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I nod. “I am now.” I feel reinvigorated, like I know what to say to Simon. With Eli at my side, I can tell him exactly where to go. I go to take a step forward, but Simon does the same, and Eli nearly shoves me behind him.

“Eli,” I say.

But he doesn’t seem to hear me. My chest tightens.

The kitchen door swings open, and I hear the fast clack of heels walking—no, running toward us. “Eli!” a woman’s voice calls.

Cassandra.

“I’m going to ask you one time, nicely, to leave,” Eli says, his voice as tight as a steel cord. “I won’t ask a second time.”

Simon smirks. “That wasn’t very nice. Now I’m going to ask you to kindly give me my girl.”

Simon doesn’t even see it coming. One minute, he’s standing, the next, there’s a sickening crunch and Eli’s fist is where his face was. Simon’s head is tipped back, his eyes rolled up, blood spurting from his nose.

Someone’s screaming. Cass, I think.

No, Simon.

Or is it me? I clap my hand over my mouth just in case, then I turn and run.

CHAPTER28

Eli

TRACK:Johnny Cash, “Hurt”

My stomach sinks like a rock in water, blunting any pain still ringing through my hand at knocking that dipshit on his ass.

“Reese, wait!”

She doesn’t wait. She’s walking so fast I have to jog to get to her office at the same time as her.You scared her. You fucking asshole, you couldn’t control your temper and you did what you always do—feel too hard. Care too much. Over-fucking-react.

“Reese—” I say when I reach her office.

She doesn’t slam the door in my face—there’s that.

Instead she walks over to her desk. Only she doesn’t turn around. She leans over her desk, her shoulders shaking.

She’s crying. My stomach twists. “Reese, I—”

But when Reese spins around, my words fall away.

Her brows are slanted inward, lips tight. “What the hell were you thinking?”

She’s not scared. She’s furious.

Shame rocks through me hard. I did it again. I get a flashback to the time I put a hole through Seamus’s wall. To when I hit him, in fact, when he drove the car that scarred Chelsea.

“Reese, I just saw him going after you, and I heard what he said—”

“I heard what he said too! And that was nothing compared to what he’s going to do next. Eli, I told you about him. I told you about what an asshole he was, how he’d sue you if you tried anything…”

“I don’t care about any of that! After all that shit with Neil especially, I—”

“What shit with Neil?”

My stomach plunges even lower. I didn’t think that was possible.