“Doesn’t mean I won’t take you.” He leaned back against the chair and stared. “When I thought I fucked up, I was willing to step aside and let you go. But now that I know the game was rigged, that I never had a chance, I want a redo. And you’re giving it to me.”
My heart started to slam into the walls of my chest because I was actually afraid. “You’re scaring me.”
“Good. That means you understand how serious I am.”
I pulled my hands off the table, my pulse so strong I felt my entire body vibrate with the feeling of drums. Everything felt different, as if my mind understood that I was in danger, that I should run before it was too late.
“Your answer.”
I was afraid to say it out loud. “No…”
He stared at me for a long time, his body as rigid as a pile of rocks, his heartbeats stalled. His eyes were so pretty, but right now, they were sinister, terrifying. “I was hoping you would say that.”
Four
Annabella
I sat in my lonely apartment and watched the sun disappear over the horizon until my living room went dark. The TV wasn’t on to cast an intermediate glow across every corner. Dinner should be in my stomach by now. But I was too distressed to think about everyday life.
What the fuck just happened with Liam?
A knock sounded on my door. It was subtle, like he knew I was sitting right by the door and didn’t need a loud and obnoxious announcement of his presence.
It couldn’t be Liam because he’d never been so gentle. I turned on the lamp beside me then navigated through the living room furniture to the front door. Without checking the peephole, I opened the door.
Damien was dressed in black head to toe, his usual watch gone. He had a large wooden door leaning against the wall, already detailed with my address. He hardly looked at me before he got to work. He pulled a screwdriver from his back pocket and worked on the hinges that held my cracked door in place.
I crossed my arms over my chest and watched him work.
As if he’d been a contractor in a previous life, he worked step by step, knowing exactly what to do next without even checking. He got the door off the frame and then leaned it against the wall across the hall.
“Do you need help?”
He pulled the door closer and got to work. “No.” He lined up the door then attached it with screws and tools. It only took him fifteen minutes to change the doors and move my locks, being far more efficient than my super would have been. When he was finished, he tested the swing, making sure it was perfectly level with the floor. “Shut the door and lock it.”
I did as he asked and bolted everything.
He twisted the knob and tested it from the outside. Then he kicked it for good measure.
I jerked back at the loud sound.
He knocked when he was finished.
I unlocked all the locks again and opened it.
“Good.” He left the other door across the hall then entered my apartment.
Watching him take care of me like that was touching, especially since I didn’t ask. I could have asked the manager of the building to do it, but Damien would rather do it himself. He didn’t even pay someone to do it; he did it with his bare hands. “Thank you…”
He stopped in front of me and stared, his green eyes searching my gaze for something. Maybe he saw my sincerity. Maybe he saw how much the simple gesture meant to me. The softness in his eyes quickly disappeared. “What happened with Liam?”
Our nice moment was destroyed. “Nothing good.”
He flicked on the lights because he probably thought it felt like a cave. “Be more specific.” He stood in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest, not extending any kind of affection. He used to touch me whenever he could, find any excuse to make that happen. But once I went through the heartbreak of Liam’s betrayal, Damien gave me more space than he ever had.
“He’ll only drop his vendetta if I take him back.”
Damien’s eyes immediately narrowed at the request, as if he hadn’t anticipated something so absurd.
“Says he was never given a fair chance. I lied to him about your identity, and if he’d had that information, everything would have been different. He would have made other choices to make this marriage work.”
Damien continued to show the same coldness. “Don’t say yes, especially not on my account.”
“I didn’t.”
“Good.” He dropped his arms and leaned against the back of the couch. He stared at the opposite wall for a while before he turned his head in my direction. “You tried. That gives us one other option—and you know what it is.”