Page 76 of When Sinners Fall
“There’s no real need for you to be here, anyway, Dante. I hear you have a woman now,” Mother says, getting up from her throne. My stare goes back to her. “Another difficulty you bring with you. Presumably, you’ll become less useful now.” She walks over to me and looks up at my face, sighing. “You really have no point in this conversation at all. Maybe you should be the one to leave. Even Mariana seems to realise the importance of this.” She keeps staring, maybe waiting for me to lose my cool. “Go pretend with your little thing.”
I don’t engage. She’ll only start throwing more curses my way again, or I’ll end up getting rowdy and then she’ll act like a frightened, frail woman while Abel’s here.
There isn’t one damn thing frail about her.
“I would like to meet her, though,” she continues, inches from my face. “It will be nice to… chat. Wedding planner, I hear. Amusing. Perhaps we could use her for the wedding thatwillbe happening. I’m sure she’d like to meet the whole family if she’s to be one of us. Wren, isn’t it? Pretty name.” My hackles are all the way up with no backing down now I’ve heard her name in this air. “She might be useful in that way, I suppose. I doubt she is for anything else."
I sidestep out of her way, glaring at Abel to make sure he understands what’s about to happen if he doesn’t rein the bitch in real soon. He doesn’t move an inch. He waits for whatever’s going to happen to happen. His attempt at letting me deal with my own situation, presumably. Mother, at least, does decide that now is not the right time to carry on provoking me. She looks at each one of us in turn instead, making her point felt with nothing other than that.
“Choose,” she says, starting to walk from the room. “I need an answer by the end of the month.”
My gaze follows her out of the door until she’s nothing but an echo left in this room with us, and then I turn to look at each of the others in here. No one’s speaking. No one’s offering anything up. Everyone’s just drinking their coffee and mulling her words over. I’m still thinking about Shaw and what he can do for this family for once in his goddamn life. That’s the only choice as far as I’m concerned. We lose too much with anyone else leaving.
CHAPTER TWENTY - SIX
WREN
“Can we walk in today?” It’s nice that Dante’s been driving me to the office all week, but I’m beginning to miss the time I took in the morning to get lost in my own head. People watching, making up my version of fairy tales or just generally preparing myself for the day.
“You want to walk?” he asks back.
“Yeah. I enjoyed it. Maybe not every day, but we could walk in and grab a coffee on a couple of mornings?”
“I’d rather drive.”
“I used to walk all the time. And Abel walked me.” I throw that bit in, although I’m sure he already knows.
“Not today. I need to head to meet Knox after I’ve dropped you. What have you got planned today?”
“I’ll be at the office all day. No appointments, and I’ll be sure to let you know if that changes.”
“Good.”
The morning drive seems filled with a calm flow between us. It feels natural now as if neither of us are forcing something or being pissed about something. I hide behind my glasses and smile to myself as I get lost in the journey and the mundane people coasting by. Maybe tomorrow we can walk - hand in hand. We’ll be able to relax and grab a coffee. Normal behaviour and actions of a couple like we did in New Orleans. It's slowly beginning to feel like that again. Like we've found balance in a real relationship built on the truth of us.
A small kiss, soft and gentle, pressed to his lips, and I get out to walk away from him. He doesn’t leave until I’m in the lobby, as usual, and I can feel his eyes on me until the moment I'm out of the sun and safe inside the building. I can’t help enjoying that protective nature of his again. It feeds the dark side of me and lets me think of him always being there, just like it's been from the start.
Watching. Protecting.
I smile and waltz in, pressing the elevator button.
Penny hands me a bunch of messages as soon as I wander into the office, and I don’t miss the slight glance behind me after I enter.
“Thank you, Penny. Looking for someone?”
“No, no,” she says haughtily. If I were to put money on it, she’s looking to see if Abel walked me in again. She’s still not quite over that little morning surprise. God knows what would happen if I happened to bring two Cortez brothers in with me.
My desk is covered with sample envelopes and catalogues that I’ve ordered over the past couple of weeks, and I need to get a handle on organising everything. I’m behind on some vendor decisions, and Bridezilla is waiting on some options for the venue I promised her.
There’s no rest in this business, and I need to focus. Hopefully, things will settle down now that we’ve found some common ground and understanding between me and Dante. Or, at least, we’re straight for now.
I read the messages scribbled down. One is from Louisa Sage asking for another meeting. I think back to the talk we had in her office and wonder if she’s after an explanation for my behaviour.
With that, my phone chirps to life. Bridezilla herself.
“Yes, Ms Addison.”
I listen as she berates me for my lack of understanding of her priorities and threatens to call my boss for the substandard work. I pull the phone away from my ear at one point, and even consider the repercussions if I quit on her. We have the right to refuse to work with clients, but if that happens, I sure as hell won’t be coming back to work here.
