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“Hey,” I greet Davey cautiously a few hours later. He looks...awful. Pale, unshaven, purple circles around his eyes. I’m not sure if he’s been jumped or needs a week off.
“Hey.” He falls heavily into a chair. I have to ask.
“You okay?” His eyes flash.
“Great. You?” he snarls. Then he sighs. “Sorry. I’ve been at the preschool all day. Two guys came...” I gasp. “No. No, it’s a good thing,” he insists. “I’ve been waiting for them.” He stifles a yawn, his fist over his mouth. “Since you’ve not been at The Nook all week, I’ve been watching it. Night shift.”
“Ah.” He blinks sleepy eyes. “Well, I’m going over tonight,” I tell him.
“Oh, thank God.”
“I can’t guarantee she’ll let me stay, but I can keep watch if you like?”
“Why not?” This time he yawns widely, making me yawn too. “Never mind, just... turn on the charm...I don’t know. I need to sleep.”
Charm ain’t gonna cut it. There’s something else I have to ask. Something that’s been bugging me. “Did he hurt Summer? De Luca?”
Davey frowns. “You could say that.” The morbid, fucked-up part of my brain takes charge of my mouth.
“What did he do?” Davey looks at me hard. Maybe he’s just trying to focus.
“When he attacked Eva, she was fourteen weeks pregnant.” Oh. Holy. Fuck.
What have I done?
I fall into the chair opposite him, feeling like the world’s biggest arsehole. “What?” Davey asks. And I explain slowly, in stunted sentences, what happened today.
When I look up, he’s watching my face in stunned silence. “Wow. You fucked that right up.”
“Yeah. Cheers.”
“Eva’s okay. I saw her just before I came over. Might explain why she’s hiding up a tree though. But...Bells?” His face breaks out into a grin. “Wow.”
“Yeah. Good for them, eh?”
“Mate, you have no idea.” He pauses. “If I were you, I’d just plain grovel. Eva will forgive you. Eventually. It’s not like you tried to kill her.”
“Yeah. I’m sure she’s thrilled.” I shake my head. “So. The guy in the picture?” I ask, changing the subject.
“He’s also watching Eva. But he’s not connected to De Luca that we can figure. Definitely not part of the organisation. But he does know a Jacob Stone.” I can feel Davey watching my face. My expression. The colour rising in my cheeks. “Tell me about him. About Jacob Stone.”
“He was my boss.” Davey settles back and folds his hands, patiently waiting.
“From the beginning, please, Will.”
“How long you got?” He half smiles, gazing serenely back at me, and I gulp air.
“His ex-wife owned my dance school. He recruited me and my best friend, Jack, into trapping. He paid our way through psychology degrees and taught us the art of seduction.
“He hired ex-Olympic martial artists and ex-service men to teach us hardcore martial arts. He even paid for Jack to have cosmetic surgery. A nose job. We were his prodigies. And his retirement fund.” I glance up at Davey. He clearly already knows. He just wants me to say it.
“It was him...Stone...who orchestrated Penny’s case. Mae’s mother. He introduced me as a student from Trish’s dance school.” I push the chair back, away from the desk a few feet, and lean forward, my forearms along my thighs.
I feel closed in. Claustrophobic.
“Penny was his best friend’s wife, and he wanted her. It took me a while to work out that she wasn’t the one being tested, that he wanted to swoop in and play the hero when I’d... done my job.
“A shoulder to cry on when her husband left her.”
“And then?” Davey prompts quietly. My eyes clash with his.
“She...she left him. Her husband, I mean. I had no idea. She didn’t tell me she was going to do that. There were no warning signs. Or maybe there were, and I was just too blind to see them.
“I told Jacob that she’d left the family home, and I guess he thought that was his chance. He took her out for dinner and the next day, he called me into the office and told me not to close the file yet. To spend one more night with her and let her down gently. He said he thought she’d developed feelings for me but he’d told her that I wouldn’t stick around. That I don’t do relationships.
“But it was one night too many, and I got a daughter.”
Davey is as still as a statue. Only his blinking eyes move. He knows the story isn’t done.
“I did what he asked. I spent one more night with her and told her thanks but no thanks. She cried. A lot. She...she begged me not to leave.” My mind fills with the howling cries she made, the devastation in her eyes. The sick satisfaction it gave me.
