Page 82 of Offside Devil

I slam the door closed. “It's my house. I should be asking what you are doing here.”

“I know, I'm sorry. I just—” A sob bursts out of her and she crosses her arms tightly across her chest. “I… I didn't know what to do.”

I shake my head. “Do about what? Why are you even here?”

She takes a steadying breath. “I came over to pick up your suit. I know it was just dry cleaned, but I noticed a champagne stain on the lapel when we were talking at the bar and I wanted to get it treated. So I thought I'd just pop over and take care of it for you.”

I drag a tired hand over my neck. “You're supposed to talk to me before you come to the house. I'm cracking down on security for?—”

“For Aiden,” she cuts in. “I know. I admire everything you're doing for your son and I'd never want to intrude or make you feel uneasy, but I was close by. I figured I could wait outside in the hall while Mira grabbed the suit. I didn't want to come in. I didn't want… I didn't want any of this.”

She drops her face in her hands and trembles. I’ve never seen Hanna cry, not once in all the time I've known her. Does that mean…?

Mira told me she was taking Aiden to the park. They must be okay. He must be safe.

“What happened?” I croak.

“Mira opened the door to let me in. She told me to get whatever I wanted and then…” Hanna chews on her bottom lip. “Then she went into her room and shut the door. Aiden was watching TV in the living room, but it still seemed weird that she would leave him alone. I waited and waited for Mira to come back out, but she never did. I was alone in the house with him for an hour, Zane. She didn't check on him once.”

I trust Mira. The only reason I can leave this house every day and do my job is because I trust her with my son.

But should I?

Mira ran naked from her job within the first five minutes after I met her. This could be her pattern, for all I fucking know.

“What happened next?”

“I went to tell her I was leaving to, you know, see if she wanted to watch Aiden. And she came out and I only saw in her room for a second, but I swear I saw… I saw… There were pills, Zane. I think she might’ve been… using. Using drugs. And she saw me looking and said she was going to try to get me fired. I d-didn’t know w-what to do.” Hanna drops her face in her hands again. “I’m sorry.”

My fault. All of this is my fault.

I was desperate for help with a kid I didn’t even know I had, and I let this woman I barely know move into my guest room. What the fuck was I thinking?

Hanna blinks up at me, her eyes dry. “What are you going to do, Zane?”

God help me, I have no fucking clue.

I reach behind me for the knob and pull the door open. “You can go now, Hanna.”

Her mouth falls open. “Is everything—Are you okay?”

“I’ll be okay when the people who work for me do their jobs,” I say evenly. “Your job is to keep my life on the ice on track. You shouldn’t be showing up at my house in the middle of the day when my kid is home.”

“Zane, I’m sor?—”

“Goodbye.”

Her lips snap shut, and I know she’s pissed. But whatever anger she has towards me right now is nothing compared to how mad I am at myself.

The only reason I don’t rip into Mira the moment she walks through the door is because she has my son in her arms.

She’s cradling Aiden against her chest. His head lolls on her shoulder with every step. My son trusts her. I see it in the way Aiden looks at Mira, the way they talk. The way he falls asleep in her arms and lets her carry him up to the condo.

He likes her.

And to think I almost made the same mistake.

Mira is fidgeting with the door, trying to lock it with her one free hand without dropping Aiden, when I reach around her to turn the lock. She whips towards me, a strangled cry in her throat.

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