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I shut and locked the door and immediately moved to the couch, the red wine still potent in my blood. I was upset that I’d lost my husband, that he cheated on me in the first place, but I was really miserable over that beautiful man.
I missed Damien’s intense gaze, the way his fingers brushed through my hair. I missed those good kisses, the way he made me feel loved without even trying. I still reached for him in my bed even though I knew he wasn’t there.
I still hoped.
I pulled out my phone and stared at his message box. Texting your ex late at night after a couple drinks was stupid. It never ended well. But I was sad…really sad. I miss you. My thumb hit the button and sent it right away.
Damage was done.
I stared at the phone and waited for those three little dots to pop up.
They never did.
And he never texted me back.
25
Damien
“I can do half a billion by noon tomorrow.” I rested against the leather seat of the booth, a new client sitting slightly across from me.
Hades was there too, positioned on the other side of the round booth.
“Really?” Victor asked. “By tomorrow?”
I nodded.
“If that’s the truth,” Victor said, “you boys got yourselves a deal.”
My phone vibrated on the table, and I quickly glanced at it in case it was something important.
It was Annabella. I miss you.
I stared at it for a long time, blood draining from my face.
“Can you do more?” Victor asked.
I didn’t even notice he’d spoken.
Hades interceded on my behalf. “Let’s start small and work our way up. Meet us in the office tomorrow.”
“You know I don’t like to show my face in public,” Victor said.
“We’ll work something out over the phone, then.” Hades shook his hand before he nudged me in the side.
I snapped out of it and shook Victor’s hand before he slipped out of the booth. I let my phone go dark and didn’t look at the message again because I didn’t need to. Those three little words were ingrained in my mind now. It didn’t fill me with any kind of elation, just made me feel like shit.
Because I missed her too.
But I would never tell her that. I wanted her to move on, to forget about me.
“What is it?” When Victor was out of earshot, Hades addressed my aloofness.
I opened the phone again and slid it to him, unafraid to share the intimate details of my life.
He picked it up and looked at her message. His expression didn’t change before he slid it back to me. “She has it for you bad.”
“Yeah.” I slid my phone into my pocket.
“What are you going to say?”
“Nothing.”
“Just leave her hanging?”
I swirled my drink before I downed some of it. “I don’t want to lead her on.”
“It’s not too late…if you want to change your mind.”
I wasn’t going to sacrifice my lifestyle for a woman I hardly knew. That was how Hades’s story ended, but it wouldn’t be the same with mine. He had a soul mate, and I didn’t. I wasn’t looking for one either. Now that I had him back, I didn’t need a woman to fill the void anymore. “No.”
He stared at me for a while but didn’t press it. “Have you decided what you’re going to do about the Skull King?”
“I’m gonna pay him.”
“Good. Diplomatic choice.”
“But I’m still gonna kill him.”
Hades was about to drink from his glass, but when he heard what I said, he set it down again. “Not the diplomatic choice…”
“He was going to execute my father, Hades. How can I ever let that go?”
“It wasn’t personal.”
“Bullshit, it wasn’t personal,” I snapped. “It was entirely personal. That was why it worked.”
He drank from his glass, his eyes on me.
“What if it was Ash? Sofia?”
“Sofia doesn’t apply, but I get what you’re saying.” Because Sofia meant far more to him than his brother ever would.
“And I just sweep it under the rug?”
“Your father seems to have.”
I rolled my eyes. “He’s too old to really understand what happened.”
He swished his drink before he set it down. “Don’t expect me to participate in your vendetta. I saved your father because that was a special circumstance, but my attitude about my distance hasn’t changed. I have a family to prioritize. You’re alone in this.”
I hadn’t expected anything from him. “I understand.”
“Then think this through. Because Heath is a serious opponent, and if you make a wrong move…you could end up dead.”
I descended into the lair.
The Skull Kings operated in plain sight. Pedestrians walked past the building, assuming it was an old factory that may or may not be in operation. The police knew where it was and always avoided the streets surrounding it.
With a few men, I got past security and descended to the bottom floor, where the Skull Kings preferred to linger with their booze and women. All the men at the tables glanced at me when I entered, their laughter dying away when they recognized who I was. Women sat on the laps of the generous tippers, their tits hanging out in their barely there clothing.
