Page 197 of Broken Pieces
“I thought you’d at least… I don’t know, say hi.”
My voice wavers and I hate how small it sounds.
Zane’s gaze finally shifts.
It brushes over my face for half a second, but it’s enough to make my breath hitch. But it isn’t the look I need. It isn’t soft or the boy I remember. It’s cold. Detached.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he says.
The words land hard, cutting deeper than I’m ready for. I try to keep my chin up, even as the crack opens wider in my chest.
“Well, I am,” I snap, swallowing the sting.
He leans back, arms folded across his chest. His stare sharpens, all steel and silence. Every inch of him is locked down, closed off.
But I press on, because I didn’t come here to sit in silence.
“Cassie’s okay,” I say, voice thinner now. “Still shaken, but she’s alright. She wanted to come, but they only allow one person to see you. She blames herself, you know. Keeps saying she should’ve called the cops first. That maybe then—”
Nothing.
Not a twitch.
He sits still, as if he is frozen in place.
“Rainer’s working on something,” I try again, clutching at words, hoping one of them will reach him. “I mean, he’s busy in the workshop. He got rid of Mason—”
“Skylar.”
His voice sounds over mine.
“Stop.”
It’s one word, but it shuts everything down.
And all I can do is sit here, heart bleeding out across the table, wondering if the boy I love is still somewhere inside the man in front of me.
I blink, the words catching in my throat before I can find the next breath.
“I thought you’d want to hear—”
“I don’t.”
He says it without hesitation.
I stare at him. “I’m just trying to keep you in the loop.”
“There’s no loop to keep me in,” he says, voice steady. “I’m in here. You’re out there. That’s how it is now.”
My throat tightens until it’s hard to swallow. “I don’t want it to be.”
“Yeah, well, no one gets what they want, do they?”
I bite down hard, willing the tears to stay where they are.
“You can’t shut me out.”
“I’m not shutting you out.” His voice dips, quiet at first. There’s a softness in it, just for a second, enough to give me hope, but then it hardens. “I’m setting you free.”
