He closed his eyes, walked over to the piano bench, and sat down. “I know, Lilah.”
Following him, she sat close enough that he could reach her but far enough to not be touching him. If she touched him, she would want to kiss him, and if she kissed him, she would want more. It was daylight outside, though none of it penetrated into the dark, soundproof room, and anyone could walk in here at any time.
“I had a weird thought the other day,” Gavin said, running a long hand down his face. “What if we get out of here? What if we just run?”
“That’s a weird thought? I thought that was the only thought.”
“No,” he said. “I’m not finished. What if we run and move somewhere new? What if we work our asses off to make ends meet? What if we make it through school working three jobs on no sleep? What if we do all that together, and things don’t work out between us?”
Delilah pulled back a little. “So the risk of a failed relationship makes you think it might be better to just stay in the house forever?”
Gavin chewed a fingernail. “No,” he said around it. “That isn’t at all what I’m saying. I know I’ll want to be with you forever.”
She narrowed her eyes and studied his face, trying to figure out what he was saying. Was he saying it was scary that diving into this relationship had to also mean leaving? The house was possessive to the point of violence—possessed, too, with something dark and awful—but at least it would never break up with him. It would never leave.
“You could just as well fall out of love with me,” she reasoned.
A tiny smile tilted his mouth. “I can’t imagine falling out of love with you.”
“I can’t, either,” she said quietly. “But maybe I don’t get it. What are you getting at?”
Reaching forward, he took both of her hands, engulfing them in both of his. “Lilah, I’m saying that this is the nuclear option. That once we look in that safe-deposit box, there’s a good chance we’ll have to leave that day. House followed us to the park. You felt like it followed you to Dhaval’s. We think we’re being smart—changing my clothes every day, making sure we swap out the cash with Dhaval, trying to do everything we can so we aren’t overheard—but we don’t really know how any of this works. I know we have a plan, but I guess I wanted you to know that you don’t have to do it with me. House might do something really terrible if we try to leave, and we may not have any idea what that looks like until it happens.”
“Gavin—”
“I can leave on my own,” he said, urgently trying to finish his thought. “You don’t have to be in danger because of me anymore.”
Her heart tripped into understanding. “I don’t want you to do this without me.”
“It could get messy,” he said, and in his eyes she could see he was giving her one last out. “Doing this isn’t the same as just walking down the street and not looking back. We don’t know how far it can follow us.”
“Do you think the house would hurt us where others can see?”
“I don’t know,” Gavin hedged. “But what if it tries? What if it’s willing to play along until I actually try to leave, and then it fights us? Don’t you get the feeling that at some point we’ll have to break inside and. . . kill it?”
She couldn’t believe he was the one to say it. She couldn’t believe the words had actually come out of that full, kissable mouth. But her relief that they had was so immense, it seemed to expand inside her chest. He was well and truly done with it.
“If it comes down to that, I’ll protect you.”
One half of Gavin’s mouth tilted in a grin. “Then as soon as we have enough money, as soon as we have our diplomas, we’re heading to the bank and opening that box, and then we’re leaving town. For now we’re sitting tight. We’re saving every penny, and we’re pretending like you’re leaving for Massachusetts and acting like everything is fine.”