Suri looks confused. She shakes her head, and there's no mistaking the worry on her face. Cross notices it, too, and sighs. “Everything is fine. I'm doing fine,” he tells her. “I just want a minute to talk to Liz—alone.”
After shooting me a clueless look, she steps into the hall, and I'm alone with Cross.
“What's wrong?” I walk slowly to him, crumbling under the weight of his horrible, accusing gaze.
“Why did you do it?” he asks hoarsely.
“Do what?”
He swallows, and for the first time he looks upset instead of mad. “Why did you think that I would be okay with that?”
Obviously he knows I went to Love Inc. I feel like a kid getting scolded by my dad, and I play like I don’t know what he’s talking about. “Okay with what?”
“So you’re going to deny it?”
“Deny what?”
“You sold yourself. For me.” His voice cracks, and I'm filled with awful, ice-cold dread. Cross steps toward me, and for the first time I notice his limp. His face still looks the same. Except colder. “My father told me. You know how he feels about Vegas. He's got spies there. Lizzy, tell me what would make you do a thing like that.”
“Why do you think?” I croak. “I couldn't stand to see you in that awful place they transferred you to! And,” I add quickly, “I didn't need to be a virgin. What's the point? At twenty-three, it's almost a joke.”
He opens his mouth, looking anguished, and I hold up my hand. “It went just fine, Cross. I'm okay. Right here, in one piece.”
“You went home with Hunter West.” His voice is soft fury—and it makes me mad.
“What do you have against Hunter West?”
“He f**ks Priscilla Heat. Don't you know that, Lizzy? Don't you care?”
I can't say anything to that. It's not my secret to tell, so instead I say, “Do you believe everything you hear?”
“I saw them that night. They were having sex before the party. Did he tell you that?”
“I didn't ask.”
“So you don't care.” His mad face crumples into hurt. Frustration. “What is it about him, Lizzy?”
I still don’t have the answer to that question, and I definitely don't want to talk about it with Cross. “I’ve got a better idea: Why don’t you finally tell me why you hate Priscilla Heat.”
“She f**ked my father,” Cross says bluntly. I blink, and he rubs his eyes with his right hand. “I told you that he had affairs.”
“With her?” He chose Priscilla Heat over Cross's beautiful mother? My mouth hangs open.
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Cross rolls his eyes. “He likes hookers.”
What pops out of my mouth next is unplanned. It's only meant to be a thought, but I guess it's so powerful, my lips forget the message and I murmur it aloud. “One of them was Missy King.”
Cross’s eyes pop. “What do you know about Missy King?”
I bite my lip, not sure what to say now that I've divulged that I know something. That was stupid. I don't want to point anything back toward Hunter, so I shrug. “What do you know?” I ask him.
“What do you know?” he snaps.
I hug myself, feeling small and stupid, but I've already put my foot in my mouth. Might as well keep going now. “Is that why you and your dad don't talk? Is that the secret you found out last year? That he was seeing an escort, and she disappeared?”
Cross's eyes squeeze shut, and my heart pounds—hard.
“It is, isn't it?” Holy shit, this is big news. I fumble for the other name I heard in Hunter's conversation with his father. “Cross, have you ever heard of someone named Lockwood?”
He frowns and shakes his head. “Who is that?”
“What about Jim Gunn?”
He blinks slowly, his face losing all its color. “How do you know that name?” he asks hoarsely.
“I heard he dated Missy King.”
Cross swallows, wrapping one hand around his stomach. “You don't need to say that, Lizzy.”
“Why not?”
He gives me a sharp look that makes me feel like I'm being warned. “Just don't say it. Don't ask me about it. Sometimes there's stuff you just don't need to know. Do you get that?”
His face is deadly serious, and I almost feel like I’m in some kind of crime drama. I shiver, and for a long second, I consider letting it lie. But then the stern look on his face starts looking kind of...fearful. “Cross—what's going on? Do you know something bad?” I suck in a deep breath. “Did Jim Gunn do something to her?”
My question seems to hit Cross like a punch. He bends at the waist, clutching his head and moaning. “How do you know this shit, Elizabeth?”
“So he did?” My eyes are a centimeter away from popping clean out of my head.
Cross looks at me through his hands, and when he speaks, his voice is ragged. “Suri told you, didn't she? She told you what I said about the guy I saw who was messing with my bike.”
I shake my head. “But if Jim Gunn did something bad to your father's ex-mistress and you know about it, and if you think the guy beside your bike that night was him... That's bad, Cross. That's scary bad.”
Cross is leaning heavily on the side of the bed, breathing hard, and I notice there are wires running out of the bottom of his t-shirt as one of the machines starts to hum.
I step close enough to touch his shoulder. “Oh my God, are you okay?”
He sucks his breath in, and just as I get really worried, his right hand clutches mine. I lace my fingers through his, and someone knocks on the door. “You okay in there?” Nanette calls.
“Fine,” he says, but it sounds like he's gasping.
“Oh my God, Cross.” I wrap my arms around him and he pulls me close.
I drag a deep breath in, and the monitor stops beeping. I run my palm over his soft, short hair and look into the handsome face I've known for my whole life. I can't imagine someone hurting Cross. “I'm sorry that I mentioned that stuff. I didn't mean to upset you.”
I'm expecting him to brush his freakout off, the way Cross would. I'm expecting anything but what he does, which is push my hair back and kiss me, his lips touching mine for half a second before he jerks away.
I touch my mouth, horrified. “Cross—”
“I know, okay?” He holds his hands up. “I know I'm not the one you want. Jesus, Lizzy, just give me a second.” He turns away, and out of nowhere, tears are spilling down my cheeks. I feel like I can’t do anything—for Cross or Hunter.