Page 66 of Dark Knight (Knight's Ridge Empire 10)

“What’s wrong? I thought the fire was a false alarm.”

“It was… I just…” My eyes burn with tears and a lump forms in my throat.

“Shit, Cal.” Stella rushes forward and wraps her arms around me as I fight not to fall apart in front of the bitch squad that is the gym team.

“I’m okay,” I whisper once I feel a little stronger. “I’m just exhausted. I’ve got a basement to clean up, and Nico is an arsehole.”

“Can’t argue with that last one,” Stella says lightly. “But you don’t need to do your place alone. Wanna blow this off, grab some food and Emmie, and go and get started?”

“No, I can’t ask you to—”

“Callista Cirillo,” she growls, a warning in her tone that I have no choice but to take seriously.

“Miss Peterson will be pissed.”

“Fuck her. You’re more important. Plus, it’ll give us a chance to talk. Something tells me you’ve been avoiding it since last weekend.”

“I-I haven’t. I—”

“Calli,” she breathes. “Don’t lie to me.”

I sigh, not wanting to keep running from everyone and hiding how I feel.

“Things have just got a bit on top of me recently.”

“I’m sorry,” she says.

“It’s not your—”

“We’ve had so much shit going on that we’ve neglected you.”

I shake my head. “I’m used to—”

“No. Just no. Just because that’s how the guys have already treated you, it doesn’t mean it’s right, and I’m sorry.”

She takes a step back and looks around at the rest of the squad, all of which have paid us zero attention. Might have something to do with the fact that my best friend is a bad-arse who has punched more than one of them at this point and generally proved time and time again how she’s so much better than every one of their elite arses.

“Let’s go, before Miss Peterson appears.”

Throwing a hoodie around her shoulders, she pushes her feet into her trainers and gathers up her bag.

“Have you got your car?” she asks as we slip out of the locker room and head down the now thankfully empty hallway.

“Yeah.”

Stella reaches for her phone and starts tapping away before she turns to me and says, “Emmie is in.”

A smile pulls at my lips as the realisation of just how badly I needed some time with my girls hits me.

The need to tell them the truth about what’s been going on burns through me, but I know I can’t. I can’t breathe Ant’s name to them. If anyone else were to find out and the gossip were to spread, he could be dead before the sun sets. And as for Daemon. Well… I guess we just keep pretending that nothing happened there. I mean, we’ve been doing it since Halloween, so it shouldn’t be too hard.

Only now, he’s not ignoring you.

I want to share with my girls, and tell them that I finally lost my V-card. But at the same time, I’m not ready for them to know.

Stella takes the lead and drags open my driver’s door before I get a chance to get close, but I don’t complain. I’m more than happy not to have to focus on anything right now.

I expect her to head straight back to my place, so I sit up a little straighter when she takes a turn I’m not expecting.