“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice clogged with emotion.
While I didn’t return the hug, Eva didn’t seem to mind. She gave me one last squeeze before returning to her chair.
I wasn’t sure what to make of what had just happened; despite our past and the soon-to-be link we’d share, she and I were still very much strangers. While Eva gave off genuine vibes and all that, at the end of the day, this woman was still a cop. One married to none other than one of Ares’s most prolific and ruthless ex-members. Maybe deep down, they weren’t that different. His ghosts didn’t seem to haunt her, as one would assume.
“She has your eyes.”
Eva nodded. “I hoped she would. As beautiful as Derek’s are, these eyes were my mother’s and brother’s.” She stared almost longingly at her child, even as the baby caked chunks of avocado into her hair. I fought a laugh. “Before she was born, and before I knew Frankie…Silas was alive; I prayed for a piece of them in her.”
“You must have prayed extra hard that day.”
I couldn’t help the pangs of envy twisting my insides when I thought of Eva’s brother and how he’d come back to her. No amount of prayer would ever bring Tony back. I was there with my father the day we’d gone to identify his body—what was left of him, anyway.
Pushing those gruesome images from my mind, and never one to hold back, I met Eva’s gaze and asked, “So you’re still a detective?”
She nodded in understanding, inhaling a deep breath. “I know what you’re thinking. But I love him. It’s just that simple. Maybe it’s hypocritical. And maybe I’m just as guilty as all those people I help put away.” Eva held my gaze, her resolve unwavering. “But I don’t care. Not anymore.”
I leaned back on the stool and crossed my arms, surprised and slightly impressed by her admission. In hindsight, this woman had run back into that compound naked, wounded, and having had the day from hell, all while the place was under siege. Her one objective: finding Derek. She was either foolishly loyal or an absolute idiot.
Me? Fuck that.
I wouldneverbe like Eva.
“Can I ask something of you?” she said, a hand on mine. My eyes slid to where she touched, then back up to meet hers again.
“You’re going to ask anyway, so go ahead.”
She smiled. “Go easy on Kai.”
I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up my throat. Even the baby stopped and turned to me, puzzled.
“Kai is a big boy. He doesn’t need you taking up for him.”
“That’s not what I meant. He’s just as much a victim here as you are. Neither of you want to go through with this, so there’s no sense in making things worse than they already are.”
I pushed to my feet, my chair scraping loudly against the floor. “Poor Kai, marrying a wealthy and powerful woman against his will. How ever will he survive?”
“Amalia…” she called as I exited the kitchen, no longer interested in anything she had to say.
Admittedly, there was a part of me that felt slightly insulted. Had he expressed his misery to her? I mean, sure, I wasn’t happy either. But I was afuckingcatch, and he’d have his freedom within three short years. It wasn’t a death sentence—yet.
7
Irested my head on the back of a dressing chair in the guest room, my legs stretched out in front of me as I contemplated the fucked-up circumstance that was my life. Maybe I hadn’t thought this all the way through. I’d jumped the gun and threw myself headfirst into a decision I regretted with every second that ticked by like a silent countdown to my demise.
Sure, she was beautiful. I’d thought that alone would get me through whatever hell awaited me for the next three years. It was just a small sacrifice. For Derek, after all he’d done for me, I owed him my life. But now, I wasn’t sure I could go through with this marriage.
Amalia was…she was something else.
A harsh knock at the door had me straightening and rubbing a hand down my face as I exhaled and shouted for whoever it was to come inside.
Derek cocked a brow as he approached. I must have looked exactly the way I felt.
Like fucking hell.
“Everything good?”
I glanced up at him and raked my fingers through my hair. “Remember that time I said your little meeting with Amalia would come back to bite us in the ass? Well, yeah. Here we are.”
