Perfect Enemies

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19 OceanofPDF.com W REYNA hy did I continue trying to be normal when I was so clearly not? Kane had been sweet all evening, but there was an awkward undercurrent that had followed us throughout the evening. When he made his excuses to slip away from the dance floor, I understood. I was different, and he could tell. He probably regretted ever asking me to be his date. Now he was gone, and I hadn’t seen Val since she left Chloe’s house with Gio. There was no one else I was comfortable clinging to, so I found an empty table situated in the shadows and sat down to watch the others dance. It was my default setting—observing others rather than living my own life. Passivity had saved me on more than one occasion, but I was tired of barely existing. Living an invisible life. I wanted to be seen. To be wanted. To leave my mark on the people around me. I wanted to live out loud, paint my world in vibrant colors, and experience everything life had to offer. To be a girl who lived in the spotlight and never hid in the shadows. I was well on my way to a full-scale pity party when someone slipped into the chair beside me. My lungs seized when I found Santino a foot away, dressed in a perfectly tailored suit as if he were one of the students. He relaxed into the chair, threading his fingers together in his lap with one leg casually crossed over the other. He was breathtaking—a fearless jungle cat, lording over everything in his sight. “What are you doing here?” I asked, still shocked by his appearance. He drew his eyes from the crowd, piercing me with their fathomless intensity. “It’s a dance. What do you think I’m here for?” Then he did something that left me speechless. Santino held out his hand for mine in an invitation to dance. My heart pounded frantically until I could feel its punishing rhythm throughout my body. I didn’t know what to do, so my arm moved of its own accord. My hand fell easily into his as though it had always belonged there. Santino rose and led me to our own small section of the dance floor apart from the other dancers. He pulled me flush against him, one hand firm on the base of my back and the other clasping my hand close to our bodies. His hold was warm and secure. We might as well have been in a room entirely alone. The world around me faded from existence as Santino became the sole focus of my attention. From the way he cradled me against him, I felt like the center of his world. No one person had ever made me feel so safe and protected. It had to be my imagination—the romantic delusions of a girl who’d always been an afterthought. This man was my father’s enemy. I should have been on guard, but his touch soothed and warmed me more in thirty seconds than Kane’s presence had all night. There was no comparing the two. I reacted to Santino in a way I had never reacted to another person, and I had no idea why. Or more importantly, if I could trust my own responses. Just because I felt safe didn’t mean I was. “How long have you been watching me?” I asked. My cheek was close to his chest, but I knew he could hear me. “Long enough to know you didn’t come alone. What happened to your date?” There was a dangerous edge to his question. “I’m not sure.” Kane hadn’t told me where he was going when he slipped away. “Seems your date and your best friend are missing.” The warning tone in his voice brought the room into focus. My eyes darted from person to person, only stopping when I spotted Gio dancing in a group with no sign of his date. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Kane and Val had gone off together. I’d known something peculiar was going on between them, and I hadn’t lied to Val when I told her I wasn’t drawn to Kane, so I wasn’t upset at the prospect. Why did I get the odd feeling that Santino was outraged on my behalf? Or did he object to Val going off alone with Kane for some other reason? I had no idea, and I couldn’t seem to make myself care. I worried all the time—planned and strategized every aspect of my life. The brief reprieve I found in Santino’s arms left me incapable of pulling away. We danced to our own swaying cadence, nowhere near the upbeat tempo of the song blaring over the speakers. The pace we set was our own, and I relished the bliss I found in that one moment of perfect serenity. But like any fairy tale, the magic had to come to an end. Coaches turned back into pumpkins—beautiful gowns back to rags— and this temporary princess was back to an awkward teenager the second my date reappeared. “That’s my date,” Kane snapped from over Santino’s shoulder. Santino turned, releasing me just enough to face Kane but keeping me tucked into his side. “Then you shouldn’t have left her alone.” Kane’s eyes narrowed. “I can’t say that I recognize your face from school. Who exactly are you?” Santino smirked. “No one you know.” He lifted my hand to his lips, our eyes catching for a heated second. “I’ll see you around.” Then he disappeared into the crowd, leaving me cold and alone in a room full of people.

20 OceanofPDF.com I VALENTINA tried to go back to dancing with Gio, but I was so dazed that I could hardly keep a beat. Why would Kane say he wanted to protect me from himself? I’d tossed around the idea that he was tied to a cartel, but deep down, I didn’t buy that theory. Was it naïve of me to discount the possibility? What other reason could he possibly have to think he might be bad for me? Even more confusing was how something that felt so right could possibly be wrong. When Kane’s lips touched mine, pure energy ran through my veins, and my entire existence melted down to the sensation of his body connected to mine. Hands, bodies, mouths. My sole purpose in life filtered down to maintaining that contact as though my life depended upon it. Every molecule in my body was convinced that Kane was made for me, yet he seemed equally convinced that we could never be together. Dismay weighed on my shoulders while frustration jumbled my rhythm. If I’d been a bad date before, I was positively horrible after my encounter with Kane. “You okay?” Gio eventually asked. “Yeah, sorry. My feet are just getting tired.” “No problem. How about we head upstairs to the party?” He was being sweet, and I just wanted the night to end. Could I be any more wretched? “I think that sounds great.” Alcohol was my only chance of sluffing off some of this leaden guilt I was carrying around. “Let me tell Reyna, and I’ll meet you by the elevators.” I’d been an awful friend tonight, so obsessed with my own drama that I’d completely ignored my best friend. She was dancing with Kane and several other people in a small circle when I found her.