Fate Forgotten (13 page)

Still, it was irritating to be left hanging. Couldn’t they have come back to talk? It wasn’t as though fatherhood was a secret society. She debated the ethics of attempting to listen in, just to make sure things weren’t getting out of hand, but she still felt guilty about having eavesdropped on Adam’s explanation to Mia last Christmas, and Garrit had too many secrets for her to listen without uncovering something she probably shouldn’t. That was a breach of trust that would be unacceptable.

She sighed. She’d been spending too much time with Adam. He wouldn’t have thought twice of eavesdropping on her. And as irritating to her as it was, it wouldn’t help anything to behave similarly.

Then she heard them, outside the door to the waiting room. The frustration in Garrit’s tone brought her to her feet, but then she realized that he wasn’t talking to Adam at all. And he was speaking in French.

“What, was he afraid to come himself?”

“It would be imprudent of him to come here, now. You know the laws, Garrit. They have been made clear to you and Ethan both,” a woman replied.

Eve tried to see who it was, if it was anyone she knew, but the woman was behind the shadow of the door. She could see Garrit though, and Adam with his arms crossed, looking far too satisfied with himself.

“You tell him we’re done. I won’t have him interfering any further. The fact that he kept this from us is ridiculous.”

“Be cautious where you place your trust, Lion, or your jealousy will undo all you have fought for.” The woman sounded angry, or offended, perhaps.

“I’ll place my trust with my wife. If she isn’t concerned, I certainly don’t need his services. If he wants to argue with Brienne he’s more than welcome, but I don’t want any more of his help.”

Eve glanced back at Alex, covered with her jacket and still asleep curled up in the chair next to hers. She wasn’t going far. Just to the hall. She didn’t like the way Adam was smirking.

“You take a foolish risk, trusting
that
, over one sworn to protection, held to it by law. He’s done nothing to betray you, and everything to assist.”

Eve pushed open the door. The woman was beautiful. More beautiful than any woman had a right to be, all dark hair and alabaster skin, with sharp, gray eyes. But there was something in her face that made Eve shiver. Too perfect. Like an angel’s face.

“What’s going on?”

Garrit swore and looked away, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It’s nothing, Abby.”

Adam laughed. “You really think that’s going to help?”

She ignored her brother and frowned at the woman. “Are you a friend of the family?”

“
Non,
” Garrit said firmly. “She is not.”

“I’m a friend of friend,” she said. Then sighed and looked back at Garrit. “I will deliver your message, but I urge you to reconsider. Nor can I promise that your desire will be heeded.”

Garrit nodded stiffly to the woman and took Eve by the arm, guiding her back into the waiting room and leaving the woman behind in the hall. “Forgive me, Abby. If it makes you feel any better, I’m starting to feel a bit more charitably toward your brother.”

She glanced over her shoulder to see the woman watching her, and Adam murmuring something she couldn’t hear. For some reason she wasn’t sure it helped her feelings at all, though it should have. “Who is she?”

“She’s someone who has no business offering opinions, or getting involved.” He shook his head and pulled her down into a seat next to him. “This is all getting a little bit ridiculous.”

“I don’t understand.” Ridiculous was an understatement. If this was another secret she was going to have to take on faith, there were going to be some unkind words spoken of the living and the dead. “What’s going on? Can you even tell me her name or is that a secret too?”

“Minerva. Her name is Minerva.” He sighed and dropped his head to his hands. “I guess she knows Ethan somehow, which is frankly unnerving.”

She leaned over to get a glimpse out the door, but Garrit was in her way now, and she couldn’t see Adam anymore. “Are you really not going to tell me anything? Who were you talking about? Whose help?”

“Please, Abby. If I could tell you more, I would.”

“She said you were jealous.”

He lifted his head to look at her. “Let’s just say that I’m unwilling to help further the agenda of a man who is in love with my wife.”

Adam walked back into the waiting room and sat down by her father. She watched him and wondered. If it wasn’t Adam he was talking about, then who?

Chapter Twelve: Future

She fingered the business card, staring at the main entrance of the hotel, complete with a maroon uniformed doorman, and an antique revolving door. Through the doors, she told herself, and into the bar. A nice public place, where she could ask the bartender to call up for her.

Because he wasn’t going to go away. She should have known he wouldn’t, but she had hoped that if she kept herself out of sight, he’d find someone else to amuse himself with. He should have found someone else, by all rights. He should have forgotten her when she refused to play his game, and gone in search of someone who would. He liked being in control, getting his way. He liked women who gave the appearance of resistance, hoping to be charmed all along.

She’d just been hoping he wouldn’t see through her. But no matter how many nice meals or fancy bottles of wine, he must have realized he wasn’t going to have her.

She straightened, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, and stepped forward. The doorman smiled pleasantly, touching the brim of his hat in respectful acknowledgment as she passed, and then she was inside.

The bar was just as he had promised, and at this time of the day, moderately full with businessmen taking advantage of Happy Hour. Cologne and smoke and clean male musk, and something else, something familiar and out of place, like thunderstorms and sunsets on the beach. She scanned the room, but of course it was foolish even to look. Lars Owen was long dead by now, just like Thorgrim before him, and the odds of even her family finding her now were so impossible, it wasn’t worth considering. A few men in suits smiled at her, their eyes making promises of too-friendly conversations, but she ducked their gazes and slipped onto an empty stool at the bar, away from the crowd.

The bartender tossed a towel over his shoulder and placed his hands on the bartop. “What can I get for you?”

“I’m actually supposed to be meeting someone, but I think he’s forgotten me. Would it be too much to ask you to call up and let him know I’m waiting?”

“Anyone who’s forgotten you isn’t worth reminding,” he said, smiling. “But sure. What’s the room number?”

