Toxic (Denazen #2)(80)

“I was going to go with awful.” His gaze lingered for a moment before he stepped back and shook his head. Behind him, the dance floor was packed with bodies. Most familiar, some more so than others. “Ginger’s ready to shit kittens.”

“Overreact much? I needed some time alone. Back off.”

He looked like he wanted to argue but held his hands up in a show of surrender.

“Where is she? I just want to tell her what Kiernan and I found out. Jade is working for my dad. I overheard her talking to him on her cell.”

“When?”

“Few hours ago.”

“Her cell was in the hotel. I heard her complaining. She doesn’t have it anymore.”

“Well, then she got another one. I heard her talking to Dad. Then she said Kale was endgame. She almost had him.”

“Holy crap,” he growled, surprised. Taking my arm, he started for the stairs. “We need to tell Ginger before she starts that meeting.”

I nodded and started to follow, but the room picked that moment to spin out of control. Everything was a blur of garbled noise and color as I crashed to my knees. Hauling me to my feet, Alex spun us toward the corner and pushed me up against the wall. Everything was snapping in and out of focus. He looked pissed.

Seizing my left arm, he pushed the fabric to my elbow. “Fuck.”

“It looks worse than it is,” I tried.

“I doubt that.” His expression went from angry to furious. “What the hell is wrong with you? You had your chance. Time’s up. I’m calling Cross myself.”

Surely I’d heard him wrong. I tried to push him away, but my arms were made of pudding. “What?”

His fingers brutally pierced the soft underside of my arm. A few feet away, someone giggled. The girl from Roudey’s. The one he’d cheated on me with. She waltzed over, swinging her hips and licking her lips. With a wink, she wrapped an arm around Alex possessively and nodded. “Cross is the only one who can help you. He’s the only one who cares enough to save you.”

“You want me to—”

Fingers latching around my wrist, he pulled me away from the wall and toward the stairs. The room had stopped spinning, and by the time we reached the top step, everything was back in focus. The bimbo from Roudey’s was gone.

When we burst through the door, Ginger was in the middle of asking how everyone did with their lists. Mom was on the far side of the room, standing suspiciously close to Dax. Kale was on her other side, arms folded and lips pressed tight. Jade, I noted, was on the opposite side of the room by the door. She was staring at him with a mix of anger and fear. When Alex barged in, me attached to his arm, everyone turned.

“So nice of you to finally join us, Deznee,” Ginger said, glaring at me. “As I was saying, we’ve discovered a new problem on the Denazen front.”

Beside me, Alex stiffened. “Dez,” he said, trying to push me into the middle of the room.

Ginger continued. “Aside from hitting our home and taking our friends, a source says they’ve started working on a new project. A new Supremacy trial.”

“Dez.” Again, this time louder.

I shook my head, eyes begging him to be quiet. I’d made the choice to turn myself in, I just wasn’t ready to tell them. I wanted to wait. Now Alex was going to ruin it.

“Dez,” he screamed. It echoed off the walls, bouncing around the small room like a runaway racquetball. “Tell them. Now.”

When I still didn’t move, he grabbed my arm and jerked me forward to the middle of the room.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Kale lunge for him, but Alex held up his hand. “Back off, *. I’m doing her a favor.” The fabric on my sleeve tore as he shoved it up past my elbow. “She’s dying.”





30


I shot Alex a glare I hoped conveyed I’m going to kill you and sighed. Even though it was a lie, I said, “Dying is a little dramatic.”

“What is that?” Mom breathed. The fact that I was wearing red seemed to go unnoticed. She pushed past Alex and grabbed my arm.

I’d been ousted. Might as well come clean. So much for enjoying my last party. “Poison.”

“Poison?” she repeated, pale. “What kind of poison? Where did it come from?”

Just behind her, Kale was watching me, eyes wide. Icy blue laced with concern stole my breath away.

He still wanted me.

Of course he still wanted me. Why had I thought he’d give me up so easily? I remembered the moments after the kiss crying in the alley and standing in front of the bathroom mirror, but it felt like someone else’s memory. Like I was watching it on repeat from the other side of the screen.

I answered Mom but kept looking at Kale. It was his presence that gave me the strength to say it out loud. An odd feeling, since only an hour ago, I was determined to leave him behind. I’d been convinced he’d willingly let me skip into Denazen’s arms. The thought was ridiculous. I knew it was ridiculous—yet I’d believed it. Like, the sky is blue and cats say meow kind of believed.

“The night I fell from the crane, I went back to the old house. A couple of Dad’s people were there. They were Sixes. One touched me.”

“The one from the van,” Kale said. His voice was low, and his fingers were flicking.