“I’m sorry it feels that way, Jules. If it puts your mind at ease, Aiden is a good man. I trust him with my most important tasks and my most precious people, which is why I sent him to you.” It doesn’t make me feel at ease; more curious.
The insinuation is that I’m precious, or perhaps that I could be? I let myself believe it for a second, even allow a smile to swell across my face, and then I give myself a heavy dose of reality. I am a nobody. A stranger. The information he needs is precious, not me.Information he now has. I might have been important half an hour ago, now I’m back to being useless.
“So, I picked the best man to take me home?” I joke, trying to push the thoughts out of my head. I refuse to feel sorry for myself. It is what it is.
“You did.”
Another silence swells. This one full of awkwardness. I run my mind over everything again, a stupid attempt to find another way to be useful to this man. My memories are like bullets and the impact of each is like a sledgehammer to the brain. I’ve already told him everything I know, haven’t I? Why do I feel like I’m missing something important?
“I feel like I’m forgetting something,” I admit.
“Something about tonight?”
“Mm hmm.” What have I missed? I mentioned Ben, Tom, the chase, hiding, finding him, and doing my best to help…what else is there? I slump back against the plastic seat and screw my eyes shut.
God, I’m so tired. My whole body aches.
Dax sits and pats my knee. “Try not to worry. The more you stress, the longer the information will remain blocked to you.” His finger reaches out and tucks my hair behind my ear again. He trails it down and lifts my chin. “I’m bringing them back in now. Are you ready?”
I can’t bring myself to speak, not with him holding my chin. I nod and press myself further into his touch.
“That’s my girl.”
Most girls would bristle at those words. Most would find them condescending, but for me the praise had a totally different effect. Almost soporific. His praise is like a fingertip caress; soft and reassuring. This is something I can do. I can pretend. I spend most of my life pretending.
With a tender tap under my chin, he winks and rises, strolling to the door in four graceful, steady steps.
“Ready?” he asks again, his attention focused on my face.
“Yes. Ready.” I straighten my clothes and swallow down the embarrassment that swells like bile in my throat. I’m a mess.Bloodstained and weary.
Dax turns the handle and pulls open the door. Sylvie stumbles backward into Dax, falling through the doorway. He catches her and sets her upright, then signals for her to sit down. She chooses the chair opposite and parks herself in a sullen slump.
Ben doesn’t wait to be invited. He saunters in, keeping his eyes fixed on me the entire time. He takes up a seat perpendicular to mine and folds his arms over his chest. As soon as he sits, Dax returns to sit beside me, allowing Aiden and two other suits to join us in the little room.
“Do we get an explanation?” Ben sneers.
Dax barely lets him get the words out before he’s answering him with another question. “For what?”
“For why she ran.”
“You think you need to know that?” Dax leans back in the chair, his face impassive and his tone unnaturally calm. “Do you think it’s your business?”
“Tom’s my friend. If she had anything to do with—”
“With him being shot, you mean?” I cut across him, pissed that he deigns to speak over me as though I’m not in the room. “Well, I didn’t. I came home to find the damned lift not working and a dying stranger on the stairs. You tell me what you’d have done when half a dozen suited-special-agent arseholes come barging through the door.”
Aiden’s brows lift slightly and there’s a tiny twitch at his lips. I’ll probably have to apologise later.
“Explained myself like any normal human being,” Ben snaps, leaning forward in his seat with his eyes burning holes in my face and his teeth bared.
What a fucking liar. Two-faced, no-good dickweed.“Really? You’d stick around, would you? Tell them why you were there?” A movement to my left catches my eye and I remember my promise to Dax. I need to calm down. “You’re clearly not from the Vale, Mister. No one in the Vale sticks around to be helpful. Helpful getsyou dead or worse—brings a shit ton of drama.” I wave my arm to encompass the room full of accusing eyes and prove my point.
“So, you live there then? In the Tower? Why were you coming home so late? Where did you run off to because mostnormalpeople would have minded their own business and gone home, right? That’s what people from the Vale do?”
“Are you deaf or just stupid? I don’t answer questions. My business is my own. I told Mr Nagano what he wanted to know. If he wants to tell you, then that’s his deal, but from here on you can leave me the fuck out of it.”
“Enough. Jules, thank you for helping both with Tom and with my questions. I’m sorry you couldn’t tell me more, but I’m glad to know my brother had someone with him. That he wasn’t left on those stairs alone.”
