CHAPTER SEVEN
Pet
In the morning, I callan Uber from Max’s phone and leave before he wakes. I don’t want things to be weird between us, but how could they not be after last night? He’ll always look at me as if I’m a problem he needs to fix, a victim he needs to save. I am not a fucking victim. And he can’t save me. Only Ares can.
The driver isn’t impressed that I demand to get out in the middle of Manhattan traffic, but I know this street.I know this building. He tells me he’s still going to charge me for the trip back to the Hudson Valley, because I’m the one who chose to get out. I don’t care. I’ll find a way to get the money back to Maximus, since I called from his phone.
I look up at the sleek skyscraper with its sweeping glass awning over the entrances. A doorman rushes over to greet me.
“G-good morning, Miss Flynn.”
My mouth drops open. “You know me?”
His smile is kind, and he doesn’t appear to be confused by my question, so I’m betting my darling husband-to-be already discussed my condition with him. What else did that slimy bastard tell him? How to keep me out of the building? “Yes, I’ve known you for many years.”
“Which apartment is my father’s?”
“It’s on the sixty-second floor, miss. Mr. Ward is currently in residence, but perhaps now is not the best time.”
I study his features, the nervous expression and the tight set of his jaw. “Not the best time for whom? Me, or Parker?”
“Why don’t you allow me to get you settled with a tea, and we can call for Mr. Ward to come down—”
“Front desk has a key, right?”
“Of course, but—”
“Thanks.” I leave him on the footpath, staring after me, and open the damn door myself.
“Miss Flynn, we were not expecting you.” The clerk behind the desk is just as flustered as the doorman.
“So I heard. I need the key to my apartment.”
“Are you sure it’s the best place for you right now? Why don’t you come back a little later in the morning and—”
“Give me the fucking key.”
“Of course.”