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“Our love in exchange for his freedom…” She pulls her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, as she turns her gaze toward the window.
A charged silence settles, questions lingering in the atmosphere, and for the first time in a very long time, I can’t anticipate what happens next. Her lips are parted as she swallows dry sobs, gasping softly for air, her knuckles turning white from the tight grip.
She climbs out of bed once more, but this time, there’s no rage… she holds her stomach as she takes tentative steps closer to the window, her breathing quickening.
Running my fingers through my hair, I have to force myself not to go to her. Not to pull her into my arms. Not to guide her in the direction I want her in.
Fuck!
I can’t force her to believe me, to accept this… but goddamnit, how much I want to. I want to grab her delicate jaw in my large palm, wrap her fiery hair around my fist, and bend her into understanding, force her to accept everything I tell her with no questions asked.
Make her fucking want me!
Make her love me!
Make her fuck me!
But I’m no different from Holt if I do any of that.
Little Eve is mine, she always was. Through years and fucking years of this… building an empire with a lost empress, and now… she’s back.
The smart thing is to keep a safe distance so the empress can take her throne by her own choice.
“Why now?” Her voice is smaller. “Why did you come back now?”
“The evidence is gone. The cop is under our control now. Madds is safe.”
“And my father? After all of this, all he’s done to Maddox… to us, you go into business with him?!” Her tone grows louder once again.
“I told you, Holt has something I want, and your father will most definitely suffer the consequences of his actions. There was never any question about that. I’ve envisioned the moment too many times during the years. Even if you and I weren’t here right now… he would have still paid. If not for us, for Maddox.”
“When did the evidence go away?”
I sigh. “About six or seven months ago.”
In the reflection, I can see her eyes widening. She turns and looks over her shoulder for a few moments, before returning her gaze to the window.
“Six, seven months,” she whispers.
“Mhm,” I hum.
“My mother’s party…”
Slowly, I close the distance between us, standing just behind her. I tower over her, but not by too much. Enough to see over her head, watch our reflections in the window, through the dense forest and cloudless sky.
“There were rumors about what your father and Holt wanted, sniffing around the docks, and what they wanted couldn’t be done without the right connections. And The Sanctum has all the right connections. All we had to do was plant the seeds, and all of a sudden, all was forgotten, and we were invited to your mother’s birthday party.”
“Was it intentional? Your… timing?” She narrows her eyes.
“Yes.” I don’t miss a beat. “It took me too long. The longest it has ever taken me to do a job. I didn’t care that you were spoken for. I needed to be around you… see if there was something there. And there was.”
She shakes her head, but doesn’t turn. “I stabbed you. How would you possibly believe there was?”
“Little Eve, I knew I had a chance the moment you pierced my chest. It was that look in your eyes… it wasn’t of remorse, but passion so dark I could see your hurt, and your love too. You wanted to sink that blade deeper, but you knew you would feel that pain as well.”
All I hear is her soft inhales and exhales. It makes my blood pressure rise. It’s all come to this moment… and I can’t bear the wait, the unknown.
“So what?” She finally speaks again. “You would have broken us up if all that went down wouldn’t have happened?”
