by Isis Rushdan
“Don’t ever touch him again under any circumstances! Do you understand?”
Talus nodded, but her cold expression showed no repentance.
Serenity narrowed her eyes. “I want to hear you say it!”
“I won’t touch him again,” Talus uttered through locked teeth.
Cyrus clasped Serenity’s shoulders. The heat of his body caressed her and her blood pressure lowered. “You didn’t tell him anything, did you?” She couldn’t bear Evan knowing she was with Cyrus, or wanted to be with any other man over him. The split had to be clean.
Talus’s eyes burned a coppery emerald as she crossed the room. The rustle of her candy apple red leather outfit chafed Serenity’s ears.
“He asked, so I told him the truth.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Serenity said. “He’s an innocent bystander. He won’t understand any of this. How can you be so callous? Is your heart made of stone?”
“You never should’ve been with the human. Don’t blame me for your mess.”
“Enough!” Cyrus looked at Talus. “Watch your tone and choose words with respect.”
Talus’s eyes turned glassy. “Of course you’d take her side, even though you know I’m right.” She ran out of the room.
Cyrus kissed Serenity’s temple. “I need to speak with her. Don’t worry. Everything will work out as it should with Evan. He’ll get beyond this,” he said, then left.
Breaking up with Evan was never going to be easy, but how could she explain now that he knew about Cyrus?
“Evan wants you to call him,” Cassian said.
She slapped her forehead as she remembered he was going to call her Sunday night. She hadn’t spoken to him in three days. “Oh my goodness, I’m sure he’s called a dozen times. He must be going out of his mind with worry. I need a phone.”
Cassian handed her his cell. “I’ll give you some privacy.” He stepped out of the room.
Her insides curdled. She should have called him days ago, but it’d been easier not hearing his voice. Looking at his engagement ring every day had been hard enough. She dialed his number. Her heart thudded in her chest, the beat increasing with each ring.
“Hello,” Evan said.
“It’s me. Are you all right?”
“Serenity? Finally. What’s going on?”
A cacophony of voices, sirens and other sounds made it hard to hear. “Where are you?”
“The ER, waiting for a doctor. I think the damn bitch dislocated my shoulder.”
Wincing, she shut her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Evan. I—”
“What’s going on?”
She gulped, uncertain how to respond.
“Did you leave me? Are you with Cyrus?”
Her thoughts twisted into a jumble. She hadn’t given any consideration as to what she was going to say or how to explain. “Evan, we need to talk, face to face, not over the phone.”
“It’s true?”
“Please meet me somewhere so we can talk.”
“Answer me!”
“It’s complicated.” The sound of his ragged breath filled her ear. The image of the disheveled, emotionally broken Evan from her nightmares slid into her mind. A distraught Evan, holding the engagement ring, was the only fragment of her dream she could never draw. “I need to see you and explain. When can we meet?”
“I don’t know. The ER is full. I could be in here half the night, waiting to see a doctor.”
“How about tomorrow morning around nine?”
Silence. Had the line gone dead. “Evan?”
“Where?” he asked. His voice was soft as cotton.
“What about that little place a few blocks from your office, Frankie’s?”
“No, I like that place. I want to be able to go back there and enjoy a meal. How about the café you like on Park Avenue?”
“Okay. I’ll see you then.”
After he hung up, she took deep breaths. An aching tightness squeezed her chest. She ran from her room outside and took in a gust of fresh air. Her legs kept moving as she hyperventilated, carrying her toward the lake.
At the water’s edge, she fell to her knees. Her heart ached and her guts tightened into a knitted cluster of nerves. The wind whipped the murky surface of the lake and tousled her hair.
Evan had been the one solid thing in her dismal life of foster care, rotating homes and ephemeral families. The stability of his presence had been a buoy during the turbulent times, keeping her safe from drowning. He was a good person and didn’t deserve this type of treatment.
