“Yeah, better,” I echoed, hoping it sounded sincere. In truth, I wanted to be as far from here as I could be – the little glimpse of Rafael again had been enough to remind me of everything I was missing out on, and I was already starting to wonder how long it would be before I could get back to my life.
But for now, I was here, and I had to stick it out. I would see it through and then I could go back to what I had known before, in the comfort of knowing I had helped bring down one of the most notorious gangs in the country. It was what kept me going at times like this – the sureness I would be the reason this ended for them. They might have thought they were in total and utter control of everything, but I would bring their twisted reign to an end.
Rising to his feet with a long sigh, he led me out of his office, pushing open the door to guide me to the kitchen, and I followed close behind. From this point on, I needed to make sure Terrence believed I was his closest ally. The more I could get out of him, the better – and this mess with Ian might have been the way to do it. If I could convince him he was better off keeping me closer, I could get to the bottom of his plans all the easier, and I was sure I could make it seem like he didn’t have any other choice.
“What do you eat for breakfast?” he asked me as I traced his path to the kitchen.
“Anything,” I replied. “I’m not—”
And before I could get another word out, something stopped me dead in my tracks. I blinked. Once. Twice. Sure I was seeing things.
Arianna. Arianna was right there in front of me, and she was with Arnold. He had his hand on her shoulder, his fingers brushing over the back of her neck, and was murmuring something to her as though it was the most important thing in the world.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She was so beautiful, it felt almost wrong to look at her dead in the eye like this; as though she was the sun, and I might burn out some part of my retinas staring too long. Her gaze met mine, and I could see the brief start of surprise before she quickly suppressed it. Whatever was going on, she didn’t want Arnold to know about it, and I was more than happy to play along with that.
“This is Arianna, Dean,” Terrence remarked to me, waving his hand in her general direction as though he had all but forgotten she was there at all. How could he treat her like she was so average? A woman like that, right there in front of us, it was as though all of the air was sucked out of the room. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
“Nice to meet you,” I managed to get out, but I could tell it sounded wrong – Arnold peered at me, trying to work out what had me so worked up.
“It’s natural to stare a little,” he remarked, his voice edged with some annoyance. “But you better take your eyes off her soon, Dean!”
“Or what?” Arianna asked him playfully. His hand was still on the back of her neck, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how soft and fragrant I knew her skin was. I ached to touch her, even though I knew I would likely lose my head if I went anywhere near her.
“Or else I’ll have no choice but to pluck his eyes out,” Arnold shot back. He was joking, mostly, but there was something to him that told me I should watch where I was looking.
“Hmm, sounds fair,” Arianna replied, but I could tell she was aware of how serious he was being. Much as the two of us had a history, albeit a brief one, we needed to disguise it, pretend it had never happened. As far as everyone here was concerned, we’d barely even gotten each other’s names.
I needed to explain why I couldn’t stop staring at her. I needed to come up with something. She was avoiding my gaze as best she could, but I could tell she wanted nothing more than to look into my eyes and feel the connection we had before all of this had gone to shit.
“Actually, I’m pretty sure I know her from somewhere,” I remarked, feeling the small smile start to spread out over my face. “She’s the one who got me out of New York.”