“When you see Stacey later, can you try to talk her into staying out of school?” she asked, and the smile froze on my face. “Maybe she’ll listen to you.”

Zayne glanced at me before answering. “Yeah, I’ll talk to her.”

I wished Zayne had driven his motorcycle, because at least then I could pretend I couldn’t hear him. Alas, we were in his Impala and I had problems with my vision, not my hearing.

“I was going to tell you about Stacey,” he said, halfway to the compound.

Staring out the window, I nibbled away on my thumbnail. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“I know I don’t,” he replied, and I made a face at the window, unsure why he thought confirming that helped. “I was going to tell you because I wanted to.”

“Oh,” I murmured, focusing on the blurred buildings and people. “Cool.”

He obviously didn’t believe I thought it was cool. “She and I really didn’t get to talk yesterday.”

“Understandable.” I was sort of surprised the ice cream social was only yesterday. Felt like a week ago. “I kind of ruined all of that.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” he corrected. “It’s just with everything that happened with Sam and—”

“You don’t need to explain yourself. Pretty sure that’s already been established,” I said around my thumb. “Works out, anyway, because I need to pack.”

“I’m not trying to explain myself. It just slipped my mind with everything that happened between then and Layla bringing it up.” He paused, and then I felt his fingers on my wrist, sending a jolt of awareness through me. He pulled my hand from my mouth. “I wasn’t trying to hide it from you.”

I looked down as he lowered my hand to my leg. His fingers lingered just below the bruises that were already fading.

“I promise you,” he added. “I wasn’t trying to hide it.”

My gaze made its way to him. He was focused on the road, and I didn’t know if I believed him or not. Everything I thought and felt for Zayne skewed my instincts when it came to him. I wanted to believe him, but knowing he was seeing her again also made my chest feel hollow and my stomach heavy.

Jealousy sucked.

“I believe you.” I shifted my hand away as I returned to staring out the window. The buildings had given way to trees, and I knew we weren’t far from the compound. “I hope Gideon found something.”

“Yeah,” he replied after a handful of seconds. “Same.”

We didn’t speak after that and arrived at the compound about ten minutes later. Gideon met us at the door and ushered us into Nicolai’s study.