“Sectioned. Committed. Deemed incompetent,” Malachi muses, signing more documents.
Gray.
Everything starts slotting into place as I watch him signing things. Me being removed from the situation. No one talking to me. Doors closed and utter silence but for Reggie and his office. I don’t know how I feel about any of it, but I do know one thing – Gray said he would do it if I couldn’t fix the problem. I didn’t fix it. I became it.
I frown and wait for him to look up at me again. He does eventually, the slightest graze of a smile shining back at me. Soft eyes again. Eyes just for me. “Are you better?”
He shrugs his shoulders, chuckles. “Unknown. But your lawyers have paperwork that suggests I am.”
There’s so much of me ready to annihilate this whole fucking scenario and scream my anger. I was ready for that when I walked in. Ready to fight. Ready to hold my ground –hisground. But I’ve got nothing now. It’s all his anyway, and just hearing that chuckle of his, watching the way he seems so at ease with all this makes me concede to whatever is happening. He’s alive. He’s breathing. He’s smiling. That’s all I really care about.
I look at Paul Knight and nod. The stack of folders gets passed down to me after Malachi’s signed each one, and then, one by one, all the other men leave the room at his request. It’s just me and him then with a vast boardroom table separating us. A foot high pile of blue and red folders perches next to me, signifying the end of this time. I couldn’t care a damn for the files. Or anything to do with his money. What I do care about is the game he seems to have been playing.
Again.
I stare, my legs crossed and a multitude of feelings trying to find their way out of my mouth. They’re barely legible in my head, let alone out loud. I don’t even know how much time ticks passed as we look at each other. It just rushes at me from all angles, trying to tell me something about what has been and what now is.
“Were you ever dead?” eventually falls out of my lips.
“Several times. You already know that.”
“The last time, Malachi.”
He leans back in his chair, sighs. “Yes. But then I wasn’t, and so here we are.”
Silence. Nothing but us again and quiet. Part of me feels like getting up and walking away, of leaving him so I can prove a point that this was not fair. He played with my heart. He brought pain and heartache to me as some kind of revenge for me leaving. If killing himself in front of me wasn’t enough, he’s then made me believe he really was gone when all he had to do was show himself to me.
Insecurity rushes in from somewhere, making me feel small and weak in his presence. He didn’t want me with him. Wherever he’s been, he chose to keep me away from there and him.
I drop my gaze to the table, unsure of everything. “Why, Malachi?”
“Because choice is something you consider relevant, Alice.” I look up slowly. “And because you deserve that choice. I don’t usually give you much choice.”
“But you are now?”
“Yes. This has all been about your choice, Alice.”
Chapter 24
Malachi
I’ve never seen her looking quite as drained as she does now. Still exquisite, and easily the most fuckable creature I’ve ever known, but this time she’s exhausted herself for me alone. She wasn’t forced into it, nor was she coerced or threatened. There was no need for her to help me at all. No recrimination should she have chosen to give it back to Reggie much earlier than this. She could have run and got on with that life I gave back to her. She didn’t. She kept protecting me anyway, perhaps hoping to prove her loyalty to a bargain we made even in my death.
“How the hell has this been about my choice?” she snips.
“I gave you time. Time you wouldn’t have had if I’d been with you.” She frowns and looks away from me, choosing the window to displace her anger. I’m not surprised. It’s one of the things I adore about her. “We both needed that time.”
“You made me think you were dead.”
“I’m surprised you believed it, but I’m glad you did. I wouldn’t have seen you perform if you’d have fought it.”
“Perform?”
“I wanted to see how you’d handle our bargain.”
“No, you wanted to make me suffer.”
“A little, yes. I never said I wasn’t an asshole.” She looks back at me, still frowning. “You did leave me at the altar, Alice.” The frown turns to a level fucking sneer, which makes me smile and shake my head, but enough of the games.