Cyrus rushed out of the house, following the magnetic draw of Serenity’s energy stream tugging at him. The pools of their life force weren’t connected, too far out of reach, but he could sense her distress, dense and pervasive as the moisture in the air.
By the lake, she sat on her heels, slumped over, facing the water. He hunkered down beside her and rested his hand on her knee.
“I don’t know how to leave him,” she said softly. “He’s been in my life for so long. How do I say good-bye, after he’s only been gone a few days?”
“Quickly is best,” he said.
“No matter what I say, Evan won’t understand. He’s going to hate me.”
“He won’t hate you. He loves you.” Her sorrow sliced him as if a dagger struck his heart.
“After I lost my parents, there was a vacuum where my heart should’ve been. As soon as I let a foster parent or a kind teacher get too close,”—she dug her nails into her palms—“they’d turn on me, hating me. Like I was some kind of poison infecting them over time. I changed homes and schools twenty-two times.”
Serenity clutched her legs and rocked back and forth. “When I thought I couldn’t take the isolation anymore, that it was better to be dead than not be connected to anyone, not feel anything besides grief or pain, Evan drifted into my life. He was a lonely person who stumbled upon another. He saved me and not only from the darkness.” She stared at the lake. “Two boys caught me after school one day. He stopped them from hurting me…from raping me. He’s the only person who never turned on me. The only family I’ve had for a long time. I owe him so much. He doesn’t deserve to be hurt.”
Cyrus put his arm around her shoulder.
“How can I explain to him what I’m still wrapping my head around? I have no idea what I’m going to say to him tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? Are you going to see him?”
“I have to see him. After sixteen years, he deserves an explanation to his face.”
“Fine.” Cyrus nodded. “But you’ll see him here at the house.”
She stared at him with teary eyes. “No, I won’t.” Her steely voice had a definitive tone.
He scrunched his face at the words. No one ever defied him.
“I will not add insult to injury by asking him to come to your house.” She looked back at the lake. “I’m going to meet him in the morning in the city.”
“Then I’m going with you. Don’t worry. I’ll stay out of sight.”
She shook her head. “You’re going to stay here.”
Only the Triumvirate gave him orders. And even they had the wisdom to speak to him with care. He wrenched her around. “I won’t let you go into the city unprotected.”
“I told you I wouldn’t leave the estate alone. I’ll have Cassian go with me.”
Cassian wasn’t a warrior. He opened his mouth to object.
“This is going to be done my way. Do you understand? I can’t face him if I know you’re there, out of sight or not. Give me your word you’ll stay here.”
He pinched his lips tight.
She put her hand in the middle of his chest. Her expression softened as she peered into his eyes. “Please, give me your word you won’t go.”
He turned his head away and pressed her into his body. “Very well.” He didn’t need to be there, but as surely as the sun rose in the east and set in the west, he’d make certain she’d be safe.
Chapter Fifteen
St
anding in front of the register at the Pharmacy, Evan stuffed his wallet back into his pocket and grabbed the bag containing his bottle of Percocet. With his right arm stuck in a sling, he was forced to do everything with his left hand, which was awkward at best and only intensified the feeling of being handicapped. Even worse, a girl no older than eighteen had done this to him.
He schlepped out of the store and stood on the sidewalk. A cold night breeze nipped at him as people brushed by, knocking him from side to side as if he didn’t exist. He couldn’t simply stand here, but he couldn’t go back home either. He maneuvered to the curb to get out of the way.
Across the street, a neon sign for a bar arrested his attention. A stiff drink was definitely in order after today. He weaved through the traffic and slogged into the dimly lit place. Geezers with stubble and full beards warmed the bar stools. Fitting company.
“Maker’s Mark, neat,” he ordered, eager to get his drink and escape to a booth. “Better yet, just bring the bottle.”
The door opened and closed. Whoever walked in smelled like sugar and sunshine.
