The other two nights, Jordan had people come over. They were from a couple of his classes. One was the psych class he shared with Cross, so for those nights, the peace wasn’t so peaceful. A couple of the guys wanted to talk with Cross. A few of the girls wanted to flirt with him. He was polite to the guys, shot the girls down, and took my hand, leading me upstairs to my room those nights just to escape.

Jordan shot me an apologetic grin each time.

It was Friday now, and tonight was when the quiet stopped being quiet.

Chapter Forty-Two

BREN

My phone was ringing, and it took a hot second for me to realize that it wasn’t the alarm.

Cross lifted his head up, looking, and he reached over me. Checking the screen, he moved back and sat up on his side of the bed. “There a reason you’re calling thirty minutes before she needs to wake up?”

I frowned, but I wasn’t frowning enough to sit up because he was right. I had thirty more sleeping minutes to go.

I heard murmuring from the other end, then Cross looked at me. His face tightened, even with his hair sticking up, and he still looked good. He had stopped shaving very recently, so he had a nice patch of gruff hair there, enough that it was distracting me that he was on my phone and not looking happy about it.

“Fine. I’ll tell her.”

He hung up, tossing the phone onto his nightstand.

I waited.

He shook his head. “Not yet.” He wasn’t the only one checking the other out. His voice came out rough, “Sleep or something else before I have to tell you who was on the phone?”

There’d be no sleeping now, so I smiled and pulled down the bedsheet.

A wolfish smile took over his face and he was over and on top of me within seconds.

We went two rounds, long past my alarm, and Cross was just coming out from the shower. I was tugging my shirt down and met his gaze in the mirror. “You have to tell me now.”

His whole face tightened, but he sighed. Reaching for a towel, he raked it over his head. “That was your brother.”

I don’t want to say my heart stopped. That would’ve been an exaggeration, but it paused. My chest tightened. That was more accurate because Channing calling that early in the morning was never a good sign.

I had my hair pick in my hand, but I set it back down and flattened my palm against the counter. I needed that foundation to stop the shaking. I looked down at it, too. “No one died, or you would’ve told me that right away.”

“No.”

I waited, breath suspended.

He was silent, and that fact alone told me it was still bad.

I closed my eyes, still waiting.