She sighed, furious she couldn’t get what she wanted on the spot.
I drove in silence the rest of the way, feeling her grow more anxious by the minute. When I pulled into the underground garage, she was on me again.
“We’re home.”
I hit the clicker, and the garage closed behind us. Then we sat together in the dark, quiet now that the engine was off.
“Why won’t you answer me?”
I unfastened my safety belt and turned to her, feeling like I was betraying her father by telling her the truth. But there was no way to hide it from her. “He told me to give him what he wanted—and he would let me marry you.”
“And that was…?”
“He told me to step down.”
Her expression focused as she heard what I said, taking a few seconds to make the conclusion.
“And until I do it, I can’t marry you. I agreed.”
She released the breath she was holding. “So, you aren’t going to be the Skull King anymore?”
I shook my head. “I just need to find a replacement and tie up loose ends.” Vox was my loose end.
“I can’t believe he asked you to do that.”
It had shocked me at the time, but once the element of surprise had passed, it wasn’t that unreasonable. “Those were his terms.”
“I just…I know that must be hard for you.”
I shrugged. “Living without you is much harder.” It was a bit difficult to be forced into retirement when I was young and in my prime, but I didn’t need the money. Boredom would be a problem, but I could find something else to do with my time.
Her eyes softened. “He didn’t ask you anything else?”
“No,” I answered. “He said the past doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is how much I love you—and I proved that to him.”
She moved to the center seat so she could hook her arm through mine and rest her chin on my shoulder. Her hair fell down my chest, her perfume mixing with my cologne.
“I like your dad.”
“Yeah?” she whispered.
“Now I know where you get it from.”
“Get what from?”
I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Everything.”EighteenCatalinaI sat on the couch alone because Heath wasn’t home.
He was at work.
The TV was on, and I twirled my hair, the diamond ring on my left hand still so heavy that it was hard to sleep with it. I wondered if I’d get used to it, but I suspected the weight was such that it was impossible to ever feel normal.
My phone started to ring.
It was Damien.
I answered right away. “Hey.” It’d been a few days since the conversation with my father, and that meant Damien knew about it.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m at home watching TV.”
“I just went by your apartment, and you weren’t home.”
I didn’t even realize what I’d just said. “Sorry…I meant I’m at Heath’s.”
Damien didn’t respond to what I said. “Wanted to swing by and talk to you. Can I come over?”
“Uh…sure.” It was Heath’s house, but I didn’t think he would mind. I gave Damien the address.
“Be there soon.”
I whipped up something to eat in the kitchen, making enough leftovers so Heath would have dinner whenever he came home. The doorbell rang throughout the house when Damien was on the front doorstep.
I walked down the stairs, undid all the locks for the vault door, and then got to the normal ones on the outside.
Damien stared at the two-foot-thick metal doors, his eyebrow raised like he was surprised by what he saw. “He doesn’t fuck around, does he?”
I shook my head.
He came inside and watched me pull everything shut before the mechanisms loudly clicked into place. There was a TV on the wall, showing the different camera feeds of the property. Damien looked around and followed me upstairs to the second floor. “Is he home?”
“No. He’s at work.” I moved to the pan on the stove and plated the food. “Hungry?”
He eyed the pan with interest. “I mean, if you’ve got it ready…”
I smiled and handed him the plate. “Wine okay?”
“Sure.” He carried it to the dining table and sat down.
I opened a bottle of wine then sat across from him.
“Wow, pretty good,” he said after his first bite.
“Why the tone of surprise?”
“Last time I checked, all you could make was a frozen pizza.”
“Well, Heath has taught me some things.” I grabbed the bottle of wine from the center of the table, and that was when I realized the ring was on my finger. Thankfully, Damien’s gaze was on his food, so I discreetly put my hand under the table and pulled the ring off my finger, slipping it into my pocket. I hated hiding the ring, like it was a secret to be ashamed of, but Damien was finally in a better place, and I didn’t want to provoke his wrath. “So, what brings you here?”