“How do you know that?” I’m not even fully aware of the estate's value.
He tugs at one cuff. “I know everything, Eloise. Now take your… counsel and get out of my office.”
I stand my ground. “No.”
His eyes flash with ire, and his fists clench on his desk. He stands up slowly, never taking his gaze off me. “If you want to talk to me seriously about this, tell your counsel to fuck off. This is between the two of us.”
I turn to face the monster. Shit, no wonder Tony wants him to leave. The angles of the creature's face are harsh in the recessed lighting, frightening. Part of me wants him behind me during this conversation. Another part knows that my best chance of getting Tony to change his mindabout Harcourt is to do what he asks. I reach into my pocket and fist the candle. “Please go. Meet me later, same time and place as last night.”
The advocate seethes in my direction, his lips curling off his teeth in barely contained rage. But he leaves without another word. I turn back to Tony as soon as he’s gone. “When you made those improvements, they were a gift, not an investment. Drop your claim to the property, Tony. Please.”
He rounds the desk and closes the door to his office, turning back to me with undisguised malice. I try to back away as he swaggers closer, but he hooks his fingers in the pearls around my neck, holding me in place. “You wore my favorite necklace.”
“We loved each other once,” I force out. “Please, if for no other reason than out of respect for what we once had, let me keep the house.”
He twists his fingers in the pearls until they tighten uncomfortably around my throat. “Let's face facts, Eloise.” His voice is low and calm, even as the noose he's created forces me to rise onto my toes. “Your grandmother is dying, and you don't have a penny to your name. If I let you keep the place, you'd run it into the ground. The bank would foreclose in six months.”
I shake my head. “I won't let that happen. I've already reached out to my old principal. Once I'm working again?—”
“You'll never make enough to keep the place.” He twists again, the pearls threatening to cut off my air. I dig my fingers in behind the strand. “Face it, you're going to lose that house one way or another. Sign that property over to me, and I'll allow you to visit your parents' graves on the anniversary of their deaths.”
“Stop,” I rasp. “You're choking me.”
“Do as I say,” he hisses through his teeth. “Sign the house over to me. You can't afford it.” Tony's features turn cruel, and the old pattern comes back to me. He's insulted me, degraded me, and now he’s physically overpowering me. Tony isn't happy unless I’m groveling at his feet.
Breath barely trickles down my windpipe in a high-pitched whine. Not enough to answer him. Black spots circle at the edges of my vision. I claw at the strand. I’m suffocating, but all I can think of are his words. He'dallowme to visit my parent's graves.Allowme. Red-hot anger pulses through me. This morning, I'd remembered his kindness, but now I need to remember his spite. Tony is an abuser, and he always will be. I dig both my handsinto my flesh, wedge my fingers under the pearls, and tug.
The strand breaks. Pearls drop and bounce across the wood floor, rolling like marbles. I back across the room, putting space between us and wheezing air through the roughness left in my throat.
Over the sound of my rasping breaths, I hear him laugh. “Think about it, Eloise. As always, I'm the best offer you have. Even Maeve Gowdie knows it, whether or not she’s admitted it to you yet.”
Coughing, I lunge for the door, but I’ve got to walk past him to get there. He reaches out and grabs my wrist, squeezing until I’m sure he’s left a bruise. “Oww. Tony, you're hurting me.”
He pulls me to him and brings his face close to mine. “You know what's sad about all of this? You could still be married to me if you'd just learned your place. We could've had a nice arrangement. You by my side as my wife, your grandmother safely cared for.”
“And Tamara in your bed.”
He nods. “It's not an uncommon arrangement. I'd have kept you comfortable.”
“That's not good enough for me,” I rasp, yanking my wrist from his grip and charging out the door.
The last thing I hear as I slip into the hall is, “My offer just expired. Forget about visiting your parents’ graves once that property is mine.”
Massaging my bruised neck, I walk faster toward the exit, hating Tony with everything in me. I’m not a murderer, but as God is my witness, I wonder if I've done the right thing in stopping the advocate from killing him.
7
Bound in Shadow
DAMIEN
From the darkness, I seethe at Tony Denardi and curse the candle whose power keeps me from intervening. Eloise commanded me to leave. I'm already pushing the boundaries of my curse by watching from a distance, the candle’s power grinding painfully against my bones every time I try to hold my physical form or inch nearer.
Gods, I can smell the man's murderous intent. Eloise’s ex carries the acrid stench of the truly evil. It kills me to watch him twist her pearls like a noose along that long, delicate neck, to see the pain and panic in her eyes. Not that I have any feelings for the human woman but because I’ve been cheated out of killing the bastard. I'd have gloried in draining a snake like Tony dry. Over the centuries I've been alive, I’ve known many men like this one, arrogant narcissists who believe to their marrow that the rest of the world exists for their pleasure.
If Denardi spills Eloise's precious, delectable blood,so help me I'll find a way to circumvent the candle’s hold and skin the bastard alive.
I ready myself in the shadows, but then my little bird surprises me. Those fragile fingers succeed in breaking the necklace’s hold. Pearls rain down onto the floor and roll across the room. One of them finds its way into the corner, into my waiting hand. I crush it into powder.
