His heart beat a little quicker.
He knew what was coming, and he’d been dreading it.Ann led him into a small sitting room.On the coffee table was freshly brewed tea and chocolate cake as if this were a social visit.
Garrick shut the door and remained there as though he expected Nix to make a run for it.But there was nowhere to run, and the only person he wanted to run to was upstairs, cursing his existence.He sat opposite Ann on the sofa.
“Tea, Hadley?”
“Thank you.”He’d much rather have coffee, but if she was offering tea, that’s what he’d drink.She was serving; this wasn’t going to go well at all.
Ann added sugar to her tea then leaned back as though completely at ease.She knew where all the weapons in the room were.She could relax.“Help yourself to cake, someone is going through a baking phase and there are always too many around.”
His gaze flicked to Ann and then Garrick.What was this?But he helped himself to cake because he might need the energy later, and he hadn’t eaten a meal—besides Lance—in a while, and he was still very fond of real food.
The room was silent as he put the cake on his plate.He felt like a creature on display.What were they mentally taking note of?His bare feet?His love of cake?The bite marks on his forearm but not his neck?
Nix took a forkful of cake, wondered briefly if it was poisoned, and then ate.If they wanted to kill him, they’d had enough chances.They could’ve locked him in with Lance today.He wouldn’t have made it out alive.
“Tell me about your sister.”
The cake got stuck in his throat.
Ann smiled and sipped her tea.“We can talk, or I can drag it out of you.”
He swallowed.“You’ll do that anyway.”
But at least she didn’t have any shears handy.
“Later, to confirm if you were telling the truth.I want to know who I’m letting into my family.”
“I’m sure your intel is as good as anyone’s.”
She nodded.“You aren’t going to deny or tell me you were forced into killing for your family?”
Nix studied the cake and his undrunk tea.Was it more noble to plead that he had been made to do it?It would be a lie, though.He’d been expected to, but no one had told him he’d be punished if he didn’t.He shook his head.“I had obligations after the broken peace talks.That’s all.I did my duty for all the good it did.Zinnia ordered me to leave her, and we’ve both been on the run since the attack.I don’t know where she is.”He lifted his gaze.“But I’d like to let her know I’m alive.”
“How do you communicate?”
“Through a secure chat on the site.We’ve been checking whenever we can.She hasn’t checked in for a while.I’m worried.”He considered his options, then decided he didn’t have any.There was no Hadley family.Even if Zinnia came out of hiding, there was still no Hadley family.He had to let that go.His loyalty was to the Reids now.He owed them his life and Lance’s.“I can show you as an act of good faith.”
Ann nodded to Garrick, who retrieved a laptop from a sideboard and placed it on the coffee table.
“What will she make of your change in loyalty?She is the matriarch now.She may want to bide her time before making a strike against the Orlans.”
Maybe she would, but he couldn’t be a part of it.“I can’t do that again.”
He wouldn’t.He’d completely unravel.
Ann leaned forward.“And Lance?Where does he fit in?He’s blaming you for all his ills right now.”
“I know.And I am to blame.I asked for a truce and kept my enemy close.Close enough that I accidentally fell in love.”It wasn’t meant to end like this, but he wouldn’t change it.He held Ann’s gaze.“Just do it.Tear out the answers you want.”
Ann put down her tea and rested her elbows on her knees.Nix did the same.All the careful barriers he’d built up, he took down.Fighting her or resisting would only create suspicion.He’d always be the one who had to be watched because he was a Hadley by birth and blood.But he would do what little he could to prove he wanted this chance to work.
Her eyes gleamed and the touch of her will brushed against his.He tensed out of habit.Wanted to push back and throw her out of his mind, but he couldn’t blink and break the connection.
She carefully sifted through his thoughts, examining each one that made her pause and questioning him.The words tripped off his lips and bared all the scars he kept hidden.She knew that he hated being turned, that he hated killing, and that he’d wanted a different life and the winery.He admitted that he loved Lance, yet worried that, in time, Lance would push him aside, unable to forgive him for his death, and he’d be adrift.He’d heard the words of doubt and fear that he’d be unworthy.
Unlovable.
