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“I can track your ass anywhere,” he says low enough the night gets chillier.

I don’t bother looking at him.

“You needed space, and so did I.”

He crouches in front of me, expelling a long breath ringing with annoyance. “Is there something in your brain that has trouble understanding the terms of you being here?”

I whip my head to him, staring him down. “Since you’re asking so nicely. Yes, there is. While I know we are enemies now, not long ago, we were everything else. And it’s fucking with my head.” I will give him only honesty from now on till he chokes on my truth.

He opens and closes his mouth, clamping it shut, exposing the muscle in his jaw that tics.

“Not my problem.”

“Nooo, you have your shit together.” My voice doesn’t hide that I call bullshit.

“Tomorrow, you’ll be monitoring a delivery to the warehouse.”

“Will you be there too?” I ask, even though I know what he’s planning to do.

“No.”

“Then you know my answer.”

He sighs, raking a hand through his hair. “This is not a negotiation.”

My hand lifts of its own accord, wanting to caress his face pulled taut—distraught because of me. Emotions overcome me, and I palm his cheek. Touching him anchors me.

He closes his eyes for a second and when he opens them, they bore into me with a mix of anger and hurt. He rips my handaway, his rejection fisting my heart. Tears instantly well up in my eyes.

“Shock me. Do it, Enzo, again and again and fucking again. I won’t change my mind once it’s made.”

He stalks away as if a horde of hyenas are in line, waiting to devour him.

Out of the shadows, his sister appears, and she takes a seat next to me.

“You have some big lady balls.”

I shrug, blinking the tears away. “Fake it till you make it.”

“I should hate you, but…”

“Better to hate me. I react strangely when people care about me.”

I want to addjust ask your brother, but I let the unspoken words linger between us.

“Men fear you. Must be nice,” she says, looking in the distance.

“Yeah, but you’re the princess.”

She sighs, wearing a faraway, forlorn expression. “In the ivory tower. No one wants to be her anymore.”

I smile, her presence not bothering me at all.

“But I could never be you either.”

“If it’s any consolation, I don’t know who I want to be anymore either.”

We exchange a look that tells us we’re both women who have had to pretend for a long time. Something akin to companionship stretches between us under the moonlight.