Page 24 of The Next Lie

“Everything I have done,” I say, closing my eyes against the tiny crack in my voice, “fucking everything, has been to keep that girl breathing. And you know that.”

“She isn’t a girl anymore. And I don’t know shit.”

The words hit wrong.

They shouldn’t. It is a fact. A very plain, ordinary one. Still, hearing him say it puts heat behind my eyes and violence in my hands.

“No,” I say. “She is not, in fact, a girl anymore.”

Nash’s gaze sharpens. Nothing gets past him when he’s looking for a reason to draw blood.

“I’m going to speak with her tomorrow,” I say.

“No.”

The answer is immediate. I almost smile.

“You misunderstand me.”

“I don’t think so.”

“No, you misunderstand me, because I am going to speak with Reva tomorrow.”

Nash moves then, slow and controlled, coming off the door to take one step toward me. “I reckon I’ll leave that up to Reva.”

“Reva doesn’t know enough to decide what she needs.”

The second the words leave my mouth, I regret them. Not because they are entirely untrue, but because they sound exactly like every bastard who ever decided something for her. Where she was going. What she was allowed to know. What she was allowed to survive.

Nash hears it too. His face goes colder.

“Careful.”

“I know what that sounded like.”

“Then don’t say it again.”

My jaw flexes. “She needs answers. Deserves them.”

“She needs a night without you forcing more blood down her throat.”

“She gets that tonight. And tomorrow?”

“If she wants to see you, she will.”

I step into his space.

There was a time when that would have been enough to start a fight. Maybe it still is. The old language remains in the body even after the friendship rots around it. He doesn’t move back. I don’t expect him to. Nash has always known how to turn stillness into a dare.

“If you stand between us,” I murmur, “there will be a problem, old friend.”

His brows lift slightly. “Is that right?”

“You don’t need to protect Reva from me, and you know it.”

“I watched her fall apart in the middle of my club because of you.”

“Because of Delia.”