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“You’re going to owe me a lot more than that three million for the shit storm you’ve pulled me into.” Her tone had less bite to it than I’d expected. “But I am sorry I bailed on you in Poland. We both know you’d never have done that to me.”
Lacing up my boots, I reminded her, “You had to put your people and family first, I get it.” I wasn’t this woman’s greatest fan, but at the end of the day, she brought me to Diana, and that was all that mattered to me right now.
“Maybe that girl isn’t your weakness after all. I may have had that wrong.” Another curveball. Where was she going with this? “Rebecca, that woman was your weakness. But Diana, maybe she’ll turn out to be your strength.”
“You okay? Hit your head?” I stood, unsure what had come over her. She was acting as out of character as I’d been lately.
“I’ve always had a soft spot for you, Dominick, you know that.” A sigh fell across the line. “Also, maybe if you can be happy again, there’s hope for me, too.”
Unsure what to say to that, because I had no clue how to handle this Alyona, I went for my cross on the nightstand, buying myself time to think.
“If you learn anything, let me know,” she said before ending the call, saving me the trouble of a follow-up.
I stared at the phone, still thrown by her words, but as long as she didn’t have issues with Diana, I wouldn’t have issues with her.
With both my phones and my wallet back in my pockets, I went out into the hall in search of Diana. Since I’d seen her and Mya head toward the back stairs earlier, I dodged scaffolding and cans of paint and headed in that direction.
On the third step up, I paused as Easton let me know, “The boys are about to head out to go on their errand run for Diana.” I swiveled around to face him, and he lifted his chin toward the upstairs. “Griffin’s just double-checking a few items on Diana’s list. He’s with her now.”
She’s awake? Already wrote the list? I shouldn’t have slept. “What about the other list? Mine?” I’d jotted down a few other things I thought Diana might need as well, like glasses.
“Mya and Oliver are at a pharmacy now. Oliver needed new supplies for the medkit and his shoulder injury, and Mya was worried he’d get lost out there on his own.” Easton rolled his eyes. “Those two fucking yet?”
I could’ve laughed at his accurate assessment of their relationship despite not really knowing either of them, but I was too anxious to get to Diana. “Not that I know of.” I lifted my hand. “And to be clear, I never want to know.”
“Gray’s with Bravo. POTUS had them fly here from Norway,” he said, switching gears, thank God.
“Yeah, he texted.” I nodded. “How’s the security looking here?”
“As it should.”
Good.
“With any luck, we’ll find the other hostages quickly.” He swiveled his ball cap backward, grimacing. “Sorry, I hate using that word. Luck.”
“Yeah, don’t I know it.” I angled my head toward the stairs. “Anything else?”
He smirked. “Anxious to get to her, huh?”
“I’ll take that as a no, boss, there’s nothing else.” Not waiting for him to give me shit, knowing I’d get plenty of it later from Griffin, I continued upstairs, hanging a left down the first hall, checking each room one by one.
“What are your thoughts on soulmates? You think they’re real?” At overhearing Diana’s question, I halted outside the next doorway, flattening my back up against the wall. Where was she going with that? Was she still with Griffin, or talking to someone else?
“I’m not sure.” That was definitely Griffin. “My wife was married to someone else before she met me, and he, uh, died. He was a really good man. Big shoes to fill. I, uh, won’t ever be able to fill them the way he did, if you get what I’m saying, but . . .” He was struggling to get through this, and I didn’t blame him. “I’d like to say I’m Savanna’s soulmate, but then was Marcus not? Doesn’t seem right, so maybe a person can have two?”
Shit, I knew Griffin, and he must’ve slept as badly as I did if he was answering her question so directly. Then again, maybe his honesty was a credit to his wife and her effect on him since they’d married. The man became butter around Savanna, just the way I?—
Am I butter now? Is that what’s happening?
“I’m so sorry. I had no idea, or I wouldn’t have asked you that,” Diana apologized.
“It’s okay. But, Diana, if you’re trying to ask if there’s room for someone else in Carter’s life to, well, you know, be his ‘the one,’ then . . .” He let his words hang, and there I was taking a page from Diana’s playbook and eavesdropping, unable to stop myself from listening in.
Did she really want a future-something with me? She’d alluded to that on the jet with her comment about children. My children.
I’d tried to push her away by letting her see my darkness, and how easily I could uncage the beast from within if provoked.
Then, at the ass-crack of dawn, in that jet bedroom, I discovered I was capable of reining in the wolf when necessary.
