Phantom took his own elevator down to the first floor and heaved his huge body into a jog to chase her out to the street, even though he fucking hated cardio. The need to catch up with her burned inside him that bad.
He still had enough cool left to slow down right before he got outside, though. He made himself act casual as he walked through the hospital’s front doors. Less, I’m chasing you down like a dog. More, hey, look at us just so happening to be on the same street at the same time.
However, that faux casualness blipped out when he saw her walking north. North. Not south. Even though that was the direction of the subway she always took to reach the brownstone she shared in Central Park West with her boyfriend.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing?” he demanded, running to catch up.
She jumped and gasped when he suddenly fell into step beside her. And he added, “Uh, this is the same place where Dawn just got mugged.”
He figured that sounded a little better than, “I know where you live, so I know you’re walking in the wrong direction.”
“Um…um…I’m not sure.” She looked all around, her expression confused, verging on shell shocked.
“I um…forgot my purse back at the party. And I can’t go home, and my friend Bernice lives in Harlem. But um…she only has a one-bedroom and a little child, so not her, I’m thinking now. I can sleep in the clinic. It’s only a few blocks away.”
“Why can’t you go home?”
She didn’t answer, just kept on walking with her head down, like she was running away from something.
So he stopped her, catching her by the shoulders. “Listen, you don’t have to tell me anything. But I’m not letting you sleep in your clinic, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t have security. I’ve got a place on the upper west side. We’ll go there.”
Fear flashed across her eyes, and he liked that. Not her being afraid necessarily, but her having second thoughts about going somewhere with a random guy she didn’t really know.
If it was anybody else but him making this offer, he’d want her to run fast as she could in the other direction. But in this case, he assured her, “It’s a two-bedroom. You don’t have to worry about me. And if that’s not good enough for you, I can drop you off there and head back to Rhode Island—that’s where I’m usually at.”
“No, it’s okay. If it’s a two-bedroom, then there’s no problem.” She appeared to decide at the same time she said, “You were your grandma’s first call. I trust you.”
She trusted him.
Three tiny words. Didn’t even add up to ten letters. There wasn’t any reason they should punch his chest in, but they did.
And he choked a little as he said, “Alright.”
They started walking south. Together.
“It’s a bit of a walk,” he said after a few steps. “Like, fifteen blocks. You might be regretting it soon in those heels. You want me to get my car out of the garage?”
She shook her head. “I’d rather walk if that’s okay.”
“Yeah, sure.”
So that was what they did. Walked in total silence.
His cousin, Victor, couldn’t talk—that was the whole reason they’d name themselves The Silent Triad. And he found most vocal people outside of Han irritating as fuck. So he didn’t mind the quiet.
At least he shouldn’t have minded the quiet.
But for the first time in, like, ever, he found himself wondering what a woman was thinking. Why had she been running out of that party without her purse? Why couldn’t she go home?
He was no good at small talk—hated that shit with the force of a thousand suns. But this awkward silence made him feel like Han’s loud vintage corvette, growling beside a sleek electric car.
“So…you into any sports?” he asked, giving it a try.
Several beats passed by. Then she said, “Today’s my birthday, but my fiancé forgot. Then I found out tonight that he was cheating on me. With my stepsister. That’s where I was going when I slammed into you at the party. I was running. I was running away. And that’s why I can’t go home.”
Phantom blinked at her sudden answer to all the questions he’d decided not to ask out loud.
“Well, shit,” he answered. “Want to go back to his parents’ townhouse and watch while I smash his teeth in? I got time.”
She laughed. Phantom had no idea why since he was one-hundred percent serious.
But instead of answering his offer, she continued talking. “You know, we broke up a couple of months after your visit. The guy in the picture—he was just my boyfriend back then. We drifted apart and had a very adult conversation about exploring our options. But then, one day, he ran into each other again at this Manhattan U. alumni mixer, and we both were cool with dating around the other’s busy schedule. It was so easy to start dating again whenever it was convenient for us. Then eventually move in together to ‘optimize our budgets and delete his commute’—that was how he put it when he convinced me to let him move into the brownstone my dad bought me as a med school graduation present.”