desk in a half-circle. The eyes of his friends were flashing jewel tones. They stared at him with varying combinations of relief, worry, and anger—all except Mackey, who as usual appeared merely intrigued. The anger was mostly Claire.

“You said you were coming,” Claire snapped.

“I’m working,” he said.

“So you lied to get me temporarily off your back? I warned you we’d come for you, dude.”

“I need to work.”

“That’s the opposite of what you need. You look sick, actually sick.”

“Go away,” Ryker said.