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“I understand you’re dating Coop,” he said.
“Most people do. We’re going out again tonight. He’ll be here soon, so you might want to get whatever this is over with before he appears.”
Derek poked the inside of his cheek with his tongue. “I know you don’t like me much, but I’m not as much of an asshole as you might think.”
I highly doubted that. “Why are you here?”
“I’m not sure if Coop has told you, but I don’t feel that he and I are done. I want to fix things between us.”
“So, what, you’re asking me to back off?” Ballsy.
“No. I just wanted to be upfront with you about the fact that I hope to win him back. I’ve been trying since we split up, but he rarely even talks to me. I still care for him, Maya. I respect you, but I won’t let him go so easily. If your relationship with him was serious, it would be different.”
“You can’t be surprised that he’s not flinging himself back into your arms. He was made aware that you were cheating on him with Beatrix.”
“By Arlo, yeah. Arlo fucking lied.” Derek thrust a hand into his tousled chestnut hair. “He wants Coop for himself, so he did what he could to edge me out of the picture. It worked.”
Derek was either a very good liar or he was telling the truth. I had a feeling it was the former. “Look, this is all between you, Coop, and Arlo. I don’t want to be dragged into it.”
“You don’t believe me?” It was more of a guess than a question.
“Why would I? You have a long history of keeping Beatrix dangling on a string instead of just letting her go.”
“So she says. I haven’t slept with her in over a year.”
“Not according to her.”
“I know. She spreads bullshit stories to get between me and my partners. She wants me to go back to her. I’m not interested—something I again told her last night in the gardens.”
I frowned. “So what you’re saying is that everyone else is lying and that you’re the victim here?” I couldn’t keep the scepticism out of my voice, but he didn’t seem upset. Just resigned.
“I don’t expect you to believe me, Maya. Most people don’t. I just wanted to give you a heads-up rather than go behind your back trying to win Coop over.”
Another knock came at the front door.
Derek sighed. “That’s probably him now.”
But it wasn’t. It was fucking Ryder. Well, wasn’t I a popular girl tonight?
His green eyes flicked from me to Derek. “What’s going on here?” he asked, stalking inside in that oh so purposeful way he had. Predictably, my body perked right up.
“Nothing at all,” said Derek. “I was just leaving. Ryder, good to see you.” He nodded at me. “Maya, have a pleasant evening.” He sauntered out of the apartment.
Ryder closed the door. “What did he want?”
“Nothing of interest. What do you want?”
“To check on you.” He rolled back his shoulders. “You took the death of the monkey hard,” he added, his voice softening.
“We all did. Taking down an ill animal was not our idea of a good time.” I swallowed, my chest squeezing. “But I’m good.”
“No, you’re not.”
No, I wasn’t. I was used to seeing death. I’d fought on a battlefield more than once. But there was something so much more devastating about discovering a string of dead animals, knowing they’d died hard—and not even to provide food for other wildlife. And God the cheetah cubs … My stomach rolled, and nausea rose up fast.
Ryder crossed to me and palmed the side of my neck. “Tell me what I can do.”
In another life, where he might have been someone I could count on and build something with, I’d have simply asked for a hug. But we weren’t a couple. Never would be. And I couldn’t afford to let myself rely on him for anything. I’d only get hurt. “You don’t need to do any—”
“I know I don’t need to, I want to. I don’t like seeing you hurt. It makes me want to fix it.”
Oh, those words were a shot at my fragile defences. “I just want the fucker behind all this to pay for what they’ve done.”
“They will. I’ll find out who it is.”
“Unless they run.”
“If we hear that someone has run, it’ll be obvious why they’ve fled. I’ll bring them back.” He gave the side of my neck a little squeeze. “They will pay.”
Swallowing, I nodded and inhaled deeply. Stupidly. Now my lungs were full of his scent, and the back of my throat began to burn with thirst. Hell. I needed him gone, not taking up my space and doodling circles on my skin with his thumb.
I carefully lowered his arm. “Thanks for coming by. I need to get dressed, though, so …”
