Page 187 of This Woman


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“I don’t feel comfortable.”

With me? At The Manor? Is it Sarah? I need to know. “Why don’t you feel comfortable?”

“I just don’t.”

“Please, Ava.”

“I’m not coming.”

I inhale, willing myself to stop wasting my fucking time. “Promise me you’ll be here when I get home then,” I say. “We need to sort this shit out.”

“I’ll be here,” she whispers, and I see with perfect clarity that she’s being honest with me.

“Thank you.” Exhausted, I drop my head to hers and take a few moments of peace in our chaos. I then lift from the bed and walk out.

And still, even though she’s promised not to leave, something doesn’t feel right.

36

I lookup at my rearview mirror as I approach the gates to The Manor, frowning when I see Sam’s Porsche in the distance, racing up behind me until his bumper is practically kissing the arse of my Aston. I hit the remote to open the gates and slow to a crawl as I rumble down the driveway, the trees lining the way perfectly still, not a leaf moving. It feels somehow eerie, leaving me with a sensation I’ve never felt before. Like I’m driving into an ambush.

I get out as Sam skids to a stop behind me, kicking up plumes of dust from the gravel. “What are you doing here?” I ask, concerned by his apparent urgency.

“Why haven’t you answered your phone?”

“I didn’t hear it,” I say quietly, almost to myself. I think back on my journey from Lusso to The Manor. I can’t remember a damn second of it. I feel unsettled. Completely out of sorts. It shouldn’t be a shocker after my showdown with Ava.

This time tomorrow, I’ll either be walking on air or drowning in the bottom of a bottle of vodka. My skin becomes clammy, my stomach knotting.

“What’s going on?” Sam asks, approaching, his laid-back persona lost somewhere on the way here. “Kate dashed over to your place. Said something about watching Ava. What’s wrong with her?”

I find my feet and take the steps up to the entrance. “We had a fight.”

“About?” he asks, walking on my heels. “Did you tell her?”

“I wanted her to come, and she refused. I’d planned to tell her a few truths this weekend and everyone keeps shitting on my plan.” I push the door open and take a moment to absorb the silence. And maybe to rein in my foul mood. I can’t walk into thismeetingwith Mike feeling like this. It’ll be a bloodbath. My patience is thin at best, and my need to get back to Ava to fix this shit is all I can think of.

“You were going to bring her here to tell her about this place?” Sam asks. “Why would you do that?”

“Because she can’t run away from me here,” I say without thought, the deepest corner of my mind giving us both the answer. We’re in the middle of nowhere. She can’t walk away.

“That’s fucked up, Jesse,” Sam says over a nervous laugh. “But regardless, she isn’t here, so why the fuck are you?”

I head for my office, and Sam is in quick pursuit. “Mike’s here. He wants totalk,and I need this problem to be gone once and for all.” It’ll be a tick off my endless list.

I stop at my office door and look back, finding Sam’s stopped at the end of the corridor to my office. He thumbs over his shoulder. “I’ll be in the bar. Drew’s on his way.”

Fuck me, it’s like the mounting of troops. “You called the cavalry?” Of course he has. This Jesse is not the man they’re used to dealing with.

He throws his hands skyward. “I didn’t know what the fuck was going on.”

I shake my head and push my way into my office. Talk, resolve this shit with Mike and Coral, then get the fuck out of here. I find Sarah at my desk and John pacing circles, guarding Mike, who’s looking a bit too comfortable on my couch. It riles me, and riling me now isn’t wise for anyone. “So I’m here,” I say, closing the door behind me. “Let’s talk.” I feel John’s eyes burning through his wraparounds, focused on me, and Sarah’s obviously tense, drumming her long red nails on my desk. I set my keys and phone down, eyeing her. “You okay?” I mouth, and she nods, but there’s no denying she’s stressed.

“You going to ask your skivvies to fuck off?” Mike asks, and I turn to find him throwing a gesturing hand John’s way, not looking at him. I, however, do, and the big guy’s chest is rolling dangerously, his phone turning in his hand repeatedly. Call me intuitive, but this doesn’t feel like it’s going to be the calm, grown-up discussion that John alluded to. I don’t feel the air clearing. I feel it clouding more.

“I’ve got it,” I say more calmly than I’m feeling. Like John, I already want to rip Mike a new arsehole. But this can’t get messy. Sarah appears beside me, her hand resting on my arm. “Call me if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

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