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She scoffed and looked away. “He’spart of the reason I’m so worried about you. Your precious husband. He tried to kill me, Leander! Did he tell you? And when that failed, he murdered my mother! What’s going to stop him from killing you? Or Elijah? Or anyone else in your life? He’s dangerous, Leander. I know what you’ve done, but it was never with malice. You have a good heart, in spite of everything you went through. Can you honestly say the same about him?”
Shaking my head, I closed my eyes and did my best to tune her out. As furious as I was with Bennett for lying, I knew in my soul he would never hurt me.Ever. Just as I could never hurt him. The thought alone was unfathomable.
Her perfume rushed over me a second before her hands landed on either side of my face again. “Leander, look at me.”
I did, grudgingly, and only because it was the quickest way to get this conversation over with.
“I can help you,” she whispered, her blue eyes shining with dampness. “Please, let me help you. Just stay here for a little bit. We can try some new medication and see—”
Anger exploded inside of me. The mere mention of medication reaffirmed what I already knew — that Bennett wasn’t the right “choice.” There’d never been a choice at all. Lorelei would never see me for who I was. I’d always be this broken thing she had to save, to pity.
I shoved her away from me as hard as I could. “I told you, I’m not your fucking lab rat!”
She stumbled back on her heels, crashing into her desk before she stabilized herself. “Oh, that’s right. Medicine is for the weak!” she spat back, glaring at me. “I remember. Well, too fucking bad because you need it! Alotof it! For the rest of your life. Or your darkness is going to consume you and that scares the hell out of me.”
“It already has.” My gaze fell to the floor, away from the hope in her eyes. With nothing left to say, I turned and strode to the door, my fists clenched at my sides.
“It’s not too late.”
I didn’t answer her, even when her signature heels clicked across the floor behind me.
“Leander, it’s not too late! Please!”
Closing the door on her entreaties, I moved down the hallway at an unhurried pace. The sound of her sobbing bounced off the pristine white walls, echoing in the recesses of my mind.
27
Bennett
“Where is he?” Olivia yelled, slamming through the back door of the teal Victorian with zero regard for whatever was happening on the inside of our temporary abode.
Leander and I looked up from our dinner plates, equally confused. We exchanged a glance, brows raised or furrowed accordingly. In the span of three seconds, we had an entire conversation and came to the same conclusion: we had absolutely no idea what Olivia was talking about.
“Who?” Leander asked, setting his utensils down on the edge of his plate.
“Cole! He’s been ignoring me for the past three days.” She put her hands on her hips, staring both of us down.
I raised my hands and leaned back in my chair. “We just got back from Chicago yesterday. Remember?” And not that I would ever admit in front of my less-than-sympathetic husband, but I was still feeling the effects of my hangover from Delirium.
“That doesn’t mean you didn’t send him off somewhere!” Olivia snapped.
Between all of our feuding over Lorelei’s stupid case study and following up on the information Kai sent from the burner phone, I don’t know when Olivia thought we’d have time to hang out with Cole for a clandestine boys’ nightortask him with some nefarious activity.
In fact, this dinner was the first time we’d had a civil conversation since Leander up and disappeared on me at Kai’s apartment.
He never told me where he went, which I assumed was an attempt to give me a taste of my own medicine. I had a sneaking suspicion he met with Lorelei. Or hell, maybe it was Martha. It’s not like he had that many connections that far north. But whoever it was, he didn’t throw it in my face. Nor did he scold me for coming home blitzed. Maybe it was because Del was with me, or he realized it was a pointless argument, just like I realized it was pointless to grill him on where he went.
“I haven’t talked to Cole all week,” I said, glancing at Leander for backup. “Last I heard, he was driving down to Mississippi to pick up some pocket doors or some shit.”
Leander nodded. “It’s true. For the renovation at the mansion.”
“Why do you think he’s ignoring you?” I asked.
“He left the read receipt on his text messages. And he stood me up for movie night,” Olivia growled, her eyes narrowed.
“Maybe he didn’t like the movie you picked?” I offered. A second later, Leander kicked me under the table. Wincing, I rubbed my shin with the opposite foot.
“Call him.” She crossed her arms over her chest, jutting her chin toward Leander. “Let’s see if he answers for you.”
