Page 111 of Diamond Angel

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

He frowns. “So you had nothing to do with it? I find that hard to believe.”

“I’ve been up here with you for the last two hours,” I remind him.

“I’ve seen you do more with less.”

“I think we’re done for now,” I announce, knowing that he’ll see right through my spontaneous break.

He doesn’t crack a joke like I expected, though. “Brother…going down there might not be the best idea.”

“I don’t remember asking for your opinion on this. Or on anything, actually.”

“Yeah, don’t I know it,” he grumbles.

“Take a break, okay? We’ll resume in five minutes.”

“I’m guessing that if you go down there, it’s gonna take a lot longer than five.”

“Fine, take an hour, then. Go hang out with Mila.”

His brow hikes up and his lips turn down. “She’s been avoiding me lately. You wouldn’t happen to know why, would you?”

“Best you speak to her directly.”

His frown deepens. “So you do know?”

“Fuck, Dima, we’re not in high school. If you’ve got something to say to Mila, tell her yourself. I’m not passing notes between the two of you like we’re fucking fifteen.”

“I would talk to her, but like I said, she’s avoiding me.”

“Then make yourself unavoidable. Which is what I intend to do right now.”

“You have it easy. Taylor’s all bark. Half the time, I feel like Mila’s ready to cut off my balls.”

Chuckling, I get up and make for the door. I’m leaving the room when he calls out to me. “We’re on a timeline here, Ilarion. That was your idea. We can’t move forward unless you get the information we need.”

I wave away his concern and head down into the gardens. I pass a maid on my way there, the shy blonde one who always cringes from me as though I’m going to take a bite out of her if she doesn’t pay attention.

I pause. “Molly, am I right? Have you seen Celine?”

“Ms. Zakharov? She just went upstairs, sir,” she says. “And if I may…she looked like she was crying. Her eyes were all red and swollen.”

Ah. Well, that explains Taylor’s furious pacing. “She was crying?”

The girl’s eyes go wide with horror. “I, uh, I didn’t mean…it just looked like it to me, sir. I don’t know, maybe I saw wrong. I, um—"

“Calm down, Molly. It’s alright. Thank you for letting me know. Just go about your work, okay?”

She nods timidly and scurries off into the next room. It doesn’t even cross my mind that maybe I should be checking on Celine first. When I step out into the garden, Taylor is still there, still pacing back and forth over the same stretch of grass.

She doesn’t catch sight of me until she turns. When she does, she freezes on the spot.

The wind flaps around her, sending her blouse flying up and her hair whips across her face. She’s everything I ever wanted. It physically hurts me how beautiful she is.

“What are you doing here?” she blurts out.

“I’m coming to protect my grass.” I saunter closer. “How long have you been pacing on that spot?”

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