“Because they did it to me,” she says, a bitter undercurrent to her tone.
I glance at her ring again. “You said it was a business arrangement.”
“The marriage? It was.” Her finger traces the rim of her drink. “There was never anything between Alec and I, Sydney. Nothing like that, anyway.”
“Then what?—”
“Is sex the only type of relationship you respect?” She levels her icy gaze at me. “The only way you can conceive of being close with a man?”
“What?” I draw back, offended. “Of course not!”
“You make it sound like that’s the case,” Annika tells me. She brings the glass to her lips, but pauses there, before drinking. “They were my family. The only family that I ever loved. And they left me, like I was nothing.” With a single graceful movement, she drains her glass.
There’s pain in her voice, hidden beneath the ice. When she sets her glass back on the bar, she sets it down a little too hard.
“I hope they don’t do the same to you,” she says, rising to leave.
“Wait!”
Annika pauses a few feet away from me before turning back. She takes a step toward me.
“You can return this to my ‘ex,’” she says, pulling the sapphire ring and matching band from her finger and placing them in front of me on the bar. “Tell him I signed the paperwork this morning. I’ve kept my side of our deal.”
46
SYDNEY
“Divorced.”It’s not even a question the way Jade says the word around a mouthful of pancakes the next morning.
“That’s the implication,” I answer with a sigh. House cleaning delivered a fresh stack of plushy white robes last night, and I’m very seriously considering stealing one when I finally leave. I’m getting far too used to this level of comfort, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to give it up.
“I swear, I need a TV-style recap at the beginning of every day to remember everything that happened in the last episode ofSydney and Her Mysterious Men,” Jade chuckles.
I throw a pillow at her, nearly toppling her pancakes over onto the bedspread.
“You should have woken me up,” she scolds, pointing a syrup-coated fork at me accusingly.
“Oh please.” I snatch the syrup away from her and pour it over my own pancakes. After a moment’s hesitation, I pour some over my eggs as well. “You were knockedoutwhen I left. There was no way I was getting you down to that bar short of dragging you there. And nothing even happened. She just kind of…warned me about them.”
There’s a veritable buffet’s worth of breakfast spread across the bed between us. Jade scowls and leans over to pluck a piece of bacon off my plate.
“Still,” she says. “I don’t like that she managed to get to you, here. Isn’t the whole point of this”—she gestures at the suite around us with her bacon strip—“to keep you safe? How the hell did she just waltz in to meet you at the bar?”
“She had a key card,” I explain. “So she must be staying here. And the staff was watching out for me. I just don’t think… I don’t think they saw her as a potential threat. I don’t either, honestly. She was…well, ‘nice’ isn’t the right word, but I really think she was trying to look out for me.”
Bea hops up on the bed for the hundredth time since room service delivered our food, determined to steal something. I pause midbite to scoop her up and place her gently back on the floor. I should probably call down and ask for another portion of food for her. Whatever it was the kitchen prepared—which they assured me was kitten safe—she ate it up like she was starving.
There’s a soft knock on the door, and Jade stops chewing, mid slice of bacon.
“It’s Vicky!” a bright voice calls from the hall. “You have a package!”
My stomach drops. Jade and I exchange a nervous look, before I climb off the bed and hurry to the door.
Maybe she was right to be worried. If Annika could get to me here…
Could Chase? Could one of hisgifts?
But the box Vicky is holding when I open the door to let her in isn’t the cheap gray cardboard I’ve come to expect from Chase’s deliveries. It’s black velvet, topped with an elegant silver ribbon.
