Page 306 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

He hasn’t slept, but he takes a shower, shaves and changes clothes.

That’ll do for now.

Breakfast with Mimi is almost enough to heal him.

She’s very into oatmeal lately, likes to add her own toppings and make them melt, so Lachlan, like the coward he is, spends his downtime with her, eating oatmeal and drinking coffee and listening to all of her dreams without really listening at all.

‘Daddy.’

‘Yes, baby?’

‘Do you have a secret?’

He cocks his head at her. ‘Mm, maybe? I don’t know. Do you?’

Mimi nods.

‘Do you wanna tell me?’

‘I do, but Bee says not yet.’

God, he hopes it’s not something for his birthday.

‘Fair enough, baby. It’s OK to have some secrets.’

‘Jewel has a lot.’

He thinks of the notebook. ‘Yeah, but that’s OK. He’s entitled to secrets.’

‘Mari’s a secret,’ she whispers.

He smiles, stroking her hair. ‘He’s my favourite one.’

‘You should tell him.’

‘I will. Eat up, princess.’

He avoids almost everyone, including Blaire, for most of the day.

The Estate is an excellent place to hide, truth be told, and there are always a dozen or so things that need his attention. He hears from Control that Julian is up and moving, although he claims to have a cold. Avoiding him is absolutely necessary for now, but come early evening, his guilt about Danya can be tolerated no more.

He finds him alone in the training room, working a freestanding rubber torso with bare-knuckled precision.

Jab. Cross. Elbow. Liver shot.

The sand-weighted base jerks across the mat with every combination. Danya hooks it back into position with one foot without breaking rhythm. Sweat darkens his shirt and blood shines across his knuckles, but his breathing remains perfectly controlled.

‘It was wrong of me to let him think it was you.’

‘Go away, Tanner.’

‘I’m admitting it was wrong and I’m apologising for it, OK? I know you’re resigning. I know I can’t talk you out of it because you wouldn’t put something like that in motion unless you were prepared to—’

Danya swings a roundhouse kick into the dummy so hard he knocks it flat. ‘Oh, fuck you for that!’ he yells in furious Russian. ‘I don’t even want to go through the motions of this with you, so just go the fuck away.’

‘Danny,’ Lachlan utters, soft with desperation that eats away at his control like acid. ‘I’m trying to—’

‘You try too hard for the wrong things.’