“Yeah, sweetheart. I’ll see you tonight.” I don’t imagine the pleased look on her face as she leaves the room.
I don’t get a chance to enjoy the knowledge that I pulled Harlow out of her head, because Eli chooses that moment to pad naked into the room. His skin is still damp from the shower, and he’s slicked his hair back from his face. Without the pretty-boy blond waves, his features are almost too perfect. He looks like a sculptor crafted the high arch of his cheekbones, the strong line of his jaw, the sensual curve of his lips. It pisses me the fuck off.
He sees me and stops. “Last night changes nothing.”
“Agreed.” But I can’t get Harlow’s request out of my head. I can’t imagine a future where I trust Eli at my back the way I once did, but there are questions still churning in my gut that only he has the answers to. I almost snort. Turns out Harlow is right, after all. We do need to talk.
I shove the sheet off and climb to my feet. “Let’s find some coffee. It’s about time we had a conversation.”
Eli disappears into the closet and returns a few minutes later with jeans and a white T-shirt. The simplicity of the clothes does nothing to detract from his attractiveness. Or maybe I’m just getting sidelined because now I know how he tastes. A distraction I can’t afford, but a necessary one. The only real way to neutralize Eli would be to kill him, and I’m not ready to take that step.
The longer we spend together, the clearer it becomes that I’ll never be ready to take that step.
We stop in Harlow’s room so I can change clothes and then head down to the kitchen. I checked it out the first day here, and I’m reluctantly impressed all over again by how well outfitted it is. It’s commercial grade and commercial size. There was a chef and with two assistants on staff to take care of all the meals for everyone in the house—and another team that handled only the barracks—but we haven’t replaced them yet. Poison would be a great way to remove the threat we represent, and my people are the only ones I trust.
We haven’t had the luxury of keeping a chef on staff, not when we’ve been more or less on the move since we left Sabine Valley. We’d settle for a few months, or even a year, but something always happened, and we always had to move again. Even if we’d landed in one place, it wouldn’t be home the way Sabine Valley is.
There’s coffee made, but from the thickness of the liquid, either it’s been there overnight or that someone let Donovan brew it. I shake my head and dump it down the sink, pause to wash the pot, and then start the process for a new round of coffee.
Once it begins dripping, I turn to face Eli. He’s got his carefully neutral expression in place, and he leans against the counter across from me. “I see Harlow got to you.”
I shrug. “She’s tired of being the bone between us. Or the bridge. No matter which way you spin it, it’s not fair to her.”
“Agreed.”
I wait, but he doesn’t seem inclined to continue. Fine. The agreement, the fact that he’s here—it will have to be enough. I take a moment to look around the kitchen. All the stainless steel surfaces shine, the tile below our feet barely scuffed by so much foot traffic. It’s like the rest of the house. High-end and yet comfortable and practical. “You know, when we were younger, we talked a lot about how we’d fortify a place.”
Eli’s expression goes perfectly blank. “Did we?”
“Did you think I’d forget?” Honestly, I had. Our plans for the faction always took the forefront in my mind. We went over them time and time again, finessing them to the smallest detail, considering different paths to get to the same result.
Talking about the home we’d someday build for our people was more of a footnote. One I forgot until yesterday, when the mystery of how Eli managed to upset Harlow had the memory flickering in the back of my mind.
I walk from one end of the kitchen to the other, measuring it with my steps. “Especially when so many of these rooms don’t line up the way they should.” He’s not reacting, but that’s as much as an admission when it comes to Eli. “It’s not mapped out the way we planned, but the basic details are the same.”
“There isn’t a question in there.”
“No, there isn’t.” I already know he won’t show me any of the entrances to the passageways, but that’s fine. I’ll figure them out on my own. It’s more the fact they exist at all that fucks with my head. “Harlow lined out the things she won’t compromise on yesterday.” He doesn’t respond, but I don’t need him to, not when I’m watching him so closely. “A food program so no one goes hungry. A concentrated effort to shut down violent crime against people who can’t defend themselves. Imagine my surprise at how familiar that shit sounded.”