“No. All the guys on the detail sound the same.”
“No, they don’t. But whatever. Are you going to send me the money or not?”
“Not.”
“Then why did you even call me?”
“Because it’s your fuckingbirthday, and I haven’t seen you in weeks. But don’t worry, Chels, I won’t be calling you again. Ever. I’m done. I’m not your ATM, and I’m not your enabler anymore.”
“What the fuck? This isnotLena. It’s an AI modulator or something, because there’s no way in hell that the Lena I know has the balls to talk toanyonethis way.”
Maybe not before. But I’ve grown stronger since I got here.
“It’s me. Just a better me. Good luck, Chelsea. I hope you get clean someday.”
I hang up and then rest my head in my hands, elbows on the desk, and take a long, deep breath.
“What the fuck,” I whisper. I know that Chelsea is selfish, butseriously?
“I’m so fucking proud of you.”
I shake my head, in disbelief over how that call just went.
“I should be sad.” I look up and lean back in the chair, staring at the mountains out the window. “I just broke up with my best friend of twenty years, but I’m just ...relieved.”
“It was a long time coming, from what you’ve said.”
“She’s right. Ineverwould have spoken to her like that before. I wouldn’t have had the guts. But damn it, she’s never been a good friend to me. She got me in troubleall the time. She set me up to fail, and she used me more times than I can count. I was the one who picked up the pieces when she overdosed, and I’m the one who worried about her, begged her to get clean. I even paid for the damn rehab.”
I shake my head, and Gideon stays quiet, just listening to me.
He’s a good listener.
“I think it took coming here and becoming friends with Willow and seeing you with your chosen family for me to understand whattrue friendship looks like. I don’t want to put up with Chelsea’s shit anymore.”
“Good for you,” he murmurs, and I look his way, and see pride and love on his face.
Love.
We haven’t said that word. We’ve made love. We’ve laughed and hugged and even confided in each other.
But we haven’t said the word out loud.
And I’m feeling too bruised to say it now. Because if he didn’t return it, well, I would be a mess, and I don’t want to risk it.
“What do you want to do now, baby?”
I sigh and rub my hand over my face. “Let’s go to the gym. I need to punch something.”
“I’ve created a monster.”
With a laugh, I let him pull me out of the chair. “Just don’t piss me off, or I’ll be punchingyou.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gideon
“You can’t be serious.”
