Page 89 of Taming Achilles

“I … don’t want him to die.” I said it as a statement, but my voice went up at the end with a questioning inflection.

Lea opened her mouth to speak, but the door opened. Her. Detective Delgado. My nose wrinkled in disgust as she walked in with the amiable-faced Rhys Tanner, who smiled at me.

“How are you feeling, Pippa?” He reached out to me, and I took his hands in mine.

Geordie followed behind them, and when Lea stood to kick him out, he put up his hand.

“I come in peace,” he told Lea. “I swear, I’ll be good.”

Lea gave him a side eye, then looked at me with a questioning brow. Was she asking if it was okay that he was in here? I guess so. So I nodded. Lea nodded back, and took her seat again.

“Miss Fox,” Detective Delgado said, her eyes strict and agitated. “I hope you’re feeling better.”

Geordie growled, and I realised I was still holding Rhys’ hands. I flinched away, and Detective Delgado looked between us with an irritated brow lift.

God, I hated the woman, but her eyebrows really were arched to perfection. And she didn’t even look like she plucked. Bitch.

“What can I do for you, Detective?” I said the word with the derision I thought she deserved, especially when she turned her eyes to Geo. My Geo. My fiancé. I had his fucking ring on, so that cunt better stay the fuck away.

“I’ve been informed that your case has been closed,” she said, that alluring light, Spanish accent made me cringe. I wish she was hideous. “My bosses have told me that everything after your break-in is now out of my hands.”

“Good,” I said with agitation. “Thank you for your hard work, detective. I’m sure that this will be a much needed reprieve, as I understand you must have your hands full with so many other things.”

I blinked fast, batting my eyelashes and plastering a smile on my face.

“I’ll miss you, dear Rhys,” I said, flashing her partner a smile. Did I do it to make Geo jealous? Yes. Was it petty? Also yes.

“George, is this really what’s happening?” She turned to my Geo with that fucking brow up. Were her lips always that red? Did she always look that slim? Were her breasts always that perky under her boxy blazer?

“Athanya …” He coughed, placing his hands in his pocket and looking off to the side. “It’s complicated.”

“Athanya?” I saw red, again.

“Don’t get jealous,” George tried to come near me, and I recoiled from his pathetic touch.

“Get away from me!” The beeping again. The monitors whirred and alarmed, and I was ready to kill.

“What kind of bullshit is going on here?” Athanya’s voice made me want to murder. I wanted the floor to run red with her pathetic, cold, blood. “What are you connected to?”

“Athanya, you need to trust me,” Geo started.

“She should trust you?” I screamed. “Get out!”

“Get out!” Chloe backed me up, her beautiful Parisian accent hitting a register I wasn’t used to as she came to her feet. “Or I will get security!”

“Not until I get answers …” Athanya insisted. Not realising how close she was to turning into shark chum, deposited somewhere between here and the Catalina Islands.

“We should go, Delgado,” Rhys said. Geo called her by her first name, but her own partner called her by her last name like a fucking professional. Had they fucked too? Was Athanya one of Geo’s women? The women who were people and not numbers?

I screamed, “Get out!” Cabbage echoed me, and George tried to touch me again.

Then the snick- click of that metallic butterfly knife cut through the air. Click, the blade came out. Snick-click. It was closed. Lea had silently gotten in the middle of it all, her knife going in and out in a steady, mindless rhythm as she stared blankly at no one. Snick-click. The blade was out, and she pointed it at the two detectives and Geordie.

“If you’re not a doctor, a nurse, or patient,” she said, with a slight smile. “You will get the fuck out of this room.”

Snick-click. The blade closed.

“I’ll stay,” Geo said, his eyes challenging Callum’s wife.

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