Page 46 of Celestial Combat

And it was fuckingworking.

Chapter 15

Present

Upper-East Side, New York City

I HAD SPENT YEARS KEEPING the past locked away, buried under layers of resilience, rage, and sheer force of will. But somehow, Zane cracked through it in a matter of days.

It wasn’t easy talking about what happened. Hell, it wasn’t easy eventhinkingabout it. I’d done everything in my power to erase that night, to suffocate the memories before they could drag me under. But now, knowing that Zane knew… It was like a wound torn back open. Raw. Exposed.

And of all people –him.

Zane was the last person I ever wanted to see me like that. I didn’t expect him to care, and Idefinitelydidn’t expect him to look at me the way he did – like something inside him was breaking just from hearing me say it out loud. Like he wished he could go back in time and put a bullet in the guy who hurt me.

I almost felt bad for him.

Almost.

Because the truth was, he had no right. He didn’t know me four years ago. He had no idea what it felt like to claw my way back to the surface after that night, to wake up in a hospital bed with my parents screaming at doctors, my body aching, my mind fractured. He had no right to feel anything about it.

But part of me suspected he went looking for answers anyway.

Maybe he went back through Python’s old security footage. Maybe he found the moment I walked in all those years ago, looking for a place to start over, only to have him shut me down before I could even begin.

I could still hear his voice, back before he knew.

You came here for a reason. What do you want from me, Kali? Hm? Tell me.

But what, exactly, had I been looking for?

That’s real cute, little killer. But it doesn’t change the fact that you came here looking for me.

I tipped my head back, staring at the ceiling of the apartment as if it held the answers. The familiar ache in my muscles from this morning’s workout was a welcome distraction, but my mind still churned with the same thoughts, circling back to him.

Zane.

The man who had turned me away years ago without a second thought. The man who now looked at me like he wanted to tear apart the world for what had happened to me.

I should’ve been satisfied. It should’ve felt like justice – like revenge, even. I had wanted to make him feel something, to remind him of the girl he rejected all those years ago. And now heknew. Now heunderstood.

And yet, none of it felt as good as I thought it would.

I could still hear the way his voice had shifted. How carefully he had kept his tone even, but I knew better. I had seen the way his jaw tensed, the way his hands curled into fists. Zane wasn’t the type to lose control – not outwardly, anyway – but something in him had snapped in that moment.

I’d spent years keeping men like him at arm’s length, refusing to let anyone get close enough tocare. And now here he was, storming into my life again, forcing himself into a past that didn’t belong to him.

He should’ve stayed out of it.

But deep down, in the place I didn’t want to acknowledge, I wasn’t sure I wanted him to.

Two weeks later, I was still avoiding Zane. Instead of going toPythonand training like I should’ve, I used my own home gym and spent my nights partying. I could almost Trevor’s voice in my head.Guess I never learned my lesson.

Francesca’s twenty-fifth birthday was the party of the year. It always was an event with the DeMones. But unlike the party she’d already had with her whole family present, along with the Cosa Nostra leaders, and the multi-millionaires and billionaires of the world – this party was just for her and us, her friends.

Everything was red, from the decorations, to the lights, to the cake that spread glitter everywhere when she blew out the candles at midnight.

The night had been incredibly weird to say the least. From catching two of my friends, Maria and Zach, have a heated stare-down in the chef’s kitchen on the other side of the apartment and getting dragged into their foreplay argument, to having Natalia ask me what ‘amai’ meant. Thehorror in her eyes when I told her it meant ‘sweet’ was all I needed to know.

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