No. Stop texting now. We are about to have dinner.
Who is we?
My phone rang again, and I contemplated if I should block him. Then Archer’s phone rang, and it was clear that Jameson had figured out the accomplice in my escape.
Tell me where the hell you are right now, Mia. Or when I find you, I will dismantle that man from head to toe and wrap each piece of him up in a damn box for you as a keepsake.
Archer was looking over my shoulder. “That’s definitely not happening. I’ll be fine.”
He said you won’t.
He knows I will, Mia. I never lie.
“Okay, he probably will, but don’t worry about it.” Archer chuckled. But his eyes grew serious. “Heisstarting wars for you, Mia. The whole cartel back East that Paolo manages might endup completely wiped out now that he knows who orchestrated the school shooting and Trent coming to our event the other night. Crime wars always end in a hell of a showdown. If you want him to calm down, you should let him see you.”
“He doesn’t deserve to, Archer,” I almost screamed, and then I shut my eyes to stop from breaking down. “I love him. You get that? I trusted him to trust me too. I told him I was ready for all this, and he was supposed to believe it. He was supposed to be ready with me being ready. Does that make sense?”
Archer rubbed at his jaw. “He doesn’t trust easily, Mia. You can see why now. Lex fucked with him for years and years.”
“I know.” I sighed and pushed the food away that Xavier had brought us. “But he’s let his past bleed out and drown the future he could have had with anyone else. I … maybe him and Lex are better together. Maybe they can rebuild their family and—”
“No.” Archer stopped me and glared. “Think about Franny. Think about that house. Think about him and you.Adamantem infractum manetmeans that diamonds remain unbroken, but that’s because they don’t fold under pressure. They don’t break, even when the world wants them to.”
“I’m not a Diamond.”
“Of course you are. He made you a Sanctum, Mia. Don’t you know?”
His words sliced at my heart and brought tears to my eyes. “Why though? Why me, when he can’t trust me? His wife wasn’t even—”
“His wife wasn’t you.” I hadn’t known if Jameson’s words were true just a few nights ago, if he meant I was his and he was mine, but hearing he’d claimed me as a Sanctum solidified it.
I sat there in silence, not saying a word to Archer … but I felt my place with them all, felt my heart settle where it should, beside them.
I was different from my parents and the town I grew up in. I wouldn’t stay silent when I knew things were wrong. I wouldn’t be quiet when I was ready to be loud. And Jameson accepted that. He wanted that from me. And I wanted it from him too. I wanted all of this. Him. Franny. The Diamonds.
“Do you think he’ll learn to? Learn to trust me?”
“I think he already does, he just has torealizethat he does. I also think he’s blindly in love with you, and men like him do desperate things when they’re in love. He didn’t know for sure about Lex. He was a damn wreck, Mia, on what to do. You know that.”
“He still should have confided in me.”
“I think this is going to be his lesson on what happens if he doesn’t in the future.”
I sighed and tried not to cry, tried not to feel betrayed.
“I’m going to go take a call from Hades, which is going to equate to getting my ass reamed out, so take some time to think about it while I’m on the phone, please. Because I’d like to have a less torturous death than the one they’re planning for me at the moment. If not for me or him, for Franny,” he said, patting my shoulder. And then he murmured, “And forgive me for letting these women bombard you here, but they couldn’t be stopped.”
And he opened the door to let Rosy, Pink, and Olive in.
I cried then.
Jameson
“WHERE THE FUCK ISmy darling?” I yelled, launching everything off my desk while Hades and Cal sat there like this was normal behavior.
“Youknowwhere she is. In good hands,” Cal taunted. I whirled and stormed toward him, but Hades was up to step between me and my brother.
“Archer’s got her, and she is safe. You need to handle this shitstorm instead.”
