“In around six months.”
“That’s not almost. Wait, do I even want to know . . . how old were you when we first . . . ?”
“Eighteen. I knew you were going to ask that.”
Why was twenty-four so much more palatable than eighteen?
After I must have been sitting quietly for a while, mind reeling, basically beating myself up, she spoke again, sounding troubled. “I knew you’d react like this. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“Didn’t tell me? Is that what you’re going to call it? You flat out lied about it, even provided proof for the lie.”
She opened her mouth as though to speak, then closed it again, staying silent. She just stared at me while I stewed about how ridiculously, uncomprehendingly young she was.
“You realize I’m more than twice your age,” I pointed out, finally breaking a long silence.
“Barely. And this is why I lied about it. I knew you’d overreact. You’re already making me rethink this not lying idea.”
“Clearly you need more practice at it. Let’s try another one. Am I older than your dad?”
“No. You’re quite a bit younger. Does that make you feel any better?”
“Not particularly.”
“You need to go back with Heath in the morning.” She was blatantly changing the subject.
She knew well how to work me, because it worked.
“No. I won’t leave you here. Not possible.”
“Don’t rile him.” She traced the bruise on my jaw, her eyes troubled. “He’s a very dangerous man. You have to go back without me.”
I studied her, wondering if she really didn’t understand me that well. Sometimes it felt like she knew me better than I knew myself, so it was certainly a new (and demoralizing) notion.
Even as I had the thought, I caught a glint in her eyes, a flash of genuine worry that righted the world back onto its axis and had me breathing easier.
Her understanding me was one of the few things about Iris that I’d always been certain of, and I’d have been crushed if even that were a lie.
Her concern told me it was not.
“You know I can’t do that,” I told her gently.
The concern turned to something akin to panic. “He’s armed, and he has a terrible temper, and he hates you. Also, he has backup. Lots of it. There’s no way you can take him on. You understand that, don’t you?”
I took a very deep breath. I’d never considered myself to be particularly brave. In fact, I’d never much considered it at all, but I knew that I’d do whatever I needed to, regardless of the risk, to get Iris out of this mess.
“Please, Dair, please. I’m begging you here. Please, just do what he says. I’d never be able to live with myself if you got hurt in all of this.”
“You and I have different priorities, but I think you know that. I’m much more concerned about you not getting hurt.”
“There’s nothing you can do about what happens to me. I wish you could see that. But dragging you into it, getting you hurt, that can be prevented. You don’t have to get involved.”
That had my hackles rising. “I don’t have to? How about this: I am involved. What did you think would happen? You pursued me. You gave yourself to me. You made me care about you, and I can’t stand by while you’re in danger, held captive here for God only knows what reason, and do nothing!”
Her jaw was set stubbornly, her eyes growing blank in a way I was beginning to dread.
It set me off.
“It wasn’t a rhetorical question,” I raged. “Answer me. What did you think would happen?”
Her tone was expressionless when she answered, but for once, I felt like she was giving me the truth. “I didn’t mean for it to get this far. For us to get this far. I just wanted a bit of you, enough to keep me going, but I never thought it would turn into this. Despite all of my better sense, I couldn’t keep away from you once I started.”
I focused on the strangest part of what she’d said, the piece that made no sense to me. “A bit of me? How did you ever even notice me, let alone decide to come after me as aggressively as you did.”
She shook her head, the corner of her mouth raising a bit into a wry smile. “You’ll never get it. You don’t see yourself clearly, not at all. I do. You were just too appealing for me to resist, in so many ways.”
“So that’s it, you spotted me at the gym and decided I was just too hot to resist? Does this happen often?”
She flushed. “Don’t. Don’t do that. And I didn’t spot you at the gym. Nothing was random about us. I knew you’d be there and I sought you out.”
I blinked rapidly, hating that every answer she gave me that felt like it could be remotely close to the truth only made me feel like I knew less than I ever had. “Care to explain any of that?”
She opened her mouth (as though she was actually going to answer!) when the loud sound of the bolt being thrown outside made her pause.
I barely had time to throw a sheet over the essentials before the door was opening, Heath taking a step inside.
He started cursing when he set eyes on us. “What the f**k? I’m closing this door, and when I open it back up, she better be decent, and you better have your pants back on. You have exactly three minutes.”
He stepped back, slamming the door hard.
We obeyed him, because I didn’t particularly want to deal with him without pants on, and I certainly didn’t want him seeing Iris naked.
In what I assumed was exactly three minutes later, the door opened again.
We were sitting on the edge of the bed, side by side, holding hands.
Heath glared. “Dinner time. On your knees, facing the wall, Masters.”
I obeyed, tensing when I heard a gun cocking behind me.
I heard Iris gasp and cry out, “Heath, please don’t—”
“I won’t hurt him unless he tries something stupid.” He told her, voice soothing. It changed suddenly, going back to hostile. “Hold still if you enjoy keeping your head on your shoulders, Masters.”
A long pause, then, back to his soothing voice, “Just go into the bathroom while we bring the food in. You giving me that look is not helping the situation.”