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“Leave her alone, Malachi.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m asking you to.”
“You brought her to my house, Gray. She’s free fodder. You know that.” Faith walks in circles around the room, her fingers working over a tablet she’s holding, and then approaches Hannah again. “Unless you’re suggesting she’s not free” I snarl at the suggestion and watch as a cold compress gets put on Hannah’s forehead, Faith’s hand patting it gently. The sight of it makes me wander backwards and sigh, eventually coming to rest in a chair.
“Help me understand,” he says to me.
“No.”
“Gray. You’re being obtuse. This is me you’re talking to. Talk.”
“It’s none of your business. She just needed the distraction.”
“You know damn well that I know everything there is to know about her already,” he says. “I’m not interested in her, I’m interested in you and why you’re being so possessive of something that is not yours.”
“Do we really have to do this?”
“Yes. If I’m not going to fuck her because you’re being a dick and not sharing, I’ll fuck with you instead. Your choice. She’s the first one you’ve brought to me.”
My head tips back, eyes looking at the ceiling, and a surly chuckle rumbles through me. Malachi Jones. Puppet master. Fool. Bane of my life. And, unfortunately for me, the only person I’ve ever told the truth to.
I heave in a breath and calm my laughter, wondering if I’ll ever rid myself of him. Unlikely. He’s as close to paradise as I get. The provider of my own distraction. “I seem to like her,” I mutter.
“Not allowed according to you, as you well know.”
“I’m not acting on it.”
“You already have done. She’s here, and I saw the circle you were in with her, Gray. We’re both well aware that you do not do that.”
My head twists to look at him, another sigh coming out of me. “It was nice to feel with someone. Sense density under my hands.”
He stands and paces over to the screen, his eyes looking into the room. He won’t be watching Hannah. He’ll be staring at the woman that completes him – Faith Monroe. I hear her footsteps approaching the screen, clipped heels walking the hardwood floor in there. He chuckles and turns back to me. “Would it really be so fraudulent of you?”
I frown and stand to go look into the room, my own gaze falling on dark hair spilling out on white sheets. She looks better now, still pale and hollowed, but more like she did before her attack of hallucinations. “Yes. It would.”
“You should be knighted for your gallantry, Gray.”
I nod and chuckle again. Gallantry? Hardly a trait I possess, but watching and dictating in this realm of hedonism is as far as I go with my desires. It’s as far as my own levels of decency will allow these days. I stare at Hannah again, sensing those indecent thoughts buried in me. I don’t understand them, don’t understand the need to go to her, wipe her brow myself and be there when she wakes from this either. Rules. For the first time they seem breakable to me, something to be toyed with and pushed away so I can just be.
He slaps my shoulder suddenly, bringing me out of the morose gaze I was falling into. “Drink?”
“You don’t have any here.”
“No, but I do upstairs.”
“I’m doubting that’s a good idea.”
“It is. I might have a plan to help.” My brow quirks, interest in his idea of help making me chuckle. Malachi Jones doesn’t help anyone, other than this never ending self-indulgence he provides to those that can afford it. And that’s only so he can amuse himself with the torment of others. “What? I’m feeling inclined to press you further than I have done.”
I look back at Hannah, and listen as Malachi calls through to Faith. Bring her upstairs, he says. I frown at the thought and watch him open the door, then follow through the maze of corridors back down towards the room Hannah’s in. He stops two men, both of them his idea of servants, and tells them to go in and help Faith. The door cracks open as they go in, revealing the slither of white sheets and blankets, but my neck is in his hold before I get a good look and I’m twisted away from the area.
“What are you doing, Malachi?” I ask, still under his hand.
Two squeezes on my neck and a chuckle. “Tempting you.”
I shrug out of his grip, damn sure I don’t need any more temptation in my life regarding Hannah. My life is as it is. It isn’t changing either, no matter how much I might want it to. The thought makes me stop, wondering what the fuck I’m even doing here. A distraction? There is no distraction from my reality. Never will be unless I make it happen.
