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“You will be.”
Noble’s dark gaze holds warmth and humor. There’s always something welcoming about the man. I like how much he fools people with his appealing appearance.
Noble is the baby bear of his family. While Zoot runs cold and Elvis is hot, Noble is a comfortable middle ground. He’s also the man least likely to hint he’s about to gut you.
“I heard about your girlfriend,” I say after chugging my Negroni and starting on a second one. “The chick with the pink hair. I’m sorry she died.”
Noble smiles at me in that gentle way he has about himself. I know he’s faking it. I bet he hates hearing me mention his dead girlfriend.
“How come you never found anyone else?” I ask as the booze turns me into a rude asshole.
“Xana was it for me. I can fuck other women. I’ll see their qualities, but I accepted long ago how none of them could live up to a ghost.”
I look at Noble and think about how young he was when the woman he loved was gunned down. Most of his life has been spent knowing what he lost. Is that my future?
“I think all the time about the day Ollie died,” I mumble, sinking into a bad feeling.
“His brother set him up. It’s not all on you.”
“It’s why she left.”
Noble nurses his drink for a long time. I think maybe he’s decided he doesn’t want to talk to me now that I’m whining about Natasha and bringing up his dead girlfriend.
Finally, he says, “Bear, you only get one life. What do you want to do with the time you have left? Because you don’t seem happy to me.”
“I want her,” I mutter under my breath as the pain digging deep in my chest becomes unbearable. “I want her to look at me like she did before I killed her friend.”
“She’s different now, no doubt. You fell for a pampered princess. She’s spent two years getting smacked around and living in a dump.”
“Did you know where she was?”
“No, but Fred did a little digging today. She saw an obvious cleanup job south from here. The guy who died was a nobody. The house was a dump in a rural area.”
“Are they looking for her?”
“Who, the cops? No, they got their dough. They’re playing it as a meth house situation. The news put a picture of the asshole and his kids on the TV. Had his crying mom accuse his live-in girlfriend of being a meth head. The cops claim all four are dead. Problem solved.”
“How do you know she got smacked around?”
“After visiting Natasha, Siobhan was crying at the farm over how she hadn’t been able to help her friend. I have no doubt she always knew where Natasha was.”
“Why would Natasha Kovak slum it? Is that crap what she wants?”
Noble frowns. “Why are you asking me?”
“Because she’s not here, asshole.”
“Yeah, but you know where she’s at. Go ask her.”
“What good would it do?”
Noble shakes his head at my stupidity. “Roman’s still planning to marry her off. You get that, right? Natasha doesn’t get out of that family tradition just because she left you or lived with this other guy. If she wants the Kovak family’s help, she’ll need to pay the price.”
“Petra’s husband dumped her. That’s what Carys said, anyway. Doesn’t seem like the arranged marriage thing always sticks.”
Ignoring my babble, Noble continues, “I think Roman is looking to keep Natasha close to home. She’s the baby of the family. They’ll want her in Banta City, so I assume they’ll try to restart the deal with the club.”
“Fuck you,” I mutter and suspect the second Negroni broke my filter.
