AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He held up his hands, motioning about the room. “Does any of this look free to you?”
“No, it just looks temporary for Red,” she countered quickly. “The place to stay and pretty clothes and fancy food and accepting being hidden away... until you’re tired of her.”
He smirked.
“And until you pay me what you owe for the privilege of meeting her through me, then yes, it’s free,” Desdemona assured him.
“And if I don’t pay you?”
“Then you’re no longer just my ex-consort but also a thief, and thus no longer have access to my protection of your secrets,” she said, arching a brow as she tilted her chin up a notch and eyed him with an unrelenting stare. “Fifty thousand should do it once and for all.”
Another stare between them. This one more hostile.
He released a heavy breath as he rose. His steps echoed against the quiet.
“And Hunter?” she said, reverting to his first name as a clear show of equality.
He paused.
“Betrayal cannot be met with loyalty.”
She could count to ten before his steps resumed. Desdemona looked up at the sound of his footsteps nearing. For a brief second, she imagined him nearing her with a gun in his hands instead of cash.
Pow!
She blinked, finding him handing her the money instead. She removed her portable cash counter from her pocketbook, giving him a smile as she fed it the money and verified the amount. “Thank you,” she said, then rising from the seat to walk over to the rear of the other sofa to select two dresses from the stack. “I already charged the card you had on file for those two dresses. C.Y.A. all day. Right?”
He just clenched his lips so tightly that the skin around them blanched.
“Your info will be deleted today, and you will never see or hear from me again, Hunter.”
“Good,” he mumbled.
The front door opened, and Red entered, looking warily between them as she held a small brown paper sack.
“Red, can I talk to you for a second to say goodbye? Alone,” Desdemona said.
The ginger looked hesitant before giving Hunter a look begging his permission.
Hunter threw his hands up in exasperation. “Get it over with and get her the fuck out of here, Red,” he said before leaving the room with short, angry strides.
“I had every right to quit,” she began. “You said anything you did for us was a gift and not something to be repaid or held over our heads.”
Desdemona nodded. “Absolutely true, Red,” she said. “Or should I call you Kevna now?”
“I’m still Red to him,” she said with the hint of a smile.
“And to you?” Desdemona asked. “Who are you? Or have you given up on your dreams of selling luxury real estate? Because sitting here waiting for him at his whim and his wife’s allowance will lead to you taking your eye off the ball.”
Red looked down at her feet as she continued to hold the bag of bagels. “I’ll get back to it one day,” she said, not sounding like she believed it herself.
“And he is giving you a stipend while you quit work?”
“It’s not like that with him, Mademoiselle. I love him,” she said earnestly.
Good grief.
“Never forget that you matter, Kevna,” she said, intentionally using her real name.