A curvy blonde slinked over beside him. With glowing skin, rosebud lips and picture perfect features she looked like an angel. A fallen angel. A patch covering one eye and the black military style clothing gave her a sinister edge.
The bartender put a glass of bourbon in front of him. “I’m not giving you the bottle,” he said. “Want me to make it a double?”
“Yeah. And give me a second one while you’re at it.” The bartender put a second glass on the bar and poured in enough liquor to wet his mouth. Prick.
“Twenty-one eighty.”
Evan wrangled his wallet out of his pants and slapped his credit card down. “May as well hang on to it. I’m going to be here awhile.”
The blonde dazzled Evan with a smile. He knocked back the first drink as a much needed shooter and decided not to embarrass himself in front of the gorgeous woman by wrestling with his pants to get the wallet back in. There was only one woman in the world for him, but he didn’t need to sink any lower in front of this one.
He scooped up his wallet, pharmacy bag and glass with one arm, and went to a booth, sitting with his back to everyone. He sipped on the drink and resisted the urge to slam it down his throat. In three fucking days, or was it four, his whole life had fallen apart. He couldn’t afford to start thinking like a loser before the battle had even started. “When you see her, you’ll straighten this out, and she’ll come back home,” he said to himself.
“Mind if I join you?” asked a woman with a voice sweet and smooth as honey. The blonde slid into the opposite side of the booth and placed a bottle of Maker’s Mark and a glass of white wine on the table. “Talking to yourself is a sure sign you could use the company.”
Evan stared at her. Women didn’t come on to him. He had a hot streak in college for a bit, before his trip to Newport with Serenity when they segued from friends to what he’d always hoped for, but no one had ever been this brazen. She smiled and poured him a drink.
“Thanks.”
“I’m Artemis,” she said.
He slugged back the drink.
“And you’re Evan Wade,” she added.
His heart stopped as he gaped at her. “How do you know my name?”
“I know a lot about you.”
“Such as?”
“Such as your home address, occupation, that your parents died in a car accident eight years ago leaving you with enough money to pay off your school loans at Princeton and Yale law. I also know you work long hours, don’t have many friends which explains why you’re here alone, and that your ex-girlfriend is now shacking up with your newest client, which explains why you’re drinking.”
“Fiancée, not ex-girlfriend.” For some reason, the clarification had to be made, even if something more pressing was now on his mind. “Why do you know so much about me?”
She refilled his glass. “My employer has an interest in Cyrus and I’d like to pay you for information.”
He laughed. “Do you work for the Justice Department?” They’d been sniffing around the firm for years, trying to get them on something. “Nice try, sweetheart, but I’m not drunk enough to get disbarred by falling for the bait.” He took a triumphant gulp of the bourbon.
“I don’t work for the Justice Department and you won’t get disbarred. I don’t want information about your client. I want information about Serenity.”
Evan set the glass down. “I don’t understand.”
“How do you see this little situation with your fiancée and Cyrus playing out? From the sound of it as I sat down, you actually think she’s going to come back to you.”
“I don’t know who you are or what you want, but if you know so much about me then you’re already aware of two very important things.”
“Is this the part where you try to impress me with your legal acumen? There’s no need. I concede you’re one of the finest. You have a reputation that precedes you regarding your skill at negotiation and cutthroat practices.”
Okay, that had been point number one. Evan clutched the glass.
“Then you were going to explain how you’ve known Serenity since you were fourteen and with the depth of history binding the two of you, once she comes to her senses she’ll realize there’s no way she can trade you in for some ritzy new thrill. Is that about right?”
The sultry smile that spread across her face could have melted butter.
“No need to answer,” she said. “I’m rarely wrong. Trust me when I say it’ll take an act of God or my assistance to get your fiancée to come back. His kind has a way with the ladies.”
Evan shook his head. “Power and money don’t entice Serenity. Trust me, I know.”
“That’s not what I meant by his kind. Cyrus isn’t what he seems.”
“What do you mean?”
