“So, you just sleep in here…alone?”
“There’s no one else, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“That’s rough. If I had to sleep next door to Sofia and do nothing…” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t last long.”
“If Liam would just go away, it would speed up the process…”
“And that’s not gonna happen.”
“Unfortunately.”
He finished his water then pushed it away. “We need to think of something. We can’t just let you be a sitting duck.”
That was exactly how I felt.
“Maybe I could entice him into a death match…”
“He wants nothing to do with you, Hades.” Liam felt betrayed by Hades as much as me.
“Yeah…but I could ask someone else to do it.”
“And then what?”
“Hope one of his opponents beats him.”
“He’s undefeated.”
“Yeah, but I could slip him something before a fight.”
I lifted my gaze from the glass and stared at him. “We can’t do that.”
“But I could do it.”
“No. Because I’d have to carry that secret, and I refuse.”
He sighed in annoyance.
“Would you wanna keep a secret like that from Sofia?”
“No. But she’d get over it. Come on, that woman is obsessed with me.”
“Well, Annabella wouldn’t get over this.”
He stared at me blankly. “Then I can roll the dice and hope for the best.”
“Yeah, but I still have a feeling it won’t go anywhere. He’s got rage on his side right now.”
“Yeah.” He interlocked his fingers behind his head again and stared out the window. “How’s work?”
“You mean the drug empire?”
“Yeah. You don’t talk about it much.”
“Not much going on. I’ve replaced Maddox pretty easily.”
“And Heath?” he asked.
“Still want to kill him, but I’ve gotta take care of this first.”
“You didn’t want to be with Anna because of that business. Now you’ve changed your mind?”
It was more complicated than that. “No. I just fell in love with her.”
“Does that mean you’ll walk away from the business?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
He continued to watch me, reading all my subtle expressions.
“Annabella and I aren’t even together. Not sure if or when that’s gonna happen…”
“Yeah, I get it,” he said. “I just know that it was the right decision for me. I wish I’d made it sooner. Because once you love someone, when they suffer…you suffer more. And trust me—you never want your woman to suffer.”
I didn’t need further explanation because I knew exactly what he was saying, exactly what he was referring to. And if something happened to Annabella…I wouldn’t recover.
Never.
Patricia placed my dinner on the table and poured me a glass of wine to pair with it. She even set a small vase of flowers beside it, as if I needed the decorative touch. Then she walked out and left me to eat alone.
I sat at the table with the flames from the fire against my back and opened my laptop. I usually worked while I ate. Otherwise, I stared ahead blankly, with no entertainment whatsoever. Annabella hadn’t knocked on my door since she’d moved in. She hardly ever texted me either, only if she needed an answer to something.
I didn’t encourage her to have dinner with me or watch a movie in my bedroom. If she wanted to see me, she knew where to find me.
I took a bite of my food just as someone knocked on the door.
I knew it wasn’t Patricia because she would just come back in if she forgot something. My pulse quickened a bit because my heart was sensitive to Annabella’s presence. When confronted with life-threatening danger, I had the heart rate of someone in deep sleep. But she affected me in a way no one else could. “It’s open.”
She pushed the door open and held a tray in her hands. Patricia made her the same dinner, serving it to her in her quarters so she could eat alone. She held the tray as she stared at me timidly, like the expressionless look on my face meant I wanted to be alone. “Can I join you?”
Did she even need to ask?
“I understand if you want to be alone—”
I kicked the chair under the table so it slid back. “Sit.”
She set the tray down then sat across from me, wearing skintight yoga pants and a loose sweater she liked to wear around the house. Her hair framed her face perfectly with smooth strands, and she didn’t wear makeup because she probably expected to go to sleep soon.
But I still thought she was stunning. Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen her in so long that I’d forgotten how beautiful she was, how much I wanted her, how lonely I felt being next door to the woman I loved.
I poured her a glass of wine.
She mouthed “Thank you” and pulled the glass closer to her.
Now I didn’t have an appetite. All I could do was focus on the woman across from me. My heart palpitated with a distinct rush. My fingertips felt numb. My breathing changed. Maybe on the outside, I looked completely calm, but underneath, I felt a hailstorm of sensations.
“What are you working on?” She glanced at my laptop.
I closed it and pushed it to the side. “Bank stuff.”
“I remember you used to work from home a lot.”
“I’m a workaholic.”
“With two jobs, that’s not surprising.” She cut into her meat and took a few bites. Her eyes were downcast most of the time, and her posture was relaxed even though it’d been days since we’d seen each other.
I grabbed my fork and continued to eat, elbows on the table because I didn’t give a shit. Patricia had picked a subtle white wine to go with the chicken, creating another delicious meal that I took for granted…like all other things.
“Where did you find Patricia?” she asked. “She’s the best chef ever.”
“She went to culinary school in Paris. She worked in a bakery for a few years in Greece, but then her husband died.”
“She didn’t want to stay?”
I shrugged. “No. She said the memories were too painful.”
“Oh…that’s too bad.”
“I think she sees me as a son—or something like that. She picks up all my laundry off the floor, makes my bed, cooks my meals… I think she enjoys it.”
She chuckled. “No woman enjoys picking up your underwear off the floor.”
I paused before I took a bite, smiling slightly at her joke. “That’s not what she tells me.”
“Because you pay her.”
“Touché.” I grabbed a piece of asparagus and bit the tip off the stem. “How are you? I haven’t seen you much.” I expected Liam to confront me at the bank every day, but he never showed his face. Hitting me at the same place twice was stupid because I was expecting it. Or maybe he assumed I would assume that…so I wouldn’t expect it. In this game, you had to anticipate everything.