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My steps slowed and my hand slid from Kat’s as she raced ahead. I sucked in harsh breaths as I returned to that pain now, that realization that Finley existed outside my sphere. That by his own last name, he lived in an entirely different world.
If you’d just let me, I could make it so no one looked at you again…not unless they wanted to lose their goddamn eyes.
Those words returned to me as I lifted my gaze to the top floor of the building. A shadow moved in the corner of the room, low, hulking. My pulse sped…Leale.
My lips parted.He'd brought Leale.
I loved that dog…loved him like he was my own.
I lifted my hand, stupidly, I know. “Leale! Over here, boy!”
The dark shadow moved, pressing his big body against the glass.
“Anna,come on,” Kat called, at the scanner to his building. She pressed her access card against the pad, but there was no green light…and no release of the locks. A tightness filled my chest as I searched for Leale once more. Even if Finley had somehow become a stranger to me…I knew his dog.
I'd been there the day his mother had brought him home, and I fell head over heels in love as the eight-week-old puppy stumbled and bounced along the hall of their home.
“He’s perfect, right?” Mrs. Salvatore had asked, smiling.
“He’s perfect,” I'd answered. “Finley is going to love him.”
And even in the weeks and months of horror that followed, Finley clung to that dog harder than anyone. Part of me wished somehow he’d clung to me the same way. Instead, he'd become distant, the infrequent text messages my only form of communication.
He was hurting. Iknewhe was hurting. How could he not be…when he was the one who'd found his mom?
“Fuck you,Finley!”Kat called out, reckless. “Let us in! You creeped on us, right? It’s only fair we get to creep on you!”
She laughed and turned to me. I chuckled at how vibrant she was in that moment. But no matter how much I laughed, the sadness still lingered. I was furious and desperate for him, all at the same time. My fists curled. I’d clock him in the jaw right here and now if I saw him. Hit and yell andkiss.
I swallowed hard as the memory of that came raging to the surface.I waited for you to come to my house, watching as you slipped into my fucking life with your goddamn numbers and innocent smile.
He’d broken in to our apartment and brought me a damn phone. Did that sound like a sane man? Did that sound like someone normal?
“Finley!”Kat stabbed the intercom and barked into the speaker. “Stay the fuck away from her. She doesn’t want you…she doesn’t want anything to do with you.”
A nerve at my temple pulsed, driving a spear of agony through my head with the words. A lie. That’s what the agony said. My hands shook with the thought. I lifted my gaze to Leale standing faithfully at the window, staring at me. I could almost see the happiness in his eyes, almost hear that pleading whine. Almost see his little tail wagging.
“We can’t get in,” Kat complained. “Maybe we can trash his garden instead? Would that work?”
Leale suddenly turned away from me, moving further along the wall…his focus somewhere else.
“Anna?” Kat turned back and kicked a fern. “You want me to send him a message, ‘cause I will, if you want me to?”
I spun on my heel, finding movement in the distance, almost hidden by the jutting wall of Building One. Finley. Standing there….
My heart punched at the sight. He lookedpissed,hisdark eyes almost black, his hands fisted in his jacket pockets. He looked like he was ready to explode…at me.
“No,” I answered carefully, took a step backwards, and turned. “Let’s get out of here.”
Kat didn’t see him, half hidden by the towering green ferns that surrounded the front of the building. All she saw was me as I hurried forward, grabbed her hand, and tugged her after me. “I want to go.”
“Okay.” Confusion flared in her eyes for a second.
But then we were running, tearing around the other side of Finley’s building, leaving that surly, thunderous gaze behind. The faster I ran, the harder my heart thundered. I risked a glance over my shoulder to the corner of the building in the distance.
The corner I knew hid the one man I wanted…and right now feared.
“What do you want to do, then?” Kat threw her hands into the air.
