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My hand stops over my plate.

“For how long?” I ask too quickly. I hear the disappointment in my tone, and so does he.

“A few days. Some business requires my attention.”

I set the piece of croissant down.

A few days shouldn’t matter. At the beginning, I would have given anything to be left alone. I used to dread his visits, counting the minutes until he went away.

I look down at my coffee. Without him, there will be meals delivered by men who barely speak to me. Hours spent rereading the same page because I can’t bring myself to concentrate. Nights listening to footsteps that pass my door.

I could try and get a phone. Ask to go outside. Use his absence to try the window again, or work out which guard might be persuaded to help me.

Instead, I’m trying to work out how I will survive his absence.

Jax steps closer and places a finger beneath my chin.

I could pull away. I don’t.

He lifts my face and studies me.

“Will you miss me?”

My throat tightens.

He’s giving me a chance to admit it. To say aloud what he must already suspect every time I turn toward him in bed.

If I say yes, I’ll have to live with having told him.

If I say no, he’ll smile.

I keep quiet.

His thumb brushes the corner of my mouth. “I think you will miss me,” he murmurs, smiling.

There it is. The smile I was trying to avoid.

I want to tell him he’s wrong. That I’m frightened of being left here with his men, that I need him because he’s the only person who can decide what happens to me.

It would be true.

It wouldn’t be the whole truth.

He bends and kisses my forehead.

I close my eyes before his lips touch me.

“I’ll bring you a gift,” he says. I don’t want another gift. I want him to tell me when he’ll be back. “Be good while I’m gone, little bird.” He releases my chin and walks toward the door.

I turn in my chair, watching him go. For one humiliating moment, I nearly call him back.

The door closes.

The lock turns.

I stay facing it until I hear his footsteps fade.

My coffee is still hot. I press my fingers to my forehead, then lower my head into my hands.