“Yes. Come on, walk with me,” she says and pulls me away from the honey stall. I glance back with sudden yearning but figure I’ll get her out of my hair a lot faster if I just go with her. “We’ll get you the honey later. They’re not going anywhere.”
We walk along the edge of the market, the traffic thinning to our left as we take a turn down a less crowded street. As thenoise around us fades, I glance at Deanna. She seems tired, weighed down by her own poor decision-making, I’d venture to say.
“I wanted to apologize, first and foremost,” she says after a rather long and uncomfortable silence, “for the way I treated you while we were at Haus of Sin. I guess a part of me never truly got over Vincent, and I hated how intensely he felt about you. How intensely they all felt about you.”
“It’s not like we planned any of it.”
“I know, Raina. It was never about you. I ended it with Vincent,” she says. “I’m the one with the remorse and the things left unsaid. And I should’ve done better. You were never to blame.”
“Well, thank you for saying that.”
“I’m not just saying it, I’m going to prove it, too. You know what they say, actions speak louder than words,” Deanna replies. “You’re going to head their kitchen at The Black Swan, right?”
“That was the original discussion, yes.”
My stomach tightens ahead of decisions I have yet to make, thoughts I’ve yet to revisit, if only to give myself some time to breathe and adjust to my new condition. I look at Deanna, briefly admiring the delicate profile of her face. She’s different without any makeup on, paler. There are dark shadows under her eyes.
“The original discussion?” She raises a curious eyebrow. “Not anymore?”
“No, it’s still pending. There isn’t a timeline yet, though. I’mtaking this week off from everything to figure a few things out, so I don’t know the details yet.”
“I see. And have you spoken to Alex or Max or Vincent lately?”
The question hits like a punch in the gut. She might like the fact that I walked out on them, that I put an end to it on account of my brother’s reaction, and I’d hate to give her the satisfaction.
She might’ve said she’s sorry, but it doesn’t mean she actually meant it. I remember when Jeremy found me and tried to get back with me, just so I could get him an in with the guys’ corporate offices for his law firm.
“Not about The Black Swan, if that’s what you’re asking.” I decide a little white lie is better than a big, fat one.
“Thing is, Raina, without Haus of Sin and my decision not to go to Brunei, my winter options are limited—or worse. I’d like a chance to talk to them face-to-face, but they haven’t been taking any of my calls. I need to make it right,” Deanna replies.
We pause in front of a gangway leading off into a separate side street. Long shadows reach from the darkness, along with a shiver that trickles down my spine. I look up and down the alley, and there’s barely anyone around. I see a waitress wiping down a couple of tables outside a coffee shop, but I don’t see any interested passersby.
“I understand that,” I say to Deanna. “I’m just not sure what you want from me. It’s not my place to get involved in their business decisions.”
A cold smile cuts across her face. “It kind of is your place,considering you’re the reason they ended their collaboration with me in the first place.”
Aha. So her apologywasbullshit. “Pretty sure it was your behavior that led to their decision.”
“I just need you to talk to them for me,” she says, trying so hard to soften her expression when every atom in her body is clearly screaming at me to die. “They’ll be more inclined to take my call, if you talk to them first.”
For a moment, I get a sense of déjà vu, of Jeremy asking me to do the same thing while trying to reconcile. My God, they’re cut from the same cloth. I can see it now. They’re the same self-serving, smug-smiling, selfish garbage, wrapped up in a nice body and a pretty face.
Rotten on the inside.
“So that’s what this was all about,” I scoff. “It was never about you actually apologizing or changing your ways. It was about you getting through to them with my help. That’s what you’re here for.”
“No, Raina, I’m really trying here?—”
I cut her off. “Try somewhere else. I’m done being a puppet. Sort your own life out and leave me alone.”
I turn away to walk back to the market, but I feel something hard and cold pressing into my back, followed by a spine-tingling click.
“Move or scream, and I will shoot you,” Deanna hisses in my ear.
“Is that a gun?” I whisper, my blood running ice-cold.
“Well, I tried being nice about it. All you had to do was say yes, and I probably would’ve spared you from what comes next.”
