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“There’s really nothing worse than a crazy ex,” Etta added brightly. “Remember when Kyle went all coo-coo, babe?”
Orson grunted, fixated on his beverage, but through his peripheral vision, I could tell he was watching me.
“Do you remember, Abby?” Etta pressed, eager to turn the temperature down. “It was just after… well, you know… the war.”
She trailed off and looked at me apologetically. “After Elijah died.”
I almost gasped aloud, but shoved the glass back in my mouth before I could make the sound.
“Etta!” Orson barked, and she whimpered.
“Sorry! I always think that enough time has passed, and then I go putting my foot in my mouth.”
“It’s fine,” I told her firmly, and I meant it.
Elijah had made his choice—again. This time, he’d chosen to believe Ash over me. I wasn’t going to throw away the life I had built here, soulmate or not. Elijah couldn’t commit to me the way I needed. Again, he’d left me to survive on my own. I wouldn’t sell him out, but I didn’t owe him anything, either.
“I’m over Elijah,” I said, the lie burning my mouth, but I was determined to make it true.
Even if I had to keep lying to myself over and over to make it so.
Chapter24
Elijah
For the sixth time in a row, I watched the text go through without a response, my apprehension mounting as I waited for a reply.
“What are you doing?” Ash wanted to know from across the room. “I hope it has something to do with assembling your crew.”
I ignored his comment and waved the phone at him.
“Are you sure this thing works?” I asked Ash, ready to smash it into the ground.
The demon arched an eyebrow. “I’m sure,” he replied slowly. “What’s the problem?”
I threw it toward him, and he caught it in a single, open palm, studying the screen speculatively. “Ah.”
“Ah?” I grumbled. “It’s obviously defective.”
Ash sighed and set the phone down on the dining table before grabbing his jacket, which was hanging off the back of the chair.
“There’s nothing wrong with the phone,” he reassured me, slipping his arms into the sleeves and adjusting the jacket over his breast. “She’s ignoring your texts and calls.”
Heat flooded my face at the confirmation of what I already knew.
“Then I need to go over there and talk to her,” I growled. “She’s being unreasonable. She can’t ignore me forever.”
Ash stood in front of me at the table and shook his head.
“That’s not a good idea,” he told me. “Not now.”
“If not now, then when?”
Ash looked like he was containing his irritation with me, but he wasn’t the only one on edge. I’d been holed up inside for too many days now. It wasn’t in my nature to be cooped inside like this, first at Abby’s, and now in this posh, gilded cage.
At least here, I had some traction, the gears of progress in action with Ash’s men on location, funds allocated, and a headquarters engaged. But none of that was enough. I’d never simply walked in and taken a business from someone before. Fortunately for me, Ash had more experience in that field, and he worked on the legalities and loopholes as I paced the suite, thinking of nothing but Abby and her vanilla-scented body, only a few miles from my grasp. The mere thought of her panting, writhing body beneath me made me harder than a galvanized dragon’s horn.
“Why don’t you give her another day?” he suggested. “She’s clearly still pissed off with you, and you need to be focusing all your attention on Orson. You don’t need the distraction.”
