A knock at the door stops me mid-step.
Phoenix wouldn't knock. He'd just walk in.
Maybe his hands are full. Groceries. That has to be it.
I open the door with a smile already forming on my lips, but then it drops.
It's Marcus.
He looks nothing like the polished, confident man I met at the investor dinner. His sandy brown hair, which was styled to perfection, is disheveled and oily. His jaw is shadowed with stubble, his expensive wool coat wrinkled and damp with snow. But it's his eyes that make my stomach drop. Those blue eyes that charmed the Teos over champagne and small talk now hold something wild. Something unhinged.
"So this is where you two have been hiding." His voice is pleasant enough, but there's an edge underneath that makes my skin crawl.
Every instinct screams at me to slam the door in his face. But this is Phoenix's business partner. His colleague. Maybe even his friend, for all I know.
"Phoenix isn't here," I say, keeping my hand on the door. "He went into town for supplies.”
“That’s okay." Marcus smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "I wanted to come by and…clear the air. Just the two of us.”
Something about the way he says it makes my skin prickle. But what am I supposed to do? Refuse to let him in? Phoenix will be back soon. And maybe this is my chance to smooth things over, to apologize for the dinner, to fix some of the damage I caused.
Against my better judgment, I step aside.
"Come in. It's freezing out there.”
He steps past me into the cabin, and I close the door behind him. The click of the latch sounds strangely final.
Marcus moves further into the cabin, his gaze sweeping over the space. The rumpled bed with its tangled sheets. The two coffee mugs in the sink. My clothes mixed with Phoenix's on the chair by the fire. He takes it all in, his expression unreadable.
"Cozy," he says. "I have to admit, I didn't picture Phoenix as the cabin-in-the-woods type. But I suppose people do strange things when they're... infatuated."
I stay near the door, arms crossed over my chest. "Can I get you some tea? Coffee? The kettle just boiled."
"No. Thank you." He turns to face me, and something in his posture shifts. The pleasant mask slipping, just a little. "I didn't come here for refreshments, Jade."
"Then why did you come?"
He doesn't answer right away. Instead, he walks to the window and looks out at the snow-covered trees, his hands clasped behind his back like a professor about to deliver a lecture.
"Do you have any idea what you cost me?" His voice is calm and conversational. That makes it worse. "What you cost Phoenix? What you cost everyone involved in that deal?"
"Marcus, I?—"
"Months of work." He turns from the window, and now I can see it—the rage simmering just beneath the surface. "Months of meetings and negotiations and careful planning. The Teos were ready to sign. We were days away from closing the biggest deal of our careers. And then you had to open your mouth."
"The deal was already falling apart," I say, my voice smaller than I want it to be. "Phoenix said?—"
"The deal was FINE." The words snap out of him like a whip, and I flinch. "Everything was fine untilyoudecided to make a scene. Until you humiliated Phoenix in front of everyone. Until you humiliated ME."
"He lied to me. You both did."
"So what?" Marcus throws his hands up. "Everyone lies. That's how the world works. You smile, you shake hands, you tell people what they fucking want to hear. Phoenix understood that. He was playing the game perfectly until you came along."
He's moving toward me now, slow and deliberate. I back up instinctively, my hip bumping against the kitchen counter.
"I'm sorry the deal fell through," I say, trying to keep my voice steady. "But that's between you and Phoenix. It has nothing to do with me."
"Nothing to do with you?" He laughs. ”You're the reason he lost focus and threw away everything we built. He was so busy playing house with you that he forgot what actually matters.”
