Page 7 of Forever Defiant
“Blogger,” Noah corrected.
Dante grimaced. “No —reporter. She’s studying journalism.” He saw our looks. “What? You think I’m not researching every little thing I find? C’mon. Even ifIhaven’t, you’ve both met Sav. Remember her? My girlfriend.”
I tutted. “We know who she is, dickwad.”
“We walked away,” Noah reminded him. “Dustin didn’t know who she was, and she didn’t share who she was either. He knows now.” He added a careless shrug. “And... now we know she’s still digging, so we’ve kind of answered you and Savvy’s question.”
Dante’s gaze was still focused on me. “I think you need to stayaway.”
“From a woman I kissed once? Or from the story she’s maybe chasing? The story, which we’re already in the middle of, whether I kissed her or not?” I held his stare. “Two different problems, don’t mix them up.”
The quirk of his eyebrow and the silence that followed told me he heard me.
I’d also heard him. Hadley Peterson wasn’t just a blogger; she was a journalist in the making, askingquestions.
And somehow I had a feeling I was going to be her next headline if I wasn’t careful.
Chapter 2
Dustin
“We could have told him a different way, you know?”
I wouldn’t say I was sulking in the corner of the kitchen, but I was definitely feeling sullen. Dante had gone to his room to call Savvy and tell her he hadn’t found Hadley; Hadley had foundme.
Him gone meant I could have it out with Noah.
Noah looked over at me. “Youtold him. I just encouraged you to do the right thing.”
“I didn’twantto do the right thing,” I whisper-hissed. “I wanted to not mention it to Mr.-I'm-too-wound-up-right-now-to-react-like-a-normal-person.”
“Well, he took it well.” He wiped his hands across the back of his jeans. “What’s the hang-up?”
“You know what your trouble is?” I asked Noah. “You think you know him. A bar fight, sticking up for each other in practice, I see it. I do. You think you have him figured out. But,” I glanced over my shoulder, seeing the door still closed, “he’s not this mellow guy you’re seeing. He’s a tightly wound control freak, and hewilloverreact about this.”
Noah was unconvinced. “Wouldn’t he have done it already?”
“You think I’m making it up? The guy in there?” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder toward Dante’s bedroom door. “He’scrazy. Ugh, I shouldn’t have opened my mouth.”
“Or stuck your tongue in hers,” Dante said from behind me.
“How—” How had he even opened the door in that tiny window between me looking over my shoulder and back to Noah, without making a sound? I shot a pointed look toward Noah, because this exactly proved my point, but he didn’t react at all.
Fuck me, they were too similar for my liking.
“Mistakes happen,” I snapped at him as he leaned against his door, all cool and calm like. “You’ve made a few of your own recently, Spence, don’t get high and mighty with me now.”
Dante took a deep breath. Centering himself, bringing back the focus for both of us before either of us said something we regretted.
“Mistakes happen because ofcarelessness,” he countered softly. “You’re right, I’m not the one to preach here. But after everything that’s happened, I just really wish it hadn’t been thereporter. Know what I mean?”
“Itoldyou, I didn’t know who she was.”
“I know.” He gave a nod, but I knew he had more to say. “Can I suggest you start asking yourhookupstheir names?”
“Names complicate things.” I shook my head. “That’s the point ofnotasking their names.”
Dante gave a look, and I shook my head slightly.
