Page 82 of The Desire

“Understood. So now that you know, you can’t tell anyone, and especially not Tori, not yet.”

“See? Fucking messy, I told you.” He rolls his eyes at me.

“There is no way Flynn can take another hit right now, and there is also no way Tori can keep a secret, and let me assure you, you don’t want her to try. I’m watching it eat away at El, and not being able to talk to Tori is almost killing her. Those girls are so close, and she has never kept anything from her, so I can’t imagine it’s going to go down well when she does finally tell her. To be honest, I’m surprised she hasn’t suspected something yet too.”

“One word—wedding! She is trying so hard to find out what I have planned that she is missing the normal things that would trigger her nosy nature. You’re lucky, buddy.”

“So, we need to keep it between us, and I’m not telling El you know either. But I respect you too much to keep it from you any longer.”

“I appreciate it, Rem. That’s why you are one of my guys. I trust you with my life. Nothing says respect more than that. Got it?”

“Yeah, boss, got it.” I try to keep my face blank but can’t when he reacts straight away.

“Don’t you start that shit! That’s Flynn’s department to piss me off.”

“Speaking of Flynn, what are going to do with him?”

“Protect him as much as we can, that’s all we can do besides the obvious. Oh, and find that fucker and destroy them like they are trying to destroy us.”

You can see the moment both our brains click back into work mode by the body language, sitting up straighter on the couch, both getting ready to move and get on with the day.

We both stand and make our way toward the elevator like an unspoken end to our meeting.

But before I leave, there are two more things I need to say.

“I haven’t told her I love her yet.”

“Then don’t leave it until it’s too late,” Nic replies, talking from experience.

I nod to him before I drop the next thing on him. Pushing the call button for the elevators, the doors open in front of me.

As I step in, I give him the last piece of information I need to share. “Oh yeah, and I’m also bringing a plus-one on Friday night. And if anyone can fix Flynn, it’s my friend Cherie, you just wait till you meet her. Talk later.” The doors start closing, and his eyes tell me what he is thinking before he starts saying it.

“See? Fucking messy. I hate you, asshole!”

And I don’t know why, but that brings me a little joy for the day. Because it feels normal to piss off one of my friends.

Lord knows we could do with some normal today.

Now to go home and face the next problem.

Chapter Eighteen

ELOUISE

I’m sitting in the back of the car as we slowly drive down the street where Rem parked, and all I see is the back of him disappearing through a black door with nothing on it. The windows on the building are painted black, and I can’t see anything to tell me what is inside.

My first thought is to ask Art if he knows what that business is, but I don’t know if I really want the answer. It doesn’t look how I imagined a gym looking.

Next door to it is another similar-looking building. One single door, windows that are covered up, and a sign above the door that isn’t huge but enough you can read it. It just says in red writing Strip Club, and that’s it. Which to me screams that it really isn’t, because they aren’t really advertising it well. My gut feeling is that it’s probably a brothel, which even though they are illegal, still exist in lots of back streets like this.

I can’t be here anymore and need to leave before I overthink it. I can’t see Rem being the kind of man to visit a brothel, but then again, how much do I really know about him? Sure, I know about his family, friends, his work life, but do I know anything about his past? He traveled, and of course that led him to become a father when he always said he never wanted to be. But I don’t know why he didn’t want kids or why at thirty-six he has never had a serious relationship. The only thing I know for sure is that inside that seedy-looking building is a woman whose name is Cherie and that I know nothing about. Who she is or what she is. My mind is racing, and I’m so confused.

“Take me home please, Art.” Looking back at me with compassion in his eyes, he doesn’t say a word, just nods and then accelerates away.

Small little tears escape down my cheeks as the reality of the last twenty-four hours hits me.

This is why I didn’t think it was a good idea, Rem and me. There is too much at stake, and the first bump in the road is now derailing us far quicker than I expected. I truly don’t even know what happened after Tori started on the date thing, except that rage was consuming Rem, and he was having trouble holding it back. I always knew I would struggle with my emotions, but I figured he would be better at keeping calm than I was. Clearly, I was mistaken, because if the phone call hadn’t come when it did, then I don’t know how it would have ended up.

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