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“Baby… the fuck?” he asked.
Czar, I knew, was a good liar.
But not that good.
He wasn’t faking that confusion.
“I didn’t even know you saw anyone else.”
“Right. You thought I was gonna wait seven to ten years for a guy who did nothing but lie to me the entire time we were together.”
To that, he sighed, leaning back in his chair again, shaking his head at me.
“I protected you.”
“From the truth?”
“From ever getting caught up in my shit, Nyx. If you had no idea, there was no way the cops could make you talk, could get any kind of confession out of you. I kept you safe by keeping you in the dark.”
“That wasn’t your… no. You know what, no,” I said, sighing. “I don’t even give a shit about that anymore. Right now, I give a shit about the fact that you have me involved with your fucking heroi…” I started, cutting off, knowing that the cameras likely had audio, and someone was always listening in prison. “Involved with your fucking… comic book collection,” I decided, sheerly because the kid at the next table had a t-shirt printed with a comic book page on it.
“My comic book collection,” Czar repeated, eyes getting dark. “What do you mean you’re involved with that?” he asked. “The rule was always clear. You never touch the comic books.”
“Yeah, well, clearly you changed your mind. Because now comic books keep showing up with notes telling me to hold onto them for you.”
“Baby girl… no,” he said, voice low, head shaking. “Absolutely fucking not.”
“I’m not hallucinating, Czar. They were there with a note. Signed by C.”
“What did you do?” he asked. “Certain comic books are valuable,” he said.
“Yeah, no shit. And guess what I did?”
To that, his jaw got tight.
“What’d you do?”
“Lost four of them.”
“Shit,” Czar hissed, raking a hand down his face. “Baby, listen. This doesn’t have shit to do with me. You know me better than that. I’d never put you in harm’s way. And I sure as fuck would never let that happen,” he said, reaching out toward me, but I flinched back. “I would never be a part of you getting hurt,” he said as his hand curled into a fist.
“Then who?” I asked. “Your fellow… comic book collectors… who would do this? And why?”
“It’s been a long time,” he said, a muscle ticking in his jaw. For a man who typically had such control over himself, seeing an outward sign of his anger had some of my own falling away.
I’d been operating under the assumption that Czar had been trying to control my life for years. But everything about him right then was indicating he was just as in the dark as I was.
So, really, could I even be mad at him?
“Did you tell anyone to keep an eye on me?” I asked, and when his gaze slipped over to mine, I saw a bit of guilt flashing in those eyes that I used to get lost in.
It was strange to realize that it was all just… gone.
All that love, adoration, borderline obsession with him.
It just wasn’t there anymore.
I could appreciate that he was still gorgeous, maybe even more so than before, but I didn’t have any stirrings of attraction or affection anymore.
