Page 111 of Sacrifice (Corrupt Empire 2)

Chapter Nineteen

Avery

Sat in a coffee shop next to James with John seated a few tables down watching the door, I stared off into the distance. It’d been exactly a week since my conversation with Rick Morgan. I’d spent time reading up about him at work. I felt awful for doing it and not telling Aiden, but I had to know who he was. I had to understand. Rick’s hair was the exact same shade as Aiden’s and his features far too similar. Perhaps it was because I knew Aiden so intimately, but it was clear as day to me. That was the man who gave life to the one I loved so much.

“You’re very quiet,” James said. “What gives?”

Too bloody much. It wasn’t like I could tell him about Rick. No one else knew except me, Aiden and John. It seemed my father’s old driver and bodyguard had become an ally of sorts. He fed information to Aiden about Chuck and kept an eye on me during the day.

It was Sunday. Aiden had things to do so he’d asked John to come with me. James and I hadn’t really talked much since I’d turned up at his flat the night before Rick had taken me. He knew about my kidnapping, I just hadn’t told him we knew exactly who’d done it.

“Stuff.”

“Ave…”

I sighed, shifting slightly so I could look at him head-on. His blue eyes twinkled in the late afternoon sun. I might not be able to talk about Rick, but there was something else bothering me. Something else I could probably only voice to James. Gert was due to join us soon so it had to be now.

“Aiden is acting weird.”

“Weird how?”

It was my own bloody fault. I shouldn’t have said anything to him, but I had.

“He keeps looking at me like I’m made of glass. Like any minute things could all fall apart and he’s scared of that happening. I don’t know. Things aren’t right between us.”

Again. My fault. Entirely my fault. I should’ve known better.

“Did anything happen between you that might have brought this on?”

I stared down at my cup of tea.

“I may have said something which I think had a completely undesired effect.”

“Now you’re just being cryptic.”

I sighed, fiddling with the cup and continuing to avoid eye contact.

“I may have told him in not so many words that I wanted to get married.”

James almost spat out the tea he was in the middle of drinking.

“You did what? Are you fucking mental? Avery, guys don’t want to hear that shit from women they’ve only been with for a few months.”

I knew I’d been an idiot and now I’d scared the shit out of Aiden. He hadn’t really said anything about it. He’d barely acknowledged my words, but I’d seen the terrified rabbit expression flitter across his face when I’d told him I wanted to make several vows to him.

“You think I don’t know that.”

“What the fuck brought this on?”

I looked up at him. He was giving me one of those ‘I need to knock some sense into you’ looks.

“I can’t stand people calling me, Miss Daniels.”

“So what, you want to get married to Aiden so you can stop being called Daniels? Do you know how fucking batshit crazy that sounds?”

I picked up my cup and gulped half of it down.

“That’s not why and you know it. Fuck, I’m such a mess right now. Everything has just gone to shit completely. I’m ruining my relationship by pressurising Aiden into thinking he has to make some kind of big commitment to me. I don’t know who the fuck to trust in my family any longer. Frazier keeps turning up at the office and bothering me about Tristan. I don’t fucking know any more.”

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