This had to be important enough to say. Why wasn’t it important enough to say?
“I’ve learned,” he finally told me, his words falling from his lips, dusting across my eyes, his voice a low purr in the screaming of my mind. “I can fix this, we both just have to be patient, with each other and ourselves, even when it gets hard.”
I pressed my lips together, swallowing the tears, my hands working at my sides. Just touch him. He won’t hurt you. He would never hurt you in a cruel, mean way. You know that, just…just touch him. Please.
But touching him gave him permission to touch me, and even at the thought, I felt my body lean away from his, and I hated that.
Fuck, I hated it so goddamn much.
“Come on,” he told me, taking the initiative to step to my side, giving me space as he did, “he’s in room 406.”
I nodded, rolling my shoulders as we headed for the door. Before I could even think about the questions I had, Everett was already answering them.
“He pulled the debt 9 months ago,” he began on our way to the elevator. “10,000. Small change to us, but we’ve got an image. He made a few payments in the beginning, but then completely stopped about six months ago. Ghosted us. We were busy, had a lot of other people to go after, so he fell to the wayside.”
And why wouldn’t he? $10,000 was chump change to someone who could loan out 4 million.
I straightened. Goddammit. I had completely forgotten about the company. About the loans, about everything.
I frowned. What was I supposed to do about that? What was I supposed to do about the months of writing I lost? They assured me Katie was fine, but was she?
“Your company is taken care of,” Everett spoke, causing my frown to soften. “The people we hired have been smoothing everything out since the last week of July.”
I felt my shoulders fall an inch, my eyes falling to Lucy. In my mind, it still felt like I was only in the room for a week or two, but it also felt like I had been there for decades. The entire world had kept going. All of it. Even the parts that needed me, it had all just…it kept going.
“My world stopped.”
I turned at his barely audible words, taking in his softened expression.
“My world stopped when you disappeared.”
And for the first time since I met him, I didn’t mind his softness. In fact, I was relieved. Relieved that he was still capable of feeling it even after a lifetime of bad things. Because maybe…maybe if Everett Kingsmen was still capable of being soft, maybe that meant I was too.
I swallowed, turning back to the elevator doors. I worked my jaw against the emotions, but I was relieved that he had felt that. Between he and Lucy, that was enough.
The elevator doors dinged, sliding open. “You can finally see your dog at work,” Everett told me, letting me into the hall first. “I taught her some new tricks.”
I glanced down at Lucy, her ears perked. She had no idea what was happening yet, but I was curious to see how my girl had changed too. Maybe if I could understand that, I couldbetter understand me.
We headed down the hall to room 406, Everett standing on one side, Lucy, Merlin, and I on the other. “The surrounding people are at work,” he explained. “But not the person directly above or below.”
I nodded, glancing at his hips, searching for his gun.
“No gun,” he told me, pulling my eyes back. “Not in buildings like this. There’s too much of a chance for the bullet to go through a wall. The only way out is through the balcony or through the door.”
Oh, he wouldn’t survive a four story drop onto a city sidewalk. At least the chances were low.
“You ready?”
My heart picked up as I found his eyes. Yes, I was ready. Ready to do something other than sit in my sorrow and memories. Ready to help. Even if that meant just observing. I could do it. I was prepared. I gave him a nod and saw a small smile flick one corner off his lips up, pulling my eyes to them.
I couldn’t remember how that felt.
Everett stepped up to the door, less than a foot from me, and knocked a few times.
I heard the footsteps nearing.
“Lucy.”