She lifted her glass and took a swallow. “I’d love to share what I know, but you’re not giving me much of a reason. I’m not sure if we can be friends just yet. And if you want your fiancée back, you’re going to need all the friends you can muster.”
“Why do you want to help me?”
“You seem like a nice guy. I hate to see good people used up and tossed away like trash.” She took another sip and licked her lips.
Evan scowled at the sarcasm. He was desperate, not stupid.
“You’re not buying that line? I don’t blame you. I’m a far cry from a do-gooder. I offered to pay you for information, but you seem more interested in getting your ex-girlfriend back. Oops, I’m sorry. I mean fiancée.”
“What kind of information?” He helped himself to another drink.
“Let’s start with something small. Does she have any birthmarks or distinguishing blemishes?”
“Yes, why?”
She pushed a cocktail napkin toward him and pulled out a pen. “Draw it.”
“Why?” he demanded.
“Draw it and I’ll tell you how she could throw away a sixteen-year relationship for a man she’s known less than a week.”
What harm could it do if it got him some answers? He picked up the pen and began to draw. As he closed the loop to finish the symbol, a hiss erupted on the other side of the table.
Glass shattered as wine sprayed over the table. Artemis picked up the napkin, crumpled it into a wad and used it to wipe the remnants of the crushed wine glass from her palm.
“Your fiancée thinks she’s in love with her soul mate.” Her voice turned biting and harsh. “Every time she has sex with him it will be the greatest high and the sweetest pleasure she’s ever known. And he will copulate with her as often as he can in the hopes of spawning more evil. They’re probably fucking as we speak.”
Evan had never hit a woman before, but right now he wanted to sock Artemis in the mouth. He wanted to bust her lip and split it wide.
“Give it your best shot at winning her back.” She tossed a business card at him. “When you fail, if you can’t shake the feeling your life i
s empty without her, call me.”
Artemis slipped out of the booth and leaned over him. She put his credit card on the table in front of him. “The drink is on me.”
Then she left, stealing his taste for the bourbon.
The telephone conversation with Evan replayed on a loop in Serenity’s head. She sorted through boxes of her belongings to stay busy. Yet nothing could distract her mind.
There had to be a way to explain the situation, to make Evan realize they didn’t belong together, to lessen his pain.
Unable to sit still, she unpacked without a break for hours until early morning. Rain fell in heavy sheets. The insulation was so good she couldn’t hear it at all. As she began to wonder what to do about Evan again, a knock at her door intruded on her thoughts. “Come in.”
Cyrus came in with a tray of food. “You didn’t eat dinner. I thought you might want some breakfast.”
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry.” A question nagged her and she had to ask. “How did Evan end up as your lawyer?”
He set the food on a table and moved closer, sitting on the chaise. “It wasn’t planned.”
“You said you didn’t believe in accidents or coincidence.”
He met her gaze. “That’s true. I wanted to meet the man who had my mate…caring for you, pawing you.” His voice was tight with indignation.
Evan had done a heck of a lot more than paw her, a fact painfully evident on Cyrus’s face. Even though she’d had every right to be with Evan, somehow she felt as if she’d betrayed Cyrus by doing so. She looked away from him.
“I won’t make apologies for it.” He straightened his posture. “It was easy enough to arrange an introduction. I know one of his clients. Evan asked a lot of questions about my business. As soon as he found out I didn’t have an attorney here in New York, he began his campaign.”
“Why did you allow it?”
“I was curious to see where it would lead, but it wasn’t my intention to hurt him,” he added. “I was nervous about meeting you.”
“You? Nervous?”
“I had no idea how to do it. How do you meet the most important person in your life? I thought about striking up a conversation while you shopped or casually crossing your path on one of your jogs. There was a two-month wait to get an appointment at your tattoo studio and when I finally managed to get in early, you threw me out. Evan had mentioned the cocktail party and said you’d be there. It seemed like fate, so I didn’t resist it.”