Arsehole.
“Jacob...he tried to get with her but she insisted they were just friends. He must have known she was pregnant, but he didn’t tell me...He and Trish couldn’t have kids...I think he was biding his time. I think he thought, if he just played the game right, he’d get the girl and her baby. My baby.
“But she was sick. She had cancer. She...she.” I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths.
I killed her. Me, and my stupid fucking head games. I killed her.
“She said she wouldn’t have any treatment until the baby was born. But by then, it was too late. She died two days after giving birth.”
“I’m sorry, man. I really am. I know that was difficult for you to talk about,” Davey says quietly. “You’ve done the hard part. Now tell me what happened next. She gave birth to your daughter. Then what?”
My hands are shaking, so I grip my knees tighter and continue. “She died in the hospital. She had registered the birth and named me as Mae’s father, and she’d given my phone number to the nurse taking care of her. She asked her to call me when she’d...after she’d...gone.” I gulp and force the next words out on a whisper. “She didn’t want to see me.
“I was so...angry. I was angry at everyone and everything. I was angry with Penny for dying and leaving Mae motherless. I was angry with myself for being so fucking stupid that I’d fuck a woman I knew had left her husband because of her feelings for me. I was even angry with Mae.
“But mostly, I was angry at Jacob Stone.”
“What did you do?” Davey asks, his voice level, his gaze commanding.
“I destroyed him.” The anger surges and swells. Anger I thought had died long ago, but as it turns out, it’s still there, bubbling under the surface. “I fucked his new wife and his girlfriend. I destroyed his family. I dismantled his business around his ears and watched his bankruptcy hearing with fucking popcorn and a can of Coke.
“I bought him out for a penny. Apt, don’t ya think? His life’s work. And I did it all with my daughter on my knee. The daughter he wanted to take from me without ever telling me she existed.” I’m breathing hard. So hard I’m barely taking in air.
“Yeah, that’ll do it,” Davey says at last.
“Do what?”
“Ensure he wants to screw you over right back.”
“He can try,” I growl. And then, his earlier words register. “Why is this guy connected to Stone watching Eva?”
“You weren’t the only agency that tried to trap her, Hunter. But this guy.” He taps the phone. “This guy has only been interested since you got interested, which makes me think this is more about you than her.”
Not the only agency? My girl has a target on her back.
“I need to see Eva.”
“You do,” he agrees. “But give her some time first.”
***
“Hey, Mary,” I call weakly as I fall onto the sofa in my living area a few minutes later.
“Will!” I hear the sound of muffled, shuffling footsteps. “You’re early, pet.”
“Yep.” I can’t bring myself to open my eyes but scoot forward and lean my head back against the wall.
“Late night, was it?”
“Hmm? Oh, no, not really. I haven’t been sleeping much.” And it’s been an eventful day.
“Well, best you get an early night then.”
“No. No, I’m taking Mae over to Eva’s.”
“Again?” It’s the note of alarm in Mary’s voice that pulls my eyelids apart.
“Yes?” I can’t read her expression through the brain fog.
“Mae will get attached to that girl and her daughter, Will. I don’t think it’s good for her.” Oh. Is that all? I allow my heavy lids to close again, and sleep curls its tentacles around me.
“It’s fine, Mary. I’m handling it.”
––––––––
When I wake, I’m covered in a blanket from Mae’s room. It’s excruciatingly pink to my barely conscious eyes.
“Hi, Daddy!” Mae half whispers, smiling softly at me from her dining chair, her red Minnie Mouse pjs flapping wildly as she swings her legs back and forth. “You want swum milk?” she asks, raising her almost-finished beaker to her mouth and adding another layer to her milk moustache.
“No, thanks, angel.” I glance at the time. It’s nearly seven. Wow. I was out for the count.
“I’ll just grab a coffee and a shower and we’ll get going, okay?” I smile and stretch my arms above my head, my feet touching and then disappearing into the curtains.
“Ah, Will. She’s ready for bed, pet...”
“She can sleep in the car, Mary. Don’t worry about it.” I push myself up and drop a kiss on Mae’s head as I wander towards the bathroom.
