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“I should have told her who he really was,” I said.
“She was so young when you kicked him out, there’s no way you could have known,” Carletta said. “We were just trying to protect her.”
Tate Armstrong had been by my side and in my inner circle for many years before I’d caught him stealing from me, tearing my businesses apart one by one to make his money, only to spend it on drugs and whores. When he’d left, going into hiding to get away from my people, I’d let him be, thinking he was too shit scared to do anything drastic. Tate was a lowlife piece of shit scumbag who didn’t have the balls to do anything worth it. So I’d thought.
“I was wrong about him,” I said. “I should never have trusted him. That fucking bear.” I balled my hands into fists, rage swirling in my gut. Ihatedthat son of a bitch. I wanted him to die.
I wanted his whole family, everyone and everything that was important to him, to suffer pain for the rest of eternity.
Delaney had turned to him because she’d known him, trusted him. She’d known he had connections with powerful fae, and she wanted the help.
“I should have found someone for her,” I said. “When she came to me about it, I shouldn’t have told her it couldn’t be done. I should have tried to help her and let someone else tell her the facts.” Delaney had come to us first, but we’d told her to accept the facts. Carletta and I had both known that it wasn’t possible to fabricate a beast, but Delaney hadn’t wanted to hear it from us.
“You didn’t know,” Carletta said softly. “She was young.”
“She was old enough to know she wasn’t like the rest of us.”
Tate had introduced her to the fae, all right. He’d done exactly what she’d asked of him… and then he’d fucked her over.
And now she was gone.
Carletta’s eyes welled with tears, and I wanted to punch something. My skin was on fire, the rage threatening to eat me alive.
“How are things at the club?” Carletta asked, changing the topic. She could tell I was about to lose my shit.
“Fine,” I bit out. “They’re… fine.”
“Did you find a new employee?” she asked. “What was it you were looking for?”
“A secretary of sorts,” I said. “And yeah, we found one. Felix found her, actually. She’s great, though. Good at her job, so Amy tells me. Hot.”
“Really?” Carletta asked. “You never refer to your employees that way.”
Shit.
I shrugged. “Well, she is. Can’t deny facts.”
“Do you like her?”
“It doesn’t matter if I do.”
“So, youdo.”
I sighed. “I’m not going there.”
“Come on, Jamie,” Carletta said and put her empty cup on the floor next to the couch. “You can’t isolate yourself like this. You can’t keep punishing yourself by not having any fun.”
“That’s rich, coming from you.”
Carletta twisted her mouth. “It’s not the same.”
“Of course it is.”
“You deserve to have someone by your side. If you push everyone away all the time, you’ll end up alone.”
“I’ll always have you,” I pointed out.
Carletta averted her eyes and shook her head almost imperceptibly.
