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Dom sipped his coffee daintily. He was over halfway through it when he spoke again. “I came here to tell you I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?”
“Sorry. Look, Trixie—unfortunately, I still need to sell the building. However, I will happily help you out with the financial aspect of securing a new place if that would be useful.”
“It’s not about money. You’re never going to get it, are you? You can’t even playfully hex another person without hurting them.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Yesterday,” I blurted. “Yes, I hexed your penthouse first, but I was just trying to prove a point. I was showing you what it’d be like to live in a crappy apartment—which is where I’m going to have to live when I get kicked out of the rent-controlled apartment that has been home to me for my entire life.”
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
“You ruined a whole day of work for me because I couldn’t even find my clients. I couldn’t find my way out of a paper bag.” I took a breath, but I felt shaky, and my adrenaline was racing. “I needed those wages, Dom. I needed that money. Some of us don’t have passive income. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. I don’t have nice benefits and a big savings account.”
“Trixie—”
“If you offer to give me money to make up for it, Dom, I’m going to shoot you with real silver bullets.”
That shut him up.
“You can’t even understand how that might hurt me,” I continued. “You ran me away to a retirement community, Dominic. All I was trying to do was my job, and you interrupted that. You couldn’t have jinxed my stereo to play stupid music? No. You chose the method that hurt me the most. I’ve lost two days of wages now because I had to escape to my grandma’s illegal greenhouse lab to get my bearings again.”
I was breathing so heavily that I had to pause for air. And when I paused, I realized I’d said my piece. The truth of the matter was that in a way, I felt something toward Dom. There were moments where I saw a softness, a goodness inside of him, but those times were so few and far between. We were just too different. He couldn’t even understand the basics of a girl living paycheck to paycheck.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, his eyes widening. “You’re right.”
I studied him. For a moment, I was taken aback. Then I wondered if Gran’s Happy Hex was working, but she’d warned me it would take at least an hour for it to kick in, so it wasn’t that. Probably.
When I looked into Dom’s eyes, I saw a real apology there.
“I’m really sorry,” he reiterated. “I never intended to hurt you. It was supposed to be a playful reply to your hex, not anything malicious.”
I sat back down heavily. “I believe you. It’s just mind-boggling that you can’t understand how ruining a day of work could make my life a lot harder.”
“It was supposed to wear off in a couple of hours. I wasn’t even sure you’d notice.”
“Well, I did. And now I’m contemplating moving to Crystal Rivers.”
“You can’t live in a retirement community. You’re not sixty.”
“Are you going to tattle on me?”
“Mum’s the word, if it’ll make you happy.”
“Is that why you’re here?” I changed the subject because really, there was nowhere else to go. He’d apologized, and I believed he’d meant it. No use beating a dead horse. “To apologize for yesterday? You could’ve done that when I got back.”
“Not exactly,” he said, a shadow flashing across his eyes. “I did want to check on you for safety reasons.”
“I’m fine. I mean, I know I had a little breakdown yesterday, but I’ll be okay. It has been a crappy few weeks, and yesterday put me over the edge. I just needed to regroup.”
“I’m sorry for my part in that.” Dom spoke into his now-empty coffee mug. “I mean it. But I did have another reason for coming up here. I believe you have a target on your back. Because of me.”
“A target?”
“My brother Sebastian is...” Dom didn’t look up. “Well, he’s on the run. And very dangerous. A woman was killed outside of our building yesterday, and I’m afraid he’s a suspect.”
“What do you mean killed?”