***
Just over two hours later, I’m stark naked, standing outside Eva’s bathroom with the lavender massage oil I borrowed from Escape’s spa, my hands still trembling with raw emotion.
The truth I needed to speak spilled from my lips like a river flowing to the sea, as though it were glad to be free at last, but she’s less willing to share with me. She didn’t even mention how my outburst might have reminded her of a painful time, and then she took a sledgehammer to my walls with a simple kiss.
But hers are still dizzyingly high and I need to change that. I want her to let me in. I need her to trust me, because she should. She should trust me, because I’d never hurt her. I’d never leave her. I’ll always love her. I have a plan. A seductive plan.
I peek through the gap in the door. Her clothes are piled loosely on the floor as she steps into the tub surrounded by candles, her wine glass perched on the edge. And I can’t wait another second.
“Can I join you?” My lips curve upward as her head whips around, her eyes wide but filled with heat. She nods and scoots forward, making room for me to get in behind her, and I place the oil within easy reach.
I bring my lips close to her ear and murmur, “Hold still.”
I reach across, collect the brown bottle and unscrew the lid. Eva’s shoulders roll back and she sits straighter. She can smell it. I pour a small pool of the fragrant oil into my palm and lightly rub my hands together. She’s going to talk to me whether she likes it or not.
I place my hands lightly on her shoulders and begin to work her body to loose, pliable and willing. Her muscles are tense. I can feel the knots. Her skin, smooth to begin with, is now oiled and slippery. My hands glide over her like an eagle over a lake.
Her head lolls to the left, stretching out that long neck, and she makes a satisfied groaning sound. “You like that?” I ask, although I already know the answer.
“Hmm,” is her only reply. Her head moves back against my shoulder, her body relaxing into mine. My signal to turn up the heat. I make my way slowly along her back, my fingers reverential in their exploration of every curve and vertebrae, all the way to the base of her skull, and begin an unhurried descent under the waterline to her waist.
She’s completely languid, her arms floppy, her eyes closed and her lips parted, as I venture off course and gently glide my eager hands around to her front, and up to the bottom of her rib cage. Her weight presses further back into me, her spine arching just slightly, unconsciously pushing those glorious breasts into the air. “Talk to me, baby.”
“Hmm?”
My hands move higher. “I need to know, Eva. Why do you want us to be a secret?”
“I think it’s best that way.” There’s no chance she’s getting away with vague, generic answers. Not now.
“Why?” I lower my mouth to her shoulder and trace the contours with the tip of my tongue, as my fingers gently twist her tight nipples. Her breathing is short and sharp, her hands gripping my thighs.
“It’s safer.” Safer? For her? I don’t understand.
She peeks over her shoulder at me, her cheeks flushed.
“Safer?” I ask. She inhales sharply as she realises what she just said. Her eyes search mine and I see the moment she decides no. No, she doesn’t want to talk. Or can’t. And she leans in to kiss me. I put my index finger over her lips. No distractions. I want to know. “Safer for who?”
“You. Will, you don’t know what you’re asking.”
“So tell me.” Her eyes squeeze shut and her head droops. “Tell me, Eva. I need to understand. Please talk to me, baby.”
“Dan is...dangerous. Unhinged. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Oh...baby. My brain is running at a million miles an hour but only one thing pops out of my mouth.
“You were trying to protect me?” No one has ever done that. Not since Gran died. I protect myself with anonymity. With a mean right hook. With money, and a hardened heart. Because I learnt the hard way: everyone will throw you to the wolves if there’s something in it for them. But Eva...? She...?
“Us. I was trying to protect us. You, me...and the girls. He’s not rational. He believes I belong to him. And he’s a violent man. Likely armed at any one time. I can’t take that chance. We can’t—”
She’s trying to protect me. Us.
She’s the one. The woman...no, the human being, I didn’t believe in. An urban legend of better people being out there somewhere. And she’s right here.
I move fast, lifting and flipping her around so that we’re nose to nose, and pour all of my love for this woman into a kiss, until she’s relaxed and returning my lazy kisses without any hesitation or tension.
“It’s my turn to talk now. You don’t get to say anything for the next five minutes, okay?” I challenge. She raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms in a huff.
I set the timer on my watch. “Starting now.” I unfold her grumpy arms and wrap them around my waist, pulling her body closer to mine. Better.
