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Loosening my arms around her, I step back.
For all the shit that’s happened, this is what breaks her?
Maybe it’s time I cut my losses and let her go. I should let her go back to the people who have no appreciation for her capabilities.
Maybe that’s what she’s wanted all along—to go back to him.
I try to swallow down the bile the thought of her with Marshall pulls from my stomach, but the longer I stand looking at her, the more impossible it becomes.
“I can get you a hotel.” I don’t recognize the sound of my own voice, and I hate her for it.
“Please.” Red-rimmed, teary eyes widen on mine. She really does look like a lost little mouse. And I’m the idiot who thought he could change that. I’m the fool who thought I could give her somewhere she belongs.
Chapter 13
Ava
The hotel is an old colonial farmhouse, white clad with black shutters. The receptionist is nice, young, and I’m sure she believes we’re having some sort of sordid rendezvous. I’m not sure how because the atmosphere between Damon and me is glacial at this point.
“I’ll pick you up for the meeting tomorrow,” he says, looking at the ground between us.
I didn’t know that you can miss someone looking you in the eye until now. He’s always looked at me, even when I wished he didn’t. And now I wish he would, and he won’t.
“Damon…” I move a little closer, breathing in his warm ambery scent. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing.” His hand grazes my shoulder, and I swear that it tries to hold on, but it drops to his side as he turns to leave.
Watching him walk away hits like a sledgehammer to my heart. It doesn’t make sense for me to feel this way, not when he’s played me at every turn. Damon is always one step ahead and ready to pounce with his games. First the bar, then the blackmail…Robert and this whole thing with Warner. The only reason he wanted me for that is Lacie, or my friendship with her.
Damon is like some kind of omniscient and omnipresent being. Every time I think we’re on the same page, another surprise pops up.
He acts like an asshat, especially when he cares about something. Someone.
Fran’s words echo around my thoughts, getting louder and louder and louder until my feet are moving of their own accord, tracing Damon’s steps back to his car.
The sky is clouding over like it’s about to pour down. The salt in the air coats my lungs as I suck as much of the cool air into them as possible.
And as his car rumbles to life, I pull the door open.
“Why did you bring me here?” The question bursts from me. “I’m not Fran. I’m not your friend.”
“I’ll call you back. Okay, Mom?”
“Of course, darling.”
Shit. I can’t fucking win today. If I ever meet this woman, she’s going to hate me.
I hope she doesn’t. The thought makes my heart stumble in its erratic pace.
Standing from his car, he shuts the door and perches on the hood. The wind is picking up a little like it’s brewing a storm. And the way he’s watching me, it’s like I’m it. The storm.
“Truce?” he asks.
“No. No more truces, Damon. Just be straight with me. No more games and surprises.” I edge closer to him, not enough to touch, but enough that when the wind whirls around us, his scent wraps itself around me. “Why didn’t you tell me? Give me some warning? I don’t even know what we are…”
“Can’t we just be me and you?”
“We are, Damon. I’m me and you’re you.” The air around us begins to mist as the sky darkens to a deep violet, shadowed with the grayest clouds I’ve ever seen. “You’re my boss, and I’m your employee. You’re the man that lied to me and then blackmailed me into staying. The guy that had me steal from my own family.” There’s a low rumble above us, the mist becoming thicker until it’s a hardening drizzle. “You kiss me like you care, but in the end when you’re done, you’ll discard me. You’ll throw me away because I’m nothing to you.”
