Page 155 of Without a Trace
“I don’t know what the hell is happening to me,” she muttered. “The bracelet, the bond. The dreams. All of it. And now Brielle waltzes in like we’re in some kind of spy novel and none of you have a straight answer.”
I didn’t defend us. Couldn’t.
She ran a hand through her hair again, frustrated. “So if we’re bonded—if this is real, whatever this is—we might as well start figuring out how to live with it.”
“Live with it?” I echoed, raising a brow.
She smirked, biting her bottom lip. “Share.”
I blinked.
Scarlett tilted her head, watching my face. “You gonna pretend you’re not obsessed with me?”
I tensed—but not the way I used to. I stepped closer, brushing her hair off her shoulder again.
“No. I’m not pretending anything.”
Her voice turned quieter. “You think Trace will lose his mind?”
“He already has.”
That got a laugh out of her.
And for a second, just a second, it felt normal again.
She glanced toward the villa, then back at the glow of the dinner table in the distance. “We should probably go back before someone sends a search party.”
“They definitely heard you,” I said.
“Good.”
She started walking, then turned over her shoulder. “Coming?”
I followed without hesitation.
Because whatever this was—chaos, curse, bond—I was already in it.
And I wasn’t letting her go.
Scarlett
Ididn’t bother fixing my hair.
If they wanted answers, they could choke on what they already knew. My lips were still swollen, dress clinging in places it hadn’t before. And Alden—he followed half a step behind, shirt wrinkled, looking exactly like a man who had nothing left to hide.
The string lights swayed in the breeze overhead as we stepped back toward the table. Zeke’s eyes flicked up first.
Rhett whistled low under his breath, not even pretending to look away.
Trace stayed seated, shoulders drawn tight, his grip on the glass unrelenting. The muscles in his forearm twitched.
Brielle smiled.
Not a friendly one.
“Well,” she said, voice sugary and sharp. “That didn’t take long.”
I raised my brows. “You keeping tabs?”
