Page 57 of By His Side

“Any of it. If he even gets a whiff of Felix not being the innocent party I made him out to be, he’ll throw him out bodily, and there’ll be nothing I can do to stop him.”

“He’s not a neanderthal.” Levi smirked. “Well, not unless I ask nicely.”

“That is definitely TMI.”

Levi shifted in his seat. “Seriously though. You’re going to talk to him, right?”

“Hayden or Felix?”

“Felix. Hayden can wait.”

“Yeah, I’m going to talk to him.” And what a fun conversation that was going to be. It would mean having to come clean about what I’d been up to today. Which would no doubt go down like a ton of bricks.

Chapter Twenty-three

Felix

When Darien was late getting home, I thought little of it. In the weeks since I’d been here, he’d stayed late at the office at least a couple of times a week. That was the downside of dating—were we dating or had we gone past that?—someone so dedicated to their job.

The rush of feelings was immediate when he finally walked through the door.

So much so that I didn’t even wait for him to take his jacket off before pulling him into an impromptu embrace. A familiar smell assaulted my nostrils as I buried my nose in his hair. “Ugh! You smell of prison. I guess you had to see a client today.”

Three things set alarm bells ringing. First, was how stiff Darien had gone in my arms. Next, was his lack of response to what I’d said, and then finally his eagerness to extricate himself, his arms having stayed by his side throughout the entirety of the one-sided hug.

I stood for a moment in the hallway, trying to convince myself I was being paranoid, that this was what happened when you spent the day alone counting the hours until you had someone to talk to again. In many ways, I’d walked out of one prison and into another. Only in this one, there was a glimmer of light. And his name was Darien. Tonight, though, he lacked that glimmer. Which meant I wasn’t being paranoid.

I tracked him to the living room where he’d taken his jacket off. Rather than hanging it up as he normally would, it was slung carelessly over the back of the sofa. The TV was playing a cartoon that I doubted Darien was interested in. Not unless he’d been hiding a secret desire to learn the alphabet and count to ten behind his love of trashy documentaries. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

It was funny how a simple phrase could cause such a visceral reaction, my heart rate increasing and my palms starting to sweat. Julian had used those same words more times than I could count, and nine times out of ten, they’d preceded him flying into a violent rage to prove he was anything but fine. It provoked an urge to get the hell out of here, to leave the house and go somewhere. Anywhere.

I forced myself to stand still, to think rationally rather than let fight or flight kick in. This wasn’t Julian. This was Darien. He’d given me no reason to think he was anything like Julian.You didn’t think there was anything wrong with Julian for the first year of your relationship. Don’t make the same mistakes.

“You’re not fine,” I said carefully. “There’s obviously something on your mind. Is it work? Did someone find out about me being here?”

Darien shook his head as he picked up the remote control, the TV going silent just as the dog puppet got to seven in his latest round of counting. Darien continued to stare at the blank screen before seeming to catch himself and patting the empty seat next to him on the sofa. “Why don’t you come and sit down? I’ll give you fair warning that you’re going to be pissed, though.”

“In general, or at you?” I didn’t take the seat he’d offered, choosing to perch on the sofa arm instead.

“Both, probably.”

“What did you do?” Silent seconds stretched between us and I wished he’d left the TV on. “Oh, come on, Darien, how bad can it be? Just tell me what’s going on.”

“I had this idea,” Darien finally said. “I enjoy fixing things. You’ve probably already worked that out about me, what with me being a probation officer. I certainly didn’t go into it for the money.”

“Right?” There didn’t seem to be any other response I could give to the statement when I didn’t know where he was going with it.

“You being trapped in here while I’m at work isn’t fair.”

“I go out. I walk in the park. I go to the supermarket.” My argument wasn’t that convincing when the activities I’d come up with made me sound like I was ninety.

“Which you wear a disguise to do.”

I shrugged. “I just don’t want what happened at my mother’s house happening here. It’d be crap if I run out of places to live.” My attempt at a joke fell flat.

Darien sighed. “I thought if I could clear your name, it would fix things.”

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