“How’s Rosalie?” he continued as he added salt to his dinner.
“She’s good. She’s in Chicago, so I miss her.”
He gave me a sympathetic smile. “Sucks, huh?”
I nodded. “It does, but she’ll be home soon. I’m just excited to see her.”
“She told me she was thinking about taking some time off. That still happening? Said you guys were going to try for a baby.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I think she’s definitely taking time off after Chicago.”
“Nice.” He grinned at me.
We spoke for the rest of our meal, and when it was over, we said goodbye to one another. Klaus did security for Fabian, so I promised to let Klaus know Fabian’s team would be reaching out again soon for more security.
Both Anson and Klaus were out for the night. Anson was checking out a new band, and Klaus was taking clients out to dinner.
I returned home to find even Trix was gone. Assuming she was with Cas, I flopped onto the couch and pulled out my phone. It was late, but I wanted to call Ro and say good night.
I dialed her, and it rang forever. I was just about resigned to accepting she was sleeping when Cole’s voice came on the line.
“Hello?” he said.
I frowned. “Where is my wife?”
“Bath,” he answered stiffly. “Is this Evan?”
“Do you know of another man married to her?” I asked. I was still pissed at Cole for taking her. I’d really like to punch him in the face for that move. And I vowed I would. For now, he’d have to endure my snark because, despite him being an old friend, whether he knew who I was or not, that shit was unacceptable.
He scoffed at that. “I’m Cole.”
“I know who you are. You kidnapped my wife and fucked her.”
He was quiet for a moment before he cleared his throat.
“I don’t want problems, man.”
I chuckled softly. Fucking Cole.
“I know what you did to Enzo. That shit is fucked up. I can’t have you losing your shit around my daughter, so we need to discuss a few things?—”
“The only things we need to discuss are your ass-whooping,” I said. “That thing I’m going to hand to you when we see one another.”
He laughed at that, soft and dangerous. I knew Cole. The guy could fight, but that was fine. I was still going to punch him in the face for the shit he pulled.
“I’m not going to fight with you. I fucked up, but had I not, I’d not know I had a kid, so excuse me,Evan, but fuck you.”
I shook my head. He was still Cole.
“You do realize that in the end, what we say goes, right?” I asked, deciding to push him a little and see if he still had his fire. “We’re allowing this to happen, but all we have to do is say no, and she will back away.”
It was a dick thing to say, but I wanted him to know that we really did support Rosalie, and if at any time any of us felt uncomfortable, we’d all agreed—Rosalie included—to pull back.
He was quiet for a moment.
“I-I understand that,” he said softly, his attitude shifting. “I know who holds the cards here. I know I fucked up when I took her. I am sorry for any trouble I caused you. You clearly love her, and I’m happy you care so much about her and my daughter.”
“My daughter,” I corrected. “She calls me dad, too.”
