Viper (Fallen Angel #2)(70)

“Haven’t been up to anything.”

“No?”

“No,” I said, because a. it was the truth, and b. I wasn’t about to tell him I’d spent the last four days in bed, sleeping with the shirt Halo had left behind.

“That’s interesting.”

“What is?”

“I asked Halo the same thing a minute ago, and he said almost exactly the same thing you just did.”

Killian was staring at me with an eyebrow raised, and I knew there was no way I was walking away before he said whatever it was he had tracked me down to say.

“What did you do?” he said.

“Besides fire Brian? You’re welcome, by the way.”

That seemed to bring Killian’s line of questioning to a grinding halt.

“You did what?”

“I fired that miserable cocksucker Brian. He’s a piece of shit, and he pushed me too damn far tonight.”

“Okaaay. We’ll come back to that later. Now, what did you do to Halo?”

Acted like a total asshole. I had fucked over an angel. I was pretty sure that guaranteed me a special spot in hell. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Really? Because when I mentioned your name to Halo a second ago, his eyes took on this look. The same kind of look you get whenever someone mentions Trent. So I’m going to ask you again, what did you do, V?”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

I rubbed a hand over my mouth and shook my head. “I fucked up, okay? I fucked up the best thing that’ll ever probably happen to me, and I’m trying to find Halo so I can tell him what a goddamn moron I am. So if you know where he is…”

Killian’s lips twitched, as his eyes shifted over my shoulder. “He’s across the room with his sister talking to Lori from Entertainment Daily.”

As soon as the words left Killian’s mouth, I turned back to search Halo out, and sure enough, there he was standing opposite the curvaceous TV host, smiling politely.

Without any other thought in my head, bar getting to him before he disappeared again, I made a beeline through the crowd, my final destination clear. As my legs ate up the space between me and him, people moved aside, clearly sensing they should get the fuck out of my way and not bother trying to stop me. I was on a mission, and I was willing to walk over anyone to reach Halo.

As I closed in on him, his sister, Imogen, spotted me first, her eyes widening slightly—in alarm or surprise, I couldn’t be sure. But before she could lean in and warn Halo of my imminent arrival, I opened my mouth and made sure he knew exactly who it was who had just stopped behind him.

“Angel.” When Halo’s head jerked in my direction, his lips parted, no doubt with a dismissal on them, but I beat him to the punch. “Can I speak to you for a minute?”

Halo’s eyes narrowed, and as he stood there trying to work out what the hell I was up to, I could feel both his sister’s and Lori’s eyes boring into me.

“I’m busy right now,” Halo said, polite as ever, and then went back to the conversation. But that wasn’t going to work for me. I needed to talk to him. To tell him how wrong I’d been. How stupid, and that he was right: ending things had been the biggest fucking mistake of my life.

“Angel, I—”

“He’s busy,” Imogen said softly, but firmly, and when my eyes flicked to hers, I knew she was aware of everything that had gone down between me and her brother. She was aware and not fucking happy about it. Join the damn club. I don’t think I could ever forget Halo’s final words to me that night on his roof, and if he’d felt half as shitty as I had at hearing them, then I deserved every ounce of the disgust Imogen was aiming my way.

“I just want to—”

Halo turned on me, his eyes flashing as that fire from Monday night came to a head and he said between gritted teeth, “Not now, Viper.”

But this time when he turned his back on me, Halo excused himself from Lori and went to leave. He got about two steps away, and before I knew what the hell I was doing, I said, “Well, then you let me know when you’re ready, so I can tell you how much I fucking love you.”

Halo came to an abrupt standstill, his entire body freezing in place, along with every other person in the near vicinity, and then he slowly circled back to face me. His eyes were wide, disbelief stamped all over his face, as his mouth opened and shut as though he were trying to speak but nothing would come out.

I didn’t think it was possible to be standing in such a crowded room and have it fall silent, but the only sound I could hear was the music playing overhead mixing with the rush of blood in my ears. Everyone had stopped talking, because everyone was staring at the two of us, but the only person I could see was standing too far away from me.

I took the two steps needed to close the distance between us, and when I finally reached Halo, he blinked and shook his head.

“Wha…what are you doing?” he finally said, and for the first time in four of the longest days of my life, I reached out, took that exquisite face of his between my hands, and smoothed my thumb over his lower lip.

“I’m sorry,” I said, and never had two words felt so right to say. “I’m so fucking sorry for everything I said to you. Everything I did. None of it was true, Angel. You were right. I was scared. I am scared, because what I feel for you is more powerful than anything I’ve ever felt in my life. And the idea that I’ve lost you, that I’ve pushed you away—”