“I know what kind of man he is, Eva. But I’m not worried.” She looks like she’s going to say something, so I remind her of the rules with a shake of my head and a smile. Her mouth twists but she stays quiet and I continue. “But I understand why you are. I promise you: you have nothing to worry about. I promise you that I’ll protect you. I promise you that I can handle him. And I promise you he won’t ever come near you or Summer again. I won’t let anyone or anything come between us, baby. Not now, not ever.” The thought of him being in the same city as her makes my blood boil like a vat of acid.
Her head drops again. She’s thinking too much. “I need you to believe that, Eva. I need you to understand that I’ll do anything to keep you safe. To keep you here in my arms.” My hands lift to each side of her face and I brush a kiss on her parted lips. There’s one more truth she needs to hear. And I’ll tell her while the no talking rules still apply. “I need you more than I need oxygen. I need you to need me too.”
She doesn’t baulk at my confession. Her eyes are clear and bright. She’s not horrified by the idea. The cage door creaks in my mind, and when her lips touch mine, it inches open. Just a fraction.
“So, can we agree that I’m capable of deciding what is and isn’t a risk worth taking? That we don’t have to be kept under wraps?” I murmur against her lips, unable to break contact. But she’s hesitating. “Please, baby. I need this.”
“Why?” she whispers.
“I need to know that you want me. That you’re...” Christ, I’m pathetic.
“That I’m what?” Tell her. Tell her the truth. Let her decide.
“That you’re not ashamed of me.”
“No!” She gasps. No? “How could you think that? I’m not ashamed of you, Will. Of us. I... just. Don’t know.” No? “He contacted me.”
“Oh?”
“He sent me a picture. Of us. In the bar.”
“Okay...”
“And...a target emoji.” She’s still trying to protect me. My girl. My heart expands to bursting, knowing that she cares about me, but she has to believe I don’t need her protection. Not from him.
“Can I see?” She frowns but nods. I reach for her hand to keep her steady in the oily bathtub as she steps out. She wraps a bath sheet around herself and glances back at me before disappearing through the door. When I hear her footsteps on the stairs, I climb out too and pull the plug before grabbing another towel and blowing out the candles.
I’m almost floating down the stairs. She hasn’t said that she loves me, but she wants to protect me. In my head, that’s the same thing. And I know I’m going to deal with De Luca for the both of us.
She’s there. In the kitchen, with her back to me, the towel slipping lower and lower. I lean against the door frame, enjoying the view.
“Let me see, Eva.” She spins around fast, the phone clutched in both hands at her chest.
“Are you sure? You could...” Yes. I’m sure. I stalk towards her and pluck the phone from her grasp.
“PIN?” I note she didn’t answer the question but chose to unlock it with her thumbprint.
“A text message?” I ask as I open the app.
“Yes.”
She has a lot of messages. One from someone called Nikki, just checking in. Bells, asking about a food budget for a festival. Gary’s here too, with a smiley face and three kisses. I’d love to read that thread.
Then I recognise my own message. And the name I’m stored under. My eyes flick to hers. Hotel client? No. No, I don’t think so.
I open the message and navigate to contact information. I flick another look at Eva, who’s waiting but not patiently, and change the contact name to ‘lover man.’ Better.
I scroll down to the withheld number and tap on the photograph. It’s of the two of us, the night in the cocktail bar, taken just after I put the drunk in his place by the looks of it. My arms are around her waist, my head bent close to hers. On the screen, Eva is every bit as beautiful as I remember. I forward the image to myself, with a mental note to update Davey. “Okay. So, here’s the thing,” I tell her, satisfied. “I don’t care if he knows we’re together, Eva. I want him to know you’re mine.”
“What if he comes looking?”
“I’ll be waiting. And I look forward to telling him to his face. Don’t doubt me on this, Eva. Please, don’t ever doubt me. I won’t let him hurt you.”
“What about you?” she says in a small voice. Oh, baby.
“Or me. I can look after myself. I promise you. Let me worry about it, okay?”
“Okay.” She nods but swallows hard. “We’ll face it together.”
“I’m going to make love to you now,” I warn, because if I don’t get her in bed in the next twenty seconds, I’m liable to bloody explode.
She nods again. “Okay.”