“I’m more family than a woman who’s only staying here because half the crime families in this district want her dead.”
“Really?” I narrow my eyes until it’s like gazing through spiderwebs. “Which ones specifically?”
Her lips twitch again, so close to smiling that I call it a victory. “Nice try. You’re the one who should answer those sorts of questions. I mightn’t be involved in Sophia’s day-to-day life but I’m still her mother. Whatever Baxter’s plan is for you, he’s obliged to keep me in the loop.”
“Which is why you busted in here without notice to find out what’s going on?”
“I came here because Baxter has lost focus on his operations and I’m here to remind him how that affects me.” She waggles her finger like a nineteenth century scold. “Whatever you think your relationship is, I don’t care. What I do care about is losing money because my ex-husband’s attention is focused on the wrong things.”
“Like finding out who kidnapped his daughter?”
“Unfortunately, these events are part of doing business.” She clicks her tongue against her teeth. “I bet it feels great right now, doesn’t it?”
Shaking my head, I pretend not to understand her change in tack. I regret getting so close to her as Alice’s breath whispers against my face. The lines of her neck are taut, muscles clenching.
She reaches to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, and I flinch from the intimacy of the gesture. “I remember when he showered me with attention. Buying anything I wanted. Encouraging me to give up my job so I could concentrate on my art.”
Credit where credit’s due. “Your books are beautiful.”
The harsh smile says she takes no joy from the compliment. “I poured my heart and soul into that work. There’s a fortune to be made in children’s literature. But when I tried to sell them, tried to commercialise it, he wouldn’t let me. Just unilaterally decided my audience size was one.”
There are footsteps on the other side of the door, but I can’t tear my eyes away from Alice’s hypnotic gaze. Her words entice me, so rich with the same warnings I’ve been trying to stamp out in my head.
“Tell me, has he ‘accidentally’ broken a condom yet? Forgotten to use protection because he got so caught up in the moment?” She must read something in my expression and her smile widens. “Because that’s so like Baxter, isn’t it?” Her voice drops to a mocking whisper. “To lose control.”
The words are so thickly laced with sarcasm I’m surprised they stay airborne.
The unease that’s been lurking, an equal weight to each stone of desire that I add to the scale, finally starts to tip the balance. Whatever reason Alice came here, I should heed her tale as a warning.
I should.
Instead, another stone clunks down on the to edge the scale back towards what I want.
Baxter didn’t lie to me. The memory of him scooping up his escaping semen to push it back into me—a replay that makes me catch my breath in response to the heat—is nothing like Alice is describing.
He’s not tricking me, not like that. Doing what he wants and seeing how I react, sure. But not lying. No subterfuge.
I want to fight for my fledgling relationship, no matter how many red flags it’s waving.
Baxter doesn’t scare me, my past does. If an athlete lets a wrong past decision haunt their future moves, their actions fail. Time to shake off my last tumble and its lasting effects, learn, and focus on landing the current one correctly.
Nora pushes through the door and I jump back a step as though I’ll be told off for consorting with the enemy. “Are you planning on drinking the coffee I made you or should I put on another serving?”
Alice’s face twists in annoyance. “We’re just getting there, Nora. No need to get your knickers in a twist.”
She sails from the room, and I shoot a sympathetic glance at the cook, but she has other things on her mind. “Get going after her, girl. The less time those two spend alone in a room, the better.”
The warning sounds an ominous note of doom. “Because they’ll reconnect?”
Nora takes my arm and steers me out of the room. “Because they’ll kill each other,” she says with a tiny snort. “Now get in there and make sure they remain civil for Sophia’s sake.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
BAXTER
As I wait for Alice to join me, a thousand worries flit through my mind, each disastrous outcome as likely as the last.
I saw each blow land on Isabelle’s face as Alice dealt them out, my moves to intervene coming too late. It seems stupid now I’ve seen them side by side, especially since Meri dropped the same hint earlier, but I honestly never saw the resemblance.
