felt a little of the tension of the last few days leave me.
Shame it wasn't enough.
I stepped out the shower, pushing that fucking Californian assfuck out of my head, and dried myself with the hard, scratchy towel. Jesus. This place is a dump. I rubbed it over my head before wrapping it around my waist and securing it.
Adriana was sitting on the bed looking out of the window when I went in. She didn't turn to face me, but I noticed her death-grip on the phone in her lap. Her knuckles were bright white, and her jaw trembled lightly.
I crossed the room and pulled a new pair of boxers from a bag and then looked at her. Her jaw wasn't just trembling—it was clenched, too, and it looked like her eyes were damp.
“Addy?” I asked softly when she didn't acknowledge me. I pulled on some clean jeans and buttoned them up. “Hey—what's wrong?”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and an unsettling ache formed in my stomach. I'd seen her cry before, but this looked like she was doing her best to hold back whatever pain she was feeling.
“Why did you lie to me?” she whispered after a moment of silence, looking up. Before I could respond she stood and came to me. “Why. Did. You. Lie?”
That ache in my stomach dropped so fast it physically hurt. “You're gonna have to give me more than that, Addy.”
“My name is Adriana!” Her voice cracked halfway through, and she shoved at my chest. The tears that had been glimmering in her eyes now spilled over, and one trailed down her cheek. She wiped at it furiously. “Darien! Why did you lie to me, Carlo? He's not alive! He's dead!”
I wished I had an answer for her.
“Yeah? You think you could hide it? Gaige just told me!” She laughed bitterly and swiped under her eyes futilely. The tears were falling faster than she could wipe them. “I asked him if he'd heard from Darien and he told me. Told me Darien died. One of Enzio's little minions got him. And you knew! I know you did! Didn't you? Answer me, damn it!”
I took a slow, deep breath, and nodded my head once.
In her eyes, I saw her heart shatter.
Chapter Twenty-One – Adriana
The pain—oh, God.
It was like a disease, the way it filtered through my veins, slowly poisoning me with its truth.
I couldn't breathe as it took hold of me, threatening to paralyze me with its strength. I didn't know how to process the information Gaige had told me.
That he hadn't heard from Darien since the day before the shooting. Because Darien hadn't survived.
He hadn't even died quickly.
His wounds weren't necessary immediately fatal. But no one got there quick enough, and he thinks that Isaiah—the cowardly piece of shit—ran.
Cowardly.
Just like Hunter.
Because he couldn't tell me the truth.
Because he flat out lied.
My heart ached unlike anything I'd ever felt. It was lightning bolt after lightning bolt of raw pain that lit me on fire in the worst way.
“Answer me!” I demanded Hunter, my eyes burning with tears.
Slowly, he nodded.
Yes.
He knew. He lied. He didn't tell me.
“Adriana...” He reached for me.
I stepped back and threw my hands in the air. “Don't touch me. Don't fucking touch me, Carlo!”
He dropped his hands. “Sorry.”
“Sorry?” I gave up trying to wipe my tears away. “You're sorry? Sorry you lied to me and told me the closest man I've had to a father, the man who saved my sorry fucking life ten years ago, was alive, when he isn't? Do you have any idea how I feel right now? Do you? Do you?”
“No,” he said slowly. “I don't.”
“You wanna know what sorry is?” I narrowed my eyes and put every ounce of anger I had in my body behind my stare. I thought I needed to hurt him before—I was wrong. I didn’t. This was a need to hurt him; the ice-cold hatred that froze its way around my heart was the need to hurt him.
The worst part was, I knew what I was about to say was completely true.
“I'm sorry you ever came to California. I'm sorry you didn't pull the fucking trigger. I'm sorry I ever saw your goddamn face again.” I shoved him out of the way and grabbed the backpack containing my things.
“What are you doing?” He tried to grab the bag from me, but I swung it at him and hit him in the side.
“Leaving,” I snapped. My tears were still burning hot trails down my