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"Yeah," Marcus spoke quietly. "He'll be able to take care of her and keep her safe. But, for me, I can't know anything else about her other than what's in these folders."
I frowned at this as I finally tore my eyes off the picture and looked up at him. "What aren't you telling me?"
He was hiding something, that's for sure. It seemed like everyone was trying to hide something these days. The whole thing was starting to become exhausting.
"The less I know the better," was his cryptic reply.
Fine. Whatever. He could keep his secrets if he really wanted to.
"I'll get these to Rain, but I'm going to leave them in his apartment for him instead of texting him. Now that I know Adrian has my phone number and knew about the shop, I'm super paranoid about everything." Wasn't that an understatement.
Marcus leaned his hip against the island beside me.
"You're right to be paranoid," he said. "They have secret ways of knowing things and they use magic they forbid others to use."
He reached out and closed the folder, shuffling them into a neat little stack.
"You've been spending an awful lot of time over at the Alexander house this week," he commented casually. A little too casually if you asked me, like he was fishing for information.
"Yeah," I stated. If there was something he wanted to know then he could come right out and ask for it. I was still reeling over the look in the woman's eyes and hoping Rain found her before the Council got their hands on her.
Marcus cleared his throat as he shifted from foot to foot, nervously.
"Is everything okay with you and Dash?"
My cheeks heated in embarrassment as images of Dash on top of me ran through my mind and my skin burned. Was I going to think about having sex with him every time someone brought his name up? I seriously hoped not, because this was really not good. Marcus, like Rain, didn't need to know I'd had sex.
Marcus took one look at my red face and immediately got angry. His fist clenched and he laid them down on the island counter.
"Those idiots better be treating you right," he growled. "If you think they're taking advantage of you in any way, I want you to tell me immediately. In fact, I want you to know that you can move back into your old room any time you'd like. I would love to have the company and you know you're always welcome here. This is your home too."
My shoulders slumped as I placed both my palms on the counter. If only my life were a lot less complicated, and I was in a place where I could move back into my pretty room with the window seat Tyson and I had slept beside each other on the first night he'd introduced me toFriday Night Lights. That had been my firstrealbedroom I'd had with anything other than a broken laundry basket on the floor with my used clothes piled in it, and a lumpy mattress that was on the floor as well. Marcus had bought me brand new furniture and all the fixings to go along with my room.
I had loved my bedroom here, it had been the first real thing that was close to a safe space I'd ever had and Marcus had been the one to give it to me. But I could not, under any circumstances, move back in here with him.
Have you ever heard that saying 'don't look back, you're not going that way?’ Well, I already wasted too much time looking back at the past and not enough time reaching for my future. My place was with my coven. My place was at Dash's cottage and now, since I couldn't live there, at the Alexander big house.
"They treat me just fine," I told Marcus honestly, and I realized in that moment that theyactuallydid treat me very well, better than I probably deserved most of the time. "But... something happened and I think both Dash and myself will be staying next door at the Alexander house for a while now."
Probably a good long while considering those robed masked people.
He sighed but thankfully let it go.
I drank two cups of coffee with Marcus while I helped him unpack boxes in his office, lining his shelves with books and knickknacks.
After a couple hours of unpacking I asked him if I could borrow a car for a few hours. He said yes, like I knew he would. What surprised me though? He didn't even ask me why I needed to borrow one of his cars when my Range Rover, the one he'd bought for me, was parked in the driveway next door.
Maybe he knew that a girl in a house full of men would sometimes need an escape and a chance to catch her breath every now and then. Then again, maybe he was just being Marcus, the wonderful man that he was, and he was doing what he could to take care of me.
Whatever the case, I didn't care, I was simply thankful for it.
Chapter Eighteen
Ishut the door quietly behind me, afraid to make any noise even though I knew nobody would be able to hear me from outside the garage. The walls in here were heavily insulated and with the shade pulled shut on the one door to the outside closed, there was no way someone standing outside would be able to tell there was someone moving around in here.
I pouted as I pressed the button on the key fob, unlocking the car Marcus had given me keys to, and stood still as I watched for lights to flash on the car the fob belonged to. I pouted because his beautiful black Mercedes was parked out in the driveway for once and I knew that whatever set of keys he'd given me did not belong to that car. I wanted to drive that car, badly, with my foot pressed all the way down to the floor as the world blurred past me.
I feared I would now never get the chance to drive it and that made me ridiculously sad.
