“I met Damien and Hades at a bar to talk about business.”
The mention of his name made my heart race a little, but I forced my pulse to calm down. “Why did you need to meet so late?”
“Because we have a business idea, and they wanted to discuss it right away.”
“Oh?” Now I was attached to Damien in many ways, and I would probably continue to see him for the foreseeable future.
“You’ll never guess who Damien is seeing.”
The sentence made me go rigid, and I couldn’t hide it at all. I gripped my fork and stopped eating, suddenly sick.
“I don’t know her last name, but her name is Charlotte. She’s the biggest model for Barsetti Lingerie. I’ve seen her on billboards and in shop windows for a few years now. I’ve never seen Damien with a woman before, and I was starting to wonder if he was gay.”
He was definitely not gay. “And they are serious?”
“No idea. But she was all over him like he was god’s gift to women or something.” He chuckled then kept eating.
Of course, she was…because he was god’s gift to women. I didn’t want to hear about Damien’s personal life anymore, so I changed the subject. “What was the business they had in mind?”
It must have been serious because he stopped eating. He placed his silverware on the plate, covered in marinara sauce. “They suggested I go back to death fighting.”
My heart spiraled down to my feet—for two reasons. “They encouraged you to do that?”
He nodded.
Would Damien do that to me? He told me I should ask Liam to quit fighting altogether, and then he turned around and told my husband to do something that could claim his life. “Both of them?” I just couldn’t believe it. Maybe Hades would do that because it was just business, but would Damien stab me in the back like that?
“Yeah.”
If Damien were sitting there with a model dragging her tongue across his neck, then he must be on board with it. That hurt in a way I couldn’t explain. We’d agreed to be friends, but would friends do that to each other? “And you said no, right?”
He stared at me for a long time, his eyes shifting back and forth as he looked into mine. “I said I had to ask you first.”
Dinner was forgotten, and my rage kicked in. “You already know what my answer is going to be, Liam. Why even bother?”
He sighed quietly. “Baby—”
“Don’t fucking baby me,” I hissed. “No. My answer will always be no. Why would you even want to do something like that? Put me through something like that?”
He didn’t match my emotion and stayed calm. “Baby, I only have a few years left, and this is what I’m passionate about—”
“Killing people?” I asked incredulously.
“It’s not about killing people—”
“When you asked me to be yours again, you said you would do anything for me. When you asked me to marry you, you said you would be the best husband you could be, that you wouldn’t fuck this up again. So why—”
“I meant that—”
“Shut your fucking mouth. I’m talking.”
His eyes filled with anger, but he didn’t talk back.
“Why would you risk our happiness for that? You wanted me back for so long, so why don’t you spend your time with me? We could travel, we could join a bowling league, whatever the hell you want. What is with this impulsive need to fight? You threatened to go back to death fighting if I didn’t take you back. Now you have me, and yet, you want to go back anyway.”
He stared at me in silence. “Can I talk? Or do you want me to continue to shut my mouth?” he asked sarcastically.
“If you’re going to be an asshole, then yes, keep your goddamn mouth shut.” I got to my feet and slammed my plate down onto the floor, where it shattered into a million little pieces. I marched to the front door, put my boots back on, and then grabbed my purse.
“Anna.” Liam came down the hallway when he realized I wasn’t storming off to my bedroom. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
“Out.” I flung the front door open.
He grabbed me by the wrist, twisted it, and then pushed me back against the wall.
I was caught off guard by the rough way he handled me, treating me like an opponent in the ring. I stared at him in shock. He’d grabbed me before, in sexual ways in the bedroom, possessively. But that wasn’t how he grabbed me now.
He seemed to understand he’d crossed a line because he pulled his hand away and stepped back.
I was so livid that I slapped him across the face. It wasn’t the way I hit Damien, violent and passionate. It was just full of rage, full of disappointment. My palm stung with the hit because I’d never hit him before.