bloody stamps beside the buttons. He bent down, draping it over me and buttoning it back up as he went. When Gray finished, West draped his jacket over me.
Everything about this moment felt fateful, from the pounding fireworks to the blood on their hands.
I kissed the lips of a god, so fate punished me.
Maybe I’d kissed the lips of two.
Grayson, who I’d watched for years and hoped would never notice me. Yet, in the end, his attention was the catalyst to set my soul on fire. West, who I prayed for years would look back again in my direction, but whose attention proved the most destructive.
No one ever accused gods of being kind to mortals.
West stood up, beside Gray, and Grayson dragged his thumb along my jaw, looking me over for any signs of hurt.
“I’m okay,” I said.
Every muscle in him was coiled and throbbing.
I gripped his bicep. “I’m okay, I promise.”
He let out a pained exhale. “Either way. We’re not going down to the cemetery tonight.”
“Agreed,” West said.
Like coming out of a dream, I scrambled up. “No! We might not get another chance for months.” The next time Crowne Hall would be this distracted…it could be the baby shower. Which would be months from now.
I knew Gray wouldn’t let West look on his own, neither could he leave me alone with him, no matter what weird Twilight Zone camaraderie had just happened.
West folded his arms, and Gray did the same.
“You’re not going,” Gray said.
I’ve decided I don’t like it when West and Gray team up.
“I’m not letting some asshole ruin this!”
Speaking of said asshole, he moaned in the sand. Gray’s jaw ticked.
I glanced at him. “What’s going to happen to him?”
“Paparazzi are going to get an anonymous tip,” Gray said. “There have been rumors about him for years.”
“Well…” I glanced at the sky, to the fireworks almost finished. “Let’s go.”
“You’re pregnant,” Gray and West said at the same time again.
Gray exhaled through his nostrils, rubbing between his eyebrows like it hurt to agree with him.
“Again… I’m pregnant, not dying. I can go.” I touched Gray’s arm. “He barely touched me.”
Gray stared me down. Stay here.
I blinked at him. No.
“I guess I’ll go by myself.”
I turned on my heel, heading toward the cemetery when I was grabbed on both biceps. Grayson had grabbed one bicep, West the other.
“Fine,” they gritted.
Thirty-Seven
STORY
If someone had told me a year ago I’d be spending my New Year’s digging up fresh earth in the graveyard, my glittery dress torn to pieces, I wouldn’t have believed them. If that same someone had told me Grayson and West would be my company, I would have thought they were insane.
I brushed aside dirt from the tenth grave we’d dug. West bent down beside me; a moment later, Grayson elbowed him out of the way.
We were supposed to split up to cover more ground, but they wouldn’t let me out of their sights. Gray sandwiched me on one side, West the other. It was probably some kind of fantasy, having two of the most powerful men in the world fighting over you, but this was my nightmare.
I only want Gray.
Well, I would be lying if I said I didn’t still feel something for West…but it wasn’t love. I yearned for Gray, and I hurt for West. He was rust. A bruise on my heart. Something I wished would heal so I never had to feel it again.
Gray stared at me, his blue eyes probing, reading my thoughts. I cleared my throat and moved my attention from the dirt, to the mausoleum. I felt along the edges of the cement, for the loose cracks and border, then tugged.
Oh my God.
“It has a false back!”
I tugged harder, trying to get the small cement piece out.
My uncle was always a fan of Agatha Christy, of secret tunnels, false walls, and hiding spaces…maybe that’s why he enjoyed working here so much.
Maybe I should have noticed Grayson and West were no longer beside me, but how could I? Excitement crept into my chest as I pulled the square out, revealing a dark hole in the mausoleum. Maybe this was it—the end. Just as the excitement grew, it plummeted into a rock in my gut.
Nothing.
Well, not nothing. I fingered the dusty, square outline where something had been.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered, pulling my fingers back, covered in dust and cobwebs.
“You kissed her?” Gray growled.
I spun at Gray’s words, uncertain what had preceded them, but knowing what came next wouldn’t be good. They’d stood up and