Page 166 of Forever Defiant
I held his gaze. “Yeah, I do. I just want to play football...”
“But . . .” Noah said gruffly.
“But it pisses me off that there’s more to this story and I don’t know what it is, or how deep it goes, or how wide it spreads,” I said.
Dante nodded once. “I get it, I do.” His gaze shifted to Savvy, who was now in our fridge pulling out drinks while Hadley inspected pre-prepped meals. “I wish I’d never poked,” he admitted quietly. “But now that I know... I can’t let it go. They will never let it go.” He jerked his head to the girls. “But you can,” he told Noah, his voice sincere.
So sincere that Noah lifted his head and looked at him in surprise. “What?”
Dante sat back a little. “The impacts of what we uncover could be huge,” he said, looking resigned. “The impact for the ones who uncover it, I don’t want to think about too much,” he confessed softly. “But I’m in this. There is no getting away from it, not for me. But neither of you has to be. You can quit listening, quit being part of it. Walk away.”
Noah glanced at me. “And Dust?”
Dante grimaced. “Think he got in deeper when he hooked up with the reporter.”
“Grandma always used to tell me I lacked street smarts,” I joked lightly.
“Noah?” Dante asked gently.
He sat there for a long moment, Savannah’s voice carrying from the kitchen, Hadley asking her about the food. Noah sighed loudly, looked at us both, and stood up with a nod. He didn’t say anything, just walked into his room and closed the door.
“Shit.”
I wasn’t sure if I said it, Dante did, or we both did at the same time. We exchanged a look, and Dante nodded, his lips pursing together and his eyebrows lifting, not trying to hide his disappointment and surprise.
“I thought it’d be me.” My voice was low, too low almost to hear. “I thought I would be the one who walked away from this.”
Dante leaned back completely, his smile sad. “Yeah, me too.”
Hadley walked over, balancing drinks on a tray. I jumped up to help her.
“Where’s Noah?” she asked, relinquishing control of the tray to me. She hovered.
“He needs to study,” Dante lied smoothly. “We can catch him up later.”
“Oh.” She looked confused for a moment and then shrugged. “Cool.” She went back to help Savvy.
“Are they feeding us?” I asked, suddenly realizing what was happening. I watched them in the kitchen. Neither of them gave off domestic-goddess vibes.
“You scared?” Dante teased, looking relieved at the change of subject.
Savvy dropped whatever she was holding and yelped, and then Hadley tried to scoop it up, and it was like a car crash in slow motion. “I think I might be terrified.”
He grunted out a laugh. “So . . .”
I turned back to him. “So?”
“You and Hadley?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek. “Yeah... I think so.”
“And how is that sitting with you?” He leaned forward and took a soda, popping the tab.
I took a can of soda. “I think I might be terrified.”
Dante smirked but said nothing. The girls came over to join us. Savvy looked at Noah’s closed door and frowned.
“Wh—”
