Page 59 of A Vicious Love

Every time she asked about my day. She told me about ballet. Reached for my hand and made something under my ribs go still in a way I did not like.

A girl who smiles too much, and doesn’t know how to shut up.

Except she had stopped.

The thought came before I could block it.

She hadn’t spoken the last two events.

She had nodded. Answered in tiny, polished pieces. Stood beside me like a beautiful ghost in silk.

No Jamjam.

No hand, please.

The little stories about rehearsal, had all stopped.

It had annoyed me.

No.

That was a lie.

It had gotten under my skin. Her silence had crawled into the room beside me and stayed there. I told myself I liked it. Finally, she had learned. Finally, no chirping. No tugging at me in public.

But every time she stood there quietly, something in me went looking for the noise.

Damius’s eyes had not left my face.

“You are thinking of something,” he said.

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“You miss her voice.”

I looked up slowly.

“Say that again.”

“You heard me.”

My guards were beyond the hall. Not close enough to hear, but close enough to die if Damius decided the morning needed drama. His own men stood somewhere in my house, probably offending my security system by breathing.

I stepped around the bar.

Damius did not move.

“Do not come into my house and talk about her voice.”

“Why? You do not value it.”

My jaw clenched.

“She doesn’t come with anything of value,” I said.

“But her grandparents did attach something to her.”

“What?”