She set the business card on the bar, spinning it toward him. “I didn’t give him too much encouragement, so it’s possible he just thought I wasn’t coming.”

The bartender laughed, taking the card. “Fair enough.”

She folded in the corners of a napkin while she waited, then folded them again, and again.

The bartender didn’t take long, returning the card to her. “He’ll be down in a minute. Sounded like he couldn’t believe his luck. Something to drink while you wait?”

“No, thank you. Not yet.” She frowned at the napkin. “Maybe just an empty shot glass?”

His eyebrows rose, but he didn’t argue. The shot glass appeared a moment later, and she flipped the napkin upside down over it, pulling the corners back down around the glass, like flower petals. Anything to keep her mind off what she was doing.

It had been stupid, really. All of it. But she’d wanted—well, it didn’t matter. The past was dead and buried, and looking back wasn’t going to make this life any easier.

She set the flower she’d made on the bar, and used it for a coaster beneath the shot glass. Just the slightest effort, and she could feel his anticipation, his anxiety that by the time he reached her, she would be gone. Maybe it was all as simple as wanting what he didn’t think he could have. Nothing but ego and arrogance. She didn’t want it to be.

She didn’t really believe it was.

And then he was there, behind her. Her hands shook as she fidgeted with the napkin, giving herself another moment. Another steadying breath.

“Renata?”

She turned, avoiding his eyes. His tie hung loose around his neck, as if he’d pulled out the knot and forgotten what he was doing. She caught the silk, the same storm gray as his eyes, and tugged it from his collar.

“I was hoping you’d come,” he said, catching her hand. Even so small a touch sent a shiver down her spine. “But I wasn’t sure you’d get my message.”

She smiled, pulling her hand free and twisting the silk between her fingers. “My father secretly likes you. Or at least he likes your money. I think he always hoped I’d be thrown into the path of some rich man, though he’d never admit it.”

“If he won’t admit it, then how do you know?”

“Oh.” She shrugged. “He’s like any father, really. Just wants to know I’ll be taken care of.”

“And no matter what you say, he’ll never believe you can take care of yourself, will he?”

“Not without a husband, at least. He’s traditional that way. Very old world.”

“Are you?”

She shook her head, blinking against the pressure behind her eyes and staring at the tie, knotted now. It would be so much easier if all this wasn’t so natural between them. If he pushed her, or behaved rudely. If he would only be furious with her, instead of laughing at her escapes.

“He had a funny way of showing he liked me,” he said, and she could hear his smile, rueful and self-deprecating. “But he isn’t wrong, Renata.” His voice softened, and he tipped her chin up, so gently. “I would care for you, if you would only let me.”

Her breath caught at the warmth in his eyes, colored with anguish and hope. She dropped her gaze, smoothed his collar instead. Because looking at him, seeing it was so much temptation, and she couldn’t. She couldn’t ever give in, not to this, no matter how much she wanted to give him the chance—to know the man he’d become.

“I can’t,” she managed, though the words came out hoarse.

“Of course you can,” he said, catching her hand again, holding it against his heart. The warmth of his body seeped into her palm, and she couldn’t bring herself to pull away. “It’s easy. I know you hate my money, but I can make it work for you. I can move here. I could buy a flat right now. Anywhere you want, anything you want, I can give it to you. I don’t have to leave here, if you want to stay. I’ll stay too.”

“It’s not that simple.” She swallowed. Her throat was tight. That he was willing to give up whatever life he’d built for himself to start over at her side—but for a rich man, it wasn’t really a sacrifice, was it? He wouldn’t lose anything by relocating. He’d still have all the same freedoms. But even so. Part of her couldn’t help but think, want to believe…

It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter what she wanted to believe, or what was true, or what was just another manipulation. It didn’t matter if he was a good man or a bad one. The answer was still the same. Would always have to be the same.

“I don’t want you.”

He dropped her hand as though he’d been burned. “If this is about your parents—”

“Adam.”

His jaw snapped shut, and she met his eyes then, opened herself up so he could feel her the way she could feel him, recognize her for what she was. She had hoped that if she only hid, it would be enough. That he’d go on looking, to the next girl, and the next, but somehow, even not knowing, even not realizing, he had still fixed himself on her, and the only argument she had left was the truth.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’m so sorry it had to be this way. But we can’t. Whatever you feel for me, whatever I feel for you, it doesn’t matter. It can’t matter.”

“Eve.” He let out a breath, shook his head as if to clear it. “I had almost hoped. But I didn’t want it to be you.”

“I never thought—” She had to stop, breathe, steady the quaver in her voice. This was so much harder than she thought it would be, seeing all that pain in his eyes, feeling it between them. “What was the harm, you said.” She could have laughed if her stomach hadn’t been so twisted. “Fool that I am, I believed you.”

He pressed his lips together, studying her face. “You won’t see me again, will you?”

She didn’t answer. Couldn’t force the words from her lips. To see him again, to be with him, even as friends. God, she wanted it. She wanted to have someone in her life who could know her for who she was. Just one person, forever, who she didn’t have to lie to! She turned away, so he wouldn’t see her longing, or the tears burning behind her eyes. It wasn’t fair to give him even that much encouragement. She signaled the bartender for a drink, using the order for an excuse. He frowned at her, his gaze flickering in wordless question. She forced herself to smile, dissolving his concern with a gentle nudge of reassurance.

“It doesn’t have to be this way, Eve.” Adam stepped closer, his voice low, and touched her arm. “It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. It’s not forbidden to love.”

“You say that now.” She fumbled for her e-vice to pay.

“Charge it to my room, please,” he said, stopping her from offering it. She blinked up at him, and he shrugged. “It isn’t forbidden for me to buy you a drink, either, Evey. To be your friend.”