Page 104 of Dark Soul

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Alexia

Alexia laughed.

“That’s all you have to say to me? No hello-I-missed-you-Alexia?” she said, acting braver than she really felt.

“Hello. And you know I fucking missed you,” Dark growled. “What are you doing here?”

She took the time to study him. He looked dreadful. Well, he looked wonderful, strong and rugged and… just him… but dreadful in the sense that he looked like he hadn’t slept in days, with a shadow under his chin that told her he might not have shaved in several days, either.

She took a deep breath.

“Thorne came to visit me at my hotel. We had lunch together, and we… spoke,” she began.

“You had lunch together?” Dark repeated, his voice dangerously low.

“Late lunch, to be very accurate. More of a snack.” She felt like she was poking a bear, but knew this was a bear she could afford to poke. Dark would never hurt her.

“But you were… you stayed…”

She took pity on him, then. “I’ll stand by you.”

“You… know?”

“Even though I’ve signed Thorne’s NDA, I still don’t know everything. You’ll need to fill in some of the blanks. But I know what you were doing in Kansas,” she said carefully.

This is the tricky part.

The part where he might close down completely if you’re not careful.

“You know I’m a murderer,” he said, taking a step forward so he towered over her.

“I know you killed a man. Thorne told me what happened.”

“Thorne doesn’t know what happened. Nobody does.”

“I know the man you killed was about to kill fifty people, Dark. I know also that you didn’t mean to kill him, that you just wanted to stop him. And I know you’ve paid dearly for what you did.”

“I killed a man, Alexia.”

“I understand,” she said, her chin up in the air. “And I know you and your team are trying to—”

“You know about them, too?”

She shook her head. “Not the details, but I know they all come from… complicated situations as well.”

“We’re a team of misfits.”

“I know you’re a team of people trying to do the right thing now, Dark.”

“Great. So one cozy chat with Thorne, and you’ve turned us into heroes in your mind.” He ran his fingers through his hair, as if in pain.

This isn’t going well.

He hates himself too much.

“So what,” he said, roughly. “you move into my room and…” He paused dramatically. “Oh, no, there is no and. You move in and nothing.”