Page 72 of Forbidden Dark Vows

I fetch the packet and the glass of water on the nightstand and pop the tablets into the palm of her hand. I wait for her to swallow. “Better?”

“Better. I’ll be fine by tonight.” She sits back on the bed, the comforter bunched up around her. “You don’t have to worry about me, Harry. I’m a big girl now.”

“But I do worry about you, Ruby, and the sooner you get used to it, the better.”

She nods. “I knew you were only staying a couple of days. I-I just wish last night hadn’t been such a disaster.”

“Last night was last night, and today is today. Whatever they think, I’m going to marry you in six weeks, Ruby, and I’m going to make you the happiest woman alive. Promise.” Because that’s one I can keep. I stand up and retrieve my carry-on from the closet. “You have a wedding to plan, don’t forget.”

“How could I forget?”

By the time I’ve showered, dressed, and repacked my clothes, Ruby is asleep. Her eyelids flicker open when I lean over her and kiss her goodbye.

“Promise me you’ll call if you don’t feel well.”

“I’m fine, Harry. I’m just going to doze a little longer.”

“Promise me, Ruby, or I’ll have to fuck you again before I go.”

“Hmm… How can I resist an offer like that?” She smiles mischievously, her eyes slanting sideways. I grab the comforter to pull it off her, and she grips it tightly. “Okay, okay, I promise.”

Her eyes follow me to the door, and I can’t wait for us to live together so that I don’t have to do this anymore.

Carlos is waitingfor me in the office.

“I’m not sure we can recover all the money owed to you,” he says, adding cream to the cup of coffee Lizzie has placed in front of him, “but I have a joint venture that I think might interest you.”

I sit down. I haven’t stopped thinking about Ruby since I left the Drake Hotel, and I need to get my head into gear and pay attention. This isourfuture now, mine and Ruby’s, I’m not just doing this for me.

“I have a contact in Saudi,” Carlos continues. “He is looking to expand his income from the States, and I think that a deal will be mutually beneficial to everyone concerned.”

He runs through what the joint venture would mean to his company and Weiss Petroleum and shakes my hand before he leaves. “We are like brothers, you and I. We look after each other.”

I don’t know how I’ll ever repay him for his generosity, or even express how grateful I am that he has taken me under his wing when I need him most.

As if reading my mind, he says, “One day, I might not be in such a fortunate position, and then you will have your chance.” His booming voice follows him from the office and past Lizzie’s desk to the elevator.

I stand, remove my jacket, and walk to the window. Ruby and I haven’t even discussed where we’ll live once we’re married, but I realize that I’d just assumed that she would come here. My office is here. My family—what’s left of it. I would say my life too, but, apart from Ronnie, my friends are scattered around the country now like dandelion seeds.

And Ruby won’t want to be far from her dad.

“I swear I can still hear him talking outside the building.” Lizzie is standing in the doorway, and I didn’t even hear it open. “Can I send out for some lunch for you?”

“Please, Lizzie.”

I turn back to the window, searching for Carlos Russo outside, as my gaze settles on a man in a black coat standing on the other side of the street, staring up at my window. Our eyes meet, and he doesn’t look away.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. I grab my jacket off the back of my chair and make my way outside. “I’ve changed my mind,” I tell Lizzie. “I’ll grab my own lunch.”

The man is gone by the time I walk out of the lobby. I scan the street, left and right, for a glimpse of a black coat and find that everyone in the damned city is wearing black today. Everyone is drab, wearing their gray winter faces along with their hats and scarves.

I turn left. I figure it’s fifty-fifty whether I’ve chosen the right way but pointing him out in a sea filled with moving black overcoats will be like finding the ant that stole your last crumb. Because now, every face I see appears to be looking at me. Eyes following me everywhere, and I wonder again if I have imagined the whole thing.

Only I know what I saw in Chicago, and people generally don’t vanish in restrooms.

I grab a salted pretzel from a street seller and make my way back to the office, my thoughts drifting back to Ruby. Carlos may have set us up to rise above our competitors, but he’s been making waves on my behalf, and it’s entirely possible that he has upset a few folks along the way. If someone is having me followed, they will already know about Ruby, and the last thing she needs right now is a stranger gatecrashing her life because they have a beef with me.

Back in the office, I ask Lizzie to hold my calls. I contact the PI who has been trying to track down my sister.

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