Page 71 of Unfinished

Bill stared at me with concern in his eyes but didn’t agree or disagree. He was playing this safe because he knew that this situation with Salvatore Agosti might not be solved by then. This was a long-term problem that we needed to handle carefully to keep the authorities from digging into the connections between the Agosti family, the Night Saints, and us.

Chapter 32

Hannah

October

The media published yet another photo of Liam and some woman. It was beginning to hurt like hell, but I had no justification for being upset and it was annoying. I slammed my coffee cup down on the counter a little harder than I meant to and Ashley spun from the stove where she was making us omelets.

“What’s the matter?” Ashley asked.

“I have no right to be upset, that’s what’s wrong. I can’t be mad or jealous or sad,” I said.

“He took someone to an event?”

“Yes, and I hate it.”

“You do realize he has never taken the same woman to two separate events, right?”

“Until now.” I slammed my hand down on the magazine in front of me. Ashley turned off the stove and came over to me, snatching the magazine from me to look at the images.

Liam had taken Amber Sutton, whoever she was, to two events in the last two weeks. If this were one event I’d shrug it off, but seeing that he took a single person to two events so close together made me want to vomit. It didn’t help that we hadn’t been texting or talking as much in the past month. We were both busy. Now I knew why he was busy.

“You two aren't together, but I doubt this is serious,” Ashley said, closing the magazine.

Ashley went back to the omelets and started to plate them and I made a face behind her back as a joke. She spun and raised an eyebrow, "I saw that."

“It wasn't really directed at you. I just want to be able to be jealous and angry.”

“What an asshole! He took a girl on two dates! Want me to cut him.” Ashley grabbed a knife and held it up.

It made me laugh and I felt the tension in me start to release. Ashley always helped me out of the dark places my mind would go to. I really didn’t have any reason to feel upset about this. It was out of character and I was already worried.

“Maybe you should consider going on a date yourself.” Ashley handed me a plate with a fork and I set it down on the breakfast bar in front of me.

“Why though?” I stabbed the omelet with the fork and ate the bite.

“Because you dated a couple of guys in high school and it’s been Liam since then,” Ashley said and I furrowed my brow.

“I don’t really have the time.”

“You have some time to go on a couple of dates. He is. Why shouldn’t you?” Ashley shrugged and I saw her point.

“He has events he has to attend.”

“But he doesn’t need a date for those events, he could go on his own.”

I paused eating, realizing Ashley was exactly right. He didn’t need to take a date, he chose to do so. So was he doing it knowing that I’d see the photos? Was this a test?

“Is he testing me to see if I’ll get jealous?”

“He did let that redhead flirt with him the same night he was ignoring you.” Ashley tilted her head and raised an eyebrow and I narrowed my eyes.

“He’s trying to make me jealous so that I’ll cave!”

I stood and started to pace our living room, abandoning the omelet half eaten on the breakfast bar. I was the one who insisted we were allowed to date other people.

“I’m not going to play his game,” I said.

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