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His green-yellow cat-like eyes sparkle through the dim light back at me and narrow.So I’ve been told, they seem to say. Although he’s trying to challenge me, I see something hiding behind his stare—pain, trauma, and stories that he’ll never be able to tell.
As he steps forward, my gaze involuntarily strays to the bulge in his grey tracksuit bottoms.Jesus, he’s hung!I jerk my eyes away. He’s gorgeous, but he’s a mark. A mark that should be dead.
“You’re infuriating,” I huff, slamming the hatch closed. “You’re not the only one who can give the silent treatment.”
I say nothing as the minutes stretch on. I hear him moving around, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of checking what he’s doing.
Suddenly, the door flies open at the end of the corridor. Stephanie totters towards me in ridiculously high heels. It’s a miracle she hasn’t broken her ankle wearing those skyscrapers.
“Have you been shopping again?” I ask, checking out the gorgeous skin-tight powder blue dress that hugs her perfect figure.
“Not shopping,” she says, “but I have been out for a bite to eat…”
I raise my eyebrows at her tone. “Is that code for something else?”
“Look who I saw.” She thrusts her phone into my hands to show me a photograph of a dimly lit restaurant.
I see a couple sitting at a table. She points at them, and my chest feels like it’s been hit by a train.Seb?I pinch my fingers and drag them across the screen to get a better look at the woman with a shit-eating grin sitting opposite him. I’ve already blown her daddy’s arms off, and now I’m overcome with the urge to blast Beatrice’s hands off her dainty wrists too.
“Did he see you?” I ask coldly, not giving anything away.
“Yes,” she replies, pausing to check whether I’ll ask more questions, but I decided against it. “We had a chat. He was asking about you.”
I shrug like it means nothing, although I want to know what he said. I don’t know why seeing them together annoys me so much. It shouldn’t. Seb made his feelings for her clear at the party—unless it was all an act. I can’t trust anything the Dukes told me. Seb has been living a double life long enough that lying comes as naturally to him as breathing. It takes a liar to know one.
“He wants you to call him.” Stephanie tilts her head and takes a card out of her bag, but she doesn’t hand it over. “Maybe you should. Not yet. But it’s a good backup option for us.”
“I guess.”
“Come on, Ivy.” Her voice sends a shiver down my spine. “Don’t you want to see Mr Hot Cute Dimples again? Maybe you should get one last hoorah.”
“That’s Alaric’s decision,” I say, playing it safe.
“Let me speak to him.” She winks, pocketing the card again. “I don’t think we should wait for the Dukes to come to us. We should go to them.”
She rarely disagrees with Alaric’s decisions, so her voicing an opposing opinion puts me on edge. I don’t know her game plan, but something isn’t right.
“I’ll see you later.” She nudges her head at Bram’s cell. “And good luck making him talk.”
“I’ll be waiting a lifetime for that,” I mutter.
I sit down again. A few minutes later, Bram slides a note under the door.
Are you okay?
I snort. “I’ve never been fucking better.”
Haven’t I?
CHAPTER21
FREDDIE
Istand under the shower spray, letting the hot water trail over my muscles and trickle down my abs. Steam fills the room; the temperature is intolerably hot, and the humidity makes my breathing heavy. This is the place I think best.
I’ve languished in a bottomless pit of despair for days, but I have to pull myself out of it. This isn’t like five years ago when I saw evidence of a car wreckage that I was sure no one could survive. Rose is alive, likely terrified, and questioning who the fuck she is after what Callen forced her to do… and I need to find her. I need to be the one who lifts her up and puts her back together because she’s the woman who completes me.
In my head, I go over the little details in the days leading up to the ball. I’ve combed through every conversation Rose and I had to see if I’m missing something.
