Page 5 of A Sorrow of Truths

Slipping into the long coat, I go in the private elevator and press the ground floor button the moment I can. Down. I’ll go down until I reach the bottom and then out into the air around this building. Perhaps then I’ll find sanity again rather than continuing to wallow in something I’ve created in my head.

The elevator opens and Jackson stands as I exit, clearly shocked at my appearance at this time of night. Or ever, I suppose, given my penchant for constantly staying inside rather than face or deal with this world around me.

He puts down the book he was reading and looks me over.

“Sir?”

“Walking.”

He frowns but nods and begins following, as I head left into the lobby. My feet take me swiftly through the oncoming couples who laugh and joke on their way home, my head down and thoughts unreadable. Women smile. Men hold their hands to the small of those women's backs possessively, manoeuvring them away from me.

I smirk at that, partly amused, and then keep going until I reach the air I’m aiming for. I’m no threat to any of them. There’s only one woman who’s turned my head lately, only one woman who still revolves in my thoughts day and night, night and day, and she’s not here.

The sudden appearance of a suit clad Malachi in my eye-line, his back leaning on a blacked out Jaguar and some superior smile on his face, jolts me into stillness for a minute. I scowl at him and move right into the crowds, unable to process why he’s here with all these people around me. Space. I need space and quiet rather than this drone of continual noise.

I lift my collar tighter to my neck and amble the sidewalk to the park, giving him time to follow me if that’s what he wants. I can only assume it is. First the phone and now he’s stalking me.

“Are you going to ignore me?” he calls.

“No,” I call back, turning slightly to look at him. Jackson gets in between us, his body rigid and his hand hovering over his waistband. I wave him down from sentry duty, as my head nods at the gathering people around the avenue. “Too much noise, Malachi. Why are you stalking me?”

“Oh yes, you and your anxiety,” he says, getting closer to me. He looks Jackson over, presumably amused at my body guard, and sneers the potential threat off in typical Malachi form. “I’d forgotten about that flaw of yours.”

“No you hadn’t. You don’t forget anything,” I reply, watching him. “What can I do for you?” I ask, as I start moving again.

“Why don’t you get it at my home?”

“What?”

“Anxiety."

“I don’t know. Maybe the people are more interesting there. Distracting rather than annoying.”

He nods and looks me over as he did Jackson. Head to foot, foot back up to head until he’s in front of me and concentrating on nothing but my eyes. “Have you seen her?” My feet stop before I enter the park gates, wondering who he means. “I’ve lost her.”

“Who?”

“Hannah.”

The part scowl I was wearing deepens, eyes levelling with his. “What do you mean you’ve lost her?”

He tuts and walks onwards again, ambling through the tall gates as if he’s got all the time in the world, and then moves us further in with a chuckle. “We’ve been back in New York for a few days. At the townhouse. And now she’s gone rogue. I wondered if she’d come to you.”

“Why are you back here?”

“Christmas. You know how Faith gets at Christmas. Time to come home for her.” Of course.

I walk beside him, suddenly feeling more at odds than I was before I left the damn apartment. “And we like the parties. Manhattan’s good at parties.” I smile at that. They do like their parties, several of which I’m normally invited to and one of which is tonight. “Hannah came back with us.”

“Right.”

“You haven’t seen her?”

“No.”

He nods. “Do you want to?”

There’s a question.

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