Page 35 of The Triangle

There’s a heavy click of a door closing from the other room and a wave of panic swells in my chest.

They’re gonna leave me here. They’re gonna walk out of my life in the same moment I realize they walked back in.

And that. Cannot. Happen.

I force my eyes open, swing my legs out of the bed, and wave aside the rush of cold air that chills my entire body. Out in the living room I try not to panic, even though I’m well on my way. My heart is fluttering wildly, my breath coming in short gasps.

But just before I pull the front door open… I hear them. I hear them talking down in the garage.

I glance over my shoulder at the couch. The silver box with the triangle on top is gone. One of these two men has it. Probably Alec since he wasn’t in on that little heist.

I lean my head against the cold, gray metal of the door and smile. That night we stole the seven-carat diamond back from where Alec had stashed it… that was how it began for me.

I loved Danny for years before that job, but after that job I was in love with him. Because after that night I knew. He’d do anything for me. Anything.

And I don’t care that I was only a kid. I don’t care that he was more like a big brother to me than a guy. I don’t care if it’s weird, or sick, or whatever.

The only thing I care about are the feelings.

How he made me feel. How he took care of me. How he busted me out of the foster system like a superhero saving the day.

When we stole that diamond back that was it for us.

Me and him. Just the two of us. That’s it. There was no Alec yet. He was there but he didn’t matter. It would take months, maybe even years, for Alec to really be part of us.

But once he was… God, was he ever.

I sigh into the cold metal door, only half listening to the argument going on down the stairs. Only half listening to the one going on inside my head, too.

They’re not arguing about the diamond anymore. No one gives a shit about that diamond. We can’t sell it. Not easily. It’s got a serial number. And it’s heavy. And…

And there are people who would notice this seven-carat diamond.

But we didn’t know that when we stole it back. We didn’t care, either. We had no idea that the opportunity to steal diamonds that could be sold would present itself over, and over, and over again.

We thought, This is it. Our chance to change our lives. A little guarantee that we’d never go hungry again. We’d never be homeless again. And we took it.

Not because we’re thieves, just because we could. And who wouldn’t? If they were in our shoes? Who wouldn’t seize the day and turn their shitty lives into the stuff of dreams?

I turn the handle on the door. Slowly ease it open a crack.

“You were fucking her,” Danny snarls.

“She was fucking me!” Alec almost snorts. “But to be fair, she wanted to fuck us both. And you were never good at sharing.” A pause. “It’s not too late, ya know.”

No, it’s not. That’s why I’m here.

I need them. Both of them. These past few years without Danny and Alec together have been a whole other level of hell. So much worse than the years that came before Danny anointed himself my knight.

But the situation is precarious. It’s teetering on the edge. We are on the verge of losing everything. All of it.

No. That’s not how this is gonna go down.

“What the fuck is happening?” I ask, stepping through the door and out onto the landing. The soles of my feet are tingling from the cold and my body is starting to tremble. But the frigid air inside the garage makes me shake like a kid trying to crack a safe with a gun to her head.

That happened, I realize. And in the same moment I also realize I remember.

I remember everything.