Page 141 of The Black Trilogy

“Not really. Do I have a plate-warming drawer?”

“By the oven. Are you planning to take up cooking?”

Nate muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “Heaven help us all.”

“Hey, I cooked in England.”

“Did you hospitalise anyone?”

“No, I did not. Some of it was even edible.”

Plates and placemats, cutlery and condiments. Water and glasses. A fancy candle. I set them all out on the table then escaped to the wine cellar to select a bottle of red. Hmm… French, Chilean, Australian… A nice vintage from a Californian vineyard I part-owned. Fifteen wasted minutes later, I sagged against a stack of crates. I couldn’t put off speaking to Nate any longer.

Things had been strained between us since I came out of hiding, and his perpetually grumpy expression showed no hint of change as I slid into the seat opposite.

“Hey,” I said, not quite sure how to start.

“Hey, yourself.”

I rubbed a hand over my eyes. “I don’t know what to say. Other than I’m so, so sorry for running off like that.”

He reached over and took my hand. Strange. Nate never normally got touchy-feely. Touchy, yes, but not touchy-feely.

“You gave everyone a huge scare. I lost my best friend, and when you disappeared, it made things harder. None of us knew if you were safe or ever coming back.”

I noticed wrinkles around his eyes that hadn’t been there before, and his words made me even more disappointed in myself. How could I have been so selfish? For the past three months, I’d spent too much time worrying about me and not enough thinking of the people I’d left behind.

“I’ll never do it again; I promise. I’ll always let you know where I am from now on.”

“Then we need to put this episode behind us.”

I reached for the olive branch he’d extended and grabbed it with both hands.

“Okay.”

“Just understand that if you disappear off the radar again, I’ll hunt you to the ends of the earth, and when I catch you, you’ll be getting one of those electronic tags like prisoners wear.”

“Fair enough,” I choked out a laugh then turned serious. “It’s just Mack I need to win over now. She seemed off every time I spoke to her this week.”

Along with Carmen and Daniela, who was still in England with Nick, Mack was one of my partners in crime. We worked together and we played together. Hard. I’d trust those girls with my life.

“Mack’ll be fine,” Nate said. “Yeah, she was annoyed about what you did, but she’s mostly been upset this week because she split up with that guy she’d been seeing.”

“Jerry?” She’d started dating that douche a month or so before I left. One of those pretentious idiots who charmed their way into a girl’s knickers then acted like a spoiled toddler when things didn’t go his way. “He was a grade A idiot.”

“The one and only. And Mack realises he’s an idiot now—he’s been reminding her at every possible opportunity. Yesterday, he turned up at her apartment again, banging on the door until I sent someone over there to remove him.”

“Great. I’d better talk to her.”

Mack may have been a warrior behind a keyboard, but she was also too sweet for her own good. I’d lost count of the number of undesirables she’d dated over the years. She had a habit of falling in insta-love, hard and fast, only for the objects of her affection to take advantage of her feelings.

Dan and I hated to upset her by questioning her judgement at the beginning of relationships when things were rosy, but we always ended up picking up the pieces several months later when life turned sour.

Even so, we never tried to discourage her. I hoped she’d find her Prince Charming one day. But Jerry wasn’t him, and not-so-secretly, I was glad he’d left the scene.

“Dinner’s ready,” Carmen announced, interrupting my thoughts.

I savoured every mouthful, knowing that Toby’s regime of twigs and berries would start in the morning. No doubt he’d padlock the wine cellar too, so I made my second glass of Burgundy last as Nate and Carmen caught me up on everything I’d missed.

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