It’s not even that I think he’s there, armed and waiting. If he tries to undercut her deal or get between her new one, that’s almost as bad.
He has no fucking right.
“We’re wrapping this up today, Holden. No more delays and no more worries.” Her little hand balls into a fist on her knee. She stretches her fingers out, like she doesn’t want me to know how stressed she’s feeling.
Futile for both of us.
I want to put my hand over hers and it’s ridiculous that I can’t.
One more sick consequence of making this so complicated.
My previous love life was never this protective. Just two people trying to figure out if they could share a life, and one of them deciding she wouldn’t.
With Charli, I tried to press her into my family’s mold when she wasn’t having it. Not even because I wanted her that bad. Because we had Kit and it felt right.
The same reason I held water to her dying lips.
The same reason I wiped her cold, pale face when she was too drugged out to even know who I was anymore.
By guilt, by moral duty, by the sheer twisted fuckery of life, I never had a choice.
Until Clee, I never fuckingwanted.
The soft line of her jaw sharpens as she pretends she’s not paying any attention to me. I know she’s probably still trapped in angry words over the past week, in everything we meant before that.
“It’s not paranoia to be careful,” I say.
She ignores me, turning to the window. I adjust the seat belt so it’s not cutting into my neck.
Fuck it, maybe Iambeing paranoid.
We’ve taken one too many hits and I’m not seeing things objectively anymore. Because hell, nothingisobjective when it comes to Cleo Blackthorn.
I’ve stopped counting the seconds by the time we turn down the street to the museum and I see the museum’s Grecian-style columns out front. Leonidas would’ve loved this place.
Logically, it would be insanely bold for Fairfax to try anything weird in public in a building rigged with cameras and a direct line to the local police precinct.
This place has both. I verified it with their security team before we set out.
So maybe Fairfax is just coming here to see it off and plead his case one more time.
Annoying, yet hardly the end of the world.
After all, if he wanted to take it by force, surely he wouldn’t implicate himself in their dirty work. Given the history behind the Hera Egg, it’s going to be a big moment, so maybe it’s just some goofy academic professional honor thing I’ll never understand.
I just can’t get his frustration out of my head. Hewantedthe egg, and he lost. He lowballed her, and she turned him down.
This feels like a bad fucking idea, and I can’t believe I’m letting Cleo walk into it.
“Go around the back. We’re meeting there,” I tell the driver, my knuckles white against my knees. That dull ache has started up and I’m not even straining.
“Right-o,” he mutters.
Cleo grips the briefcase between us, ready to dive out the instant we roll to a stop.
“Clee, it’s not too late,” I say softly. “We could reschedule for later today, even. I could call them and tell them you’ll meet Fairfax separately, after it’s handed off.”
“No.” Her nostrils flare as she inhales sharply.
