It just depends on which corrupt motherfucker—and we’re talking about both criminal syndicates and government—is in charge at the time.
“Are you complaining about me helping you?”
Hadrian’s face is like mine. People always think I’m either angry or staring off stupidly. Hadrian’s natural grimace adds to the stereotypical arrogance that so many people easily attach to him.
The truth is, Hadrian has helped me out a lot more than I’ve ever helped him.
He paid me a shit ton of money, hiring me for my first kill. When I started out as a triggerman, people might have thought I was inexperienced, but with the name Hallow whispered about, it gave me a leg up.
He helped me get to New York when I didn’t have any other options.
“I’m saying it’s unnecessary,” I say as Jane places our food in front of us. The quick and efficient woman lingers like she wants to be a part of this conversation.
One dismissive flick of his eyes sends her away and sets me on edge.
I might see him better than I did that first night in the pub, but there’s no excusing his occasional prickish ways.
Hadrian picks up his fork. “Is Cade still trying to kill you?”
I pick my own fork up, not answering.
“Then I’m not sure what argument you think you’re making.” He takes a bite.
I don’t mind getting dinner with Hadrian, but we normally meet up at a bar attached to a five-star hotel. Hadrian must recognize that I keep him away from my friends. It’s not that I don’t think, if he really tried, he couldn’t get along with them.
But I keep him tucked away. And he allows it, because if he didn’t like it, he wouldn’t.
It’s Tristan’s gaze, warming the skin on the back of my neck, that has me lining up my argument. “It’s all a bit dramatic.”
“Saving your life is dramatic.” He says it in his typical bored way, while leaning back in his chair. “I thought you would like it anyway. Having him around. It’s like the start of all those slutty romance novels you read.”
“Don’t do that,” I say, stabbing my fork into my bowl.
“I thought you had a thing for him? Isn’t this perfect. Proximity is key, Isolde, when it comes to love.”
“Do you really want me to respond to that?”
He frowns.
“He’s totally still into his stepsister,”Sammie's ghost confirms, suddenly sitting next to me in the booth. She stares at him dreamily anyway. But then again, she always knew Hadrian liked her rather than loved her.
“So now that you’re back and you’ve had plenty of time to reconnect with M?—”
“Matheson, we’re here to discuss your life, not mine.”
As I thought. He loves to deflect.
“He hasn’t stopped looking at you since we got here,” Hadrian says.
“It’s almost like you’re paying him to look after me.”
“If only you had proved you didn’t need looking after.”
I wrap a noodle around my fork but don’t lift it to my lips. “I’m not a damsel in distress, so you can cut it out.”
“You’re not a damsel in distress,” he agrees. “You’re much smarter than that, Isolde. Cade has wanted you dead for years now. You should have let me take care of him like I wanted to.”
Hadrian isn’t as controlling as his aloof persona makes people believe. He’s caring in his own sort of way.
