Forcibly re-centered.
That man had survived a literal Hell.
That man had also hugged me with surprising strength. I’d nearly cried with happiness upon actually seeing him in person, although I was terrified I’d break him when we embraced. I could feel every single bone in him. The irony didn’t escape me that now he was stronger and harder than ever.
He smiled less.
He was more honest, more intense.
More…there. And he would go on to physically rebuild himself leaner, harder, stronger than he’d been. A man who can now easily keep up with me and run my ass into the ground during a workout.
But on that day, his miraculous return, Casey had stepped off the plane and hugged me, then whispered in my ear. “I love you so fucking much.Neverforget that.”
I attributed it to what she’d just went through, losing Ellen and regaining George. I didn’t completely understand the rationale behind her intensity.
I do now.
Because knowing how much Ellen was George’s reason for living, Casey already suspected she might have to sacrifice me to keep him alive. I don’t know if she’ll ever admit that to me, but part of me feels that is the truth.
George’s face nuzzles the top of my head and I hear him inhale, feel the warmth of his breath as he exhales.
“Do you want me to back off on the boy and Sir stuff?” he quietly asks.
I roll in his arms to face him. “Why?”
“Case didn’t give me a verbatim replay of what happened today, but I’ve never seen her that rattled. She said I might need to take things back a few steps, to clarify them with you.”
I close my eyes and press my face against his chest. “I unloaded a bunch of stuff on her that wasn’t fair of me to hit her with.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“No, I don’t want to stop our dynamic. I guess I felt…”
There are things I can’t tell George without talking about them with Casey first. I mean, sure, I could spill the tea about the long game and probably drive a damn wedge between the two of them, but I won’t do that.
Because I am a greedy slut, and if there’s any way to have both of themandmy revenge?
Well, fucking hell, why not?
But we have to survive the growing pains first.
“I didn’t know my father,” I say, carefully feeling my way through this so I don’t give too much away. “My mom had a green card and barely spoke any English. My sister and I were born here. My father was a rich white guy who apparently liked screwing around with young hotel housekeepers he could keep in line by threatening to call ICE on them. He wasn’t in the picture while I was growing up.
“The trooper rolled into the parking lot today with lights on, and I held up my hands and thoughtshit, I’m about to get shot. Then, when I realized Casey sent him, I felt humiliated because all these people were watching me get loaded into the back of his marked unit. They didn’t know who I was, or that I wasn’t under arrest. They didn’t know that I work for the governor. They didn’t know the Rolex on my wrist was given to me as a day collar. They didn’t know I drive a Jag and have probably made more money since I graduated law school than they have in the past ten or maybe even fifteen years. It brought back a lot of shit from my childhood, kids picking on me.”
I take a breath. “I owe Casey an apology.”
“She seems to think she owes you a pretty big one of her own.”
“I’ll talk to her when I take you back to the office.”
“Why don’t you drive me home and spend the night?”
I think about it.
I think about it long and hard.
Time together that’s just us and starting out on a new, even footing without Casey between us?
