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She didn’t talk or come out of her room. So I sat on the sofa and contemplated calling Xael there and then. One glance toward Anna’s room, and the idea died. The thought of Anna hearing even a little of the real me frightened the crap out of me.
I lifted my gaze to the window and the white clouds that now carried a tinge of steel gray. A black speck moved in the sky. I rose from the sofa and stepped closer to the window, watching that speck grow larger in the distance.
It was them…the five heads of the Mafia families.
I stood there, mesmerized, as another dark speck grew larger in the sky and, as I watched, one by one the helicopters touched down.This was real…really real.My pulse sped at the thought as Anna’s phone beeped once more.
There was nothing else to do now. Nothing but wait…
All day I paced the apartment, flicking through the channels, only to finally turn the TV off. Anna didn’t come out of her room, instead she talked to someone. Someone she didn’t want me knowing about. When darkness claimed the night, the last helicopter landed, its bright lights glaring in the darkness.
I made myself busy and forced myself to eat something while I waited for as long as I could, then I sent Xael a message.
I need to talk to you.
Anna answered a call and talked in a hushed voice before stepping out of her room.
“Everything okay?” I asked, rising from the sofa.
“Yeah, sure, everything’s fine. Just checking in,” she lied.
My phone let out abeep.I grabbed it and checked the screen:Xael: Dad isn’t coming to see me, so the coast is clear.
“Go.” Anna nodded toward the door.
“Are you sure?” Hope flared.
“Positive. Go, have fun.”
I realized then that she thought I was meeting Damon. She’d bought his lies, his sick, twisted lies. It was written all over her face.
I forced a squeal. “You’re the best,” I smiled, and took a step.
“You like him, right? Damon, I mean.”
My steps froze, and terror found me as I forced a shrug. “He’s okay.”
“So, not mind blowing?”
I closed my eyes for a second and tried to stop my hands from shaking. “No, not mind blowing, Anna. That kind of romance doesn’t exist, only in books and movies. I’ll have my cell on me and the guard will be downstairs. Call if you need me, okay?”
I forced myself to move, bitting the inside of my cheek to stop from telling her the truth. But the truth would change how she saw me…the truth would change how I saw myself, and I wasn’t ready to face that reality. Not yet…not yet.”
“Okay,” she answered.
But I was already hurrying to the elevator, closing my eyes as I pressed the button. Revulsion tightened my stomach, driving acid into the back of my throat.Do you like him…do you like him…do you like him?
The elevator doors opened and I stepped inside. I couldn’t get her words out of my head, couldn’t burn away the look in her eyes. I braced my hand against the wall and tried to breathe.
The door opened and I pushed away, forcing the cold, stony mask into place. “I’m going to see Xael Davies.”
“Yes, ma’am.” One of the bodyguards nodded and prepared to accompany me.
My mind raced as we headed out into the night and along the path. In the back of my mind, Xael was my last hope and the reason I'd come here. If everything went to hell, I’d use what fragile friendship we had and ask her for the impossible…I’d ask her to kill Haelstrom Hale.
The sound of my heels rang out in the night.
Two-way chatter blared from the radio the bodyguard wore. But I focused on the darkness in front of me, slowing as we came to Xael’s building. The wind was roaring, the crash of the waves carried all the way through the thick bulletproof glass as the doors closed behind me.
