“Achilles found me.”
“I gathered.”
“And…” I sucked in a breath. “He let me go.”
He smacked his lips. “That’s the least the motherfucker could d?—”
“You can’t tell anyone I gave you a sign of life,” I cut him off. “There’s a mole around you.”
“No one will know,” he conceded. But I knew it wasn’t true. He’d tell Lila. That was okay with me, though, because Lila was the last person who’d snitch.
“All I wanted was to let you know that I was okay and not to kill Achilles when he comes back and says he offed me.”
“Bleeding fucking Christ,” he muttered. “You should hang up. The longer we talk, the more likely?—”
“Wait,” I blurted out.
“Yeah?”
“Katya Rasputin…” I trailed off.
“What about her?”
“What do you know about her?”
I’d die before admitting to him I was jealous. But I was. The thought of Achilles putting a baby in that woman, watching her give birth, pouring the tiny amount of love he had in his heart into that baby made me sick and feral with jealousy. It ripped at my skin. I couldn’t bear it.
“Not a ton.” Tiernan’s voice took on a bored lilt. “She’s nineteen, maybe twenty. Goes to college somewhere in New England. Keeps to herself.”
“Is she pretty?” My voice was unnaturally thick.
“The fuck should I know?”
“You’ve met her plenty.”
“I don’t look at women who aren’t my wife,” he scoffed. Then, sensing my urgency, he blew out a breath. “But I guess she’s not terrible looking. Nothing to write home about, but not appalling. She isn’t Lila.” I rolled my eyes at the pathetic longing in his voice. “And…she isn’t you, either, Sis,” he finished.
“You would say that, wouldn’t you.” Tears filled my vision.
“I’m an honest cunt, for all intents and purposes.”
“That, you are.”
“We need to hang up befo?—”
“Achilles is set to marry her.”
There was a pregnant pause. “So I heard.”
“Do you think she’ll make him happy?”
I wanted him to be happy, but I didn’t want him to be happy with another woman. It made me feel like my stomach was ripped apart by hungry wolves.
“I don’t think Achilles can be happy with anyone who isn’t you.”
Whether he said it out of loyalty to me or because he meant it was irrelevant. It was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.
Pressing my lips together, I plastered on a smile so he could hear it. “I love you, Tiernan.”
