Page 14 of Wicked Brutal

“Then this shouldn’t be confusing.” Her eyes filled, and that wasn’t the reaction I’d expected. “Hey.” I crossed the room, and she shook her head.

“Don’t.” I stopped, and my stomach dropped.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Ally.”

She looked away. “Please don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Be nice right now.” That scared me more than anything else could have.

“What happened?”

“Nothing happened.”

“Roman?”

“No.”

“Tremblay?”

“No.”

“Did somebody find out?”

“No.”

“Are you leaving me?”

Her head snapped toward me. “No.”

“Then tell me.”

She started crying, and I closed the distance between us, and this time she didn’t back away. I took her face in my hands. “Baby, talk to me.”

“I don’t know how.”

“However it comes out.”

She shook her head.

“You’re scaring me,” I said.

“I know.”

“Then tell me.”

Her hands were shaking. I looked down as she shoved one into the pocket of her coat, and for one insane second I thought she was giving me the penny. Instead she pulled out something white. She took my hand, turned it over, put the plastic stick into my palm, and closed my fingers around it.

I looked down. Two pink lines.

I stopped breathing. My brain refused to understand what my eyes were looking at, and then it did, and I looked at Ally. She was crying silently.

“Ryan,” she whispered.