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She doesn’t back down, just smirks. “That can be arranged, if that’s really what you’d like. But perhaps Ms. Fox has something to add to what we’ve been discussing.” Her gaze darts back up to me. “Do come down and join us.”
I don’t wait for approval from Weston.
He can’t give it.
The thought of allowing me in the same room with Wendy was enough to send him into a tailspin earlier, but we both know it’s necessary to accomplish what we want to tonight. So is the illusion that he doesn’t want me here, when, in reality, he can’t do this without me.
Both their sets of eyes on me, I make my way down the staircase, pausing at the second landing for a moment to try to gather my wits, because God knows this conversation won’t be easy.
You can do this.
Stick to the plan.
Stay calm.
By the time I make it to the bottom where they wait, my chest is so tight it feels like it might snap my ribs, but I force myself to keep breathing, to keep moving forward.
Weston grabs me and pulls me into his hold immediately, wrapping a protective arm around me and pressing his lips into my hair. He still carries the scent of the earlier rain, mixing with the smoke of the scotch he’s been drinking and that wood and leather scent I can’t get enough of. “You should have stayed upstairs, Beauty.”
I tilt my face up to him. “If you think I’m going to stay up there while you face down this bitch alone, you’re insane.”
Wendy releases a little laugh, and I glance over to find her red lips curled into a smile. “Your ‘Beauty’ has some bite.”
Weston just snarls at her.
Ignoring him, Wendy starts for the living room. “Ms. Fox, I think it is best that you’ve joined us. Maybe we can have a more civilized conversation with cooler heads prevailing.”
The way Weston practically vibrates against me, my guess is that he’s been nothing but using a cool head and controlling his temper the entire time they’ve been talking.
My presence is unlikely to help make that any easier. If anything, it will only set him more on edge, closer to losing it. He would have kept me out of it altogether if he had a choice, but since we have no other options, we follow her in, ensuring Wendy stays in front of us, never at our back.
Weston drops his lips to my ear. “If anything happens, you run into the woods. Gray will find you. He’ll protect you this time.”
I’d love to believe his words, but I also don’t want them to be true because I don’t want any of that to happen.
It’s the worst-case scenario.
For him to be bringing it up again and risking saying those words to me with her so close, then things have gone worse than I anticipated leading up to his signal for me to make my “escape” because she had arrived.
Weston guides me to the chair and slowly lowers me down into it, standing guard at my back, his massive hands resting just above my shoulders.
My mind can’t help but drift to what he did to me in this very chair only a few hours ago.
How he completely destroyed me and allowed me to fall apart before he put me back together again.
Before he assured me that this would all work.
But this isn’t the time to get lost in a memory, not when the enemy stands only a few feet from us, poised and ready to strike.
Wendy makes her way to the fireplace and pauses, staring at the axe leaning against it. “Ms. Fox, I’ve offered Weston the opportunity of a lifetime. The one that could have been his thirty years ago had he chosen to act accordingly.”
He scoffs from behind me. “You mean if I chose to kill my best friend, Eliza’s brother?”
She turns to face us, a pitied look in her eyes. “Your conscience didn’t get you anywhere, though, did it? You still lost him and her.”
His hands tighten on the leather, making it creak.
That little hint of jealousy I felt when he first told me he was previously engaged to a Rosewood comes back, making bile rise in my throat.
