He blanched, and I felt guilty. I shouldn’t feel guilty.
“I know what you’re thinking, and that’s not what I meant,” I said and sighed.
“Then what?”
“I’ll...have to show you.” I motioned to the hall—my bedroom—with a tilt of my chin.
He nodded, something hot and dark in his eyes.
“Once again it’s not what you’re thinking,” I said drily.
I think he...pouted.
What do you know—here was yet another side to Cole.
“Don’t you want to show me, too?” Gavin said, his tone a little tight. He chopped the lettuce with more force.
“Not this,” I replied, trying to be gentle. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to him,” Cole snapped.
O-kay. The ice was back.
“He’s my guest,” I said, “and I like him, and he’s acting civil. He deserved an apology from me, so I gave it, and now he deserves one from you. I’m not leaving this spot until he gets it.”
Gavin smirked.
Cole gritted out a very mean “Sorry.”
“Good. Let’s go.” As Cole and I stood, another knock sounded at my door. Dang it, who was that? Considering my luck, it was probably Veronica. “Just a sec.” I stomped to the door. This time, I found Justin waiting on the other side. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Cole came up behind me, the intense heat he radiated a caress against my skin. “What are you doing here?”
A bundle of energy, Justin couldn’t seem to stand still. “You told me to contact you if I had news. Well, I have news, and besides that, I thought you told Ali what’s going on.”
Cole glanced over his shoulder, saying, “You should have called.”
“No way. This was too big.”
“What is?” I asked at the same time Gavin called, “Who is it?”
Justin pressed his lips into a thin line. He backed up, saying, “Sorry. Didn’t realize. I’ll text you as soon as I get inside my car.”
The door shut with a soft click. He’d better hurry. Curiosity was now in the process of eating me alive.
“You were going to show me something,” Cole prompted.
I nodded, and led him past the kitchen. Gavin glanced up from the loaf of potato bread he was slicing, frowned. “Seriously? You’re abandoning me?”
“Only for a few minutes.”
“You don’t owe him an explanation, either,” Cole said, dragging me away. “And I’m not apologizing again.”
I think Gavin flipped him off, but I couldn’t be sure. In the hall, I heard Nana humming under her breath.
“We have another guest,” I called.
She stuck her head out of the door and brightened. “Cole. It’s wonderful to see you.”
“You, too.”
She arched a brow when she noticed my hand on the knob of my door. “You’re going in there...alone?”
“Just for a few minutes,” I said.
Her eyes narrowed, but she nodded. “I’ll be watching the clock.”
I stepped inside—only to gasp. She had decorated my room with everything she knew I’d love. The furnishings were a dark cherrywood and polished to a glossy shine. Wispy white curtains covered my window, and a framed picture of Emma and me hung on the wall. She was in front of me, wrapped in my arms, and we were both smiling our biggest smiles.
There was a note taped to the border.
Angels must have held this photo in their hands, because that’s the only way it could have survived the bomb. I had it framed weeks ago, but wanted to wait to give it to you at Christmas. This seemed like a better time.
Love, Nana
Oh, Nana, I thought as tears welled in my eyes.
“You’re both adorable,” Cole said, stepping up behind me to study the photo. “You look so happy.”
“We were. We’d just finished playing hide-and-seek in the house, and of course, she had won. She always won. My legs were too long to fit anywhere. She was gloating in that sweet way she had—nah, nah, nah, I’m the crown champion again—so I snatched her up to tickle her. Mom demanded we pose.”
He squeezed my shoulder. “I have one of my mom and me, taken a few weeks before she died. It’s more valuable to me than my heart and lungs.”
I liked when he shared something from his past. He didn’t do it often. I turned, met his gaze.
He hooked a strand of hair behind my ear. I could feel myself getting lost in the moment, in him, so when his phone beeped a few seconds later, I jumped. I also sighed with relief.
“Go ahead,” I said. “Check it.”
He hesitated a moment before scrolling through the message, his features darkening as he read. “Justin says the spy is someone who was at the park tonight. Information about the fight has already hit Anima.”
“So...that rules out Collins and Cruz. And Frosty and Bronx were too busy rescuing Kat and Reeve to hand out any details.”
“Not necessarily, but I know them better than I know myself, and they’d never help the enemy. I’ve never suspected them.”
Had he ever suspected me? “You can rule out Lucas and Trina, too. I watched the spy watch them, remember? So that leaves...Veronica.”
“You saw a male in the forest.”
“Yes, and she could be working with him.”
“Maybe.” His gaze locked with mine and searched. “There’s also Gavin.”
My hand fluttered to my throat, rubbed. Gavin... He had to be innocent. And yet he wanted to stay the night here, no matter how uncomfortable he’d be on the couch. Maybe not because he hated the motel, after all, but to keep tabs on me and my dark metamorphosis.
“Anyway, they weren’t the only ones there,” Cole reminded me.
“Me?” I squeaked.
He rolled his eyes. “I never suspected you. I mean Kat. Reeve.”
“Girl. Girl.”
“Like you said, a girl could be working with a boy.”
“Besides,” I continued, “there’s no way Kat would betray us, and Reeve doesn’t know anything.”
“Kat has no filter. She—”
“Isn’t responsible,” I insisted.
“What about Ethan?”
“Bronx has already looked into him. Found nothing suspicious.”
After a short pause, he nodded. “That leaves us with...yeah, Gavin and Veronica. But I’ve already checked, and they came out clean. As you know, that’s the reason I spent so much time with her. I was going through her stuff, checking everything she said. Nothing dubious came up. More than that, the problems started before the pair got here.”
“Maybe you didn’t dig deep enough. Maybe one or both were working for Anima before they got here and asked to be assigned to your team. Talk to Mr. Ankh and your dad. They’ll have ideas about what to—”
“No way. My reasons for staying quiet are still the same. I won’t blacken someone’s name without at least a little proof.”
“Yeah, but once the truth comes to light, whoever you’ve accused will be vindicated. Or not.”
He shook his head, saying, “The problem is, my closest friends will know I didn’t trust them. Maybe they’ll forgive me, maybe not, but from that moment on, no matter what I do, what I say, they’ll always wonder at my motives. That stuff doesn’t leave a person.”
Had he ever been accused of something he hadn’t done?
I must have asked the question aloud because he said, “When Justin started working with Anima, he hung around my team for information, just like the newest spy. I knew something was going on and stupidly blamed Boots and Ducky, members of the team you never got to meet.” As he spoke, he rubbed the tattoos of their names. “They were so mad at me, so hurt, they went hunting that night, I guess to prove their loyalty, and they found a nest of zombies. That’s the night they were killed. I can’t go through something like that again.”