It’s not until I’m walking the halls, heading for my room, when I realize that Abel didn’t react at all like I expected him to. No instant denial. No telling me that it didn’t fucking matter. Just a mild comment that he’d think about my version of events. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that.
I open my door and step into my room. What if—I can barely let myself contemplate it, but—What if Abel believes me? What if he simply lets go of the version of that night he’s believed for so long? What if the future we always dreamed of isn’t actually ash?
I can’t afford to hope, can’t let that desire cloud my decisions and my vision. But I’m only human, and I’ve spent so long mourning the loss of him that the fact that he’s here, that he’s still himself—at least in part—is fucking with me.
For the first time in a very long time, I don’t know what the right path forward is.
26
Harlow
Being in a room with Monroe and Fallon is a little bit like being trapped in a cage with a tiger and a feral wolf. They smile and trade barbs and sharpen their claws. The impossible feat is to get them to stop snarling long enough to agree to something, but it’s been thirty minutes, and now I’m just waiting them out.
Monroe examines her nails. She’s found time to paint them a bloody red since I saw her in the library yesterday. She’s wearing a sleek, short black dress and her blond hair is an artful tumble around her face. As always, her lipstick is bright red.
Ironically, Fallon and she are a matching pair. Fallon’s wearing a black tank top, black pants, and black heels. The dark color makes her skin look ethereally pale and her hair sinfully bright. She’s lounging in a chair with her ankle on one knee, and the way her hand keeps drifting to that ankle makes me think she has a knife stashed there.
Just what I need. Fallon and Monroe getting into a knife fight in the library.
Monroe grins suddenly. “So, Fallon, how is that baby Paine in bed? He seems awfully eager.” She leans forward, all happy smiles and sharp eyes. “Did he come in his pants when he saw you naked the first time?”
I have to fight not to roll my eyes. Gabriel Paine might be the youngest of the Paine brothers, but he’s twenty-eight. Hardly a baby by any definition of the word.
Fallon lifts an imperial brow. “You Amazons are always so vulgar.”
“We prefer the term earthy.” Monroe leans forward in her chair. “But it’s sweet of you to throw stones from that pretty glass house of yours. Vulgar, Fallon? Really? I know what kind of kinky rituals the Mystics get up to when they think no one is looking. Someone’s started believing their own hype.”
“Shut your filthy mouth, Amazon.”
Monroe inches forward. “Make me, Mystic.”
In another second, they’re going to be fighting and this will have been an even larger waste of time. I sip my tea and sigh dramatically. “That’s enough, children. If I wanted you to brawl, I’d put you out in the yard and at least give the people some entertainment.”
Just like that, I have two pairs of eyes cutting in my direction, one green, one eerie gray. Monroe tilts her head slowly to the side. “I knew you were a lap dog, Harlow, but you’re really taking the cake with this. Is Abel’s cock that good? Or were you always an opportunistic bitch?”
I let the insults roll off me. She’s said worse in the past. We’re enemies, after all. Enemies, and yet in a very similar situation. “Lap dog or no, I’m still free to move around as I see fit while you’re confined to your rooms. I didn’t anticipate you’d be one for captivity.”
Her lips curl into a sneer before she catches herself. “I’m biding my time.”
I glance at Fallon. She hasn’t moved since I spoke, hasn’t seemed to breathe. The expression on her face makes me think that she’s visualizing her knife going into my throat repeatedly right now. I keep my tone mild. “And you, Fallon? Are you biding your time as well?”
She finally moves, shifting farther back into her seat. “I take it you have a reason for calling us here. I’m listening.”
Monroe snorts. “Just like that?”
“Unlike you, I’m able to think with my brain and not just my pussy.” She flicks her fingers at me, a clear command to continue.
I have to pause to keep from snarling. It doesn’t matter what these women think of me. It only matters that the faction benefits from this situation that Abel’s created. He’s guaranteed peace in Sabine Valley for the next year, but that doesn’t mean shit for those in power. Underhanded plays and shady deals will be the name of the game for the next twelve months. In order to cut off avenues for a good portion of that, I need these two women on my side. “You have two choices. You can keep fighting and pushing buttons and bickering and stay in this house for the next year. Or you can work with the Paines.”