Page 91 of Relentless Sinner
“Oh my God,” she mutters when we pull apart and she looks me over like she’s inspecting me for damage. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. What about you?” The last message she got from me was a text with the wordsunshine. I sent it when I was ready to leave the hospital.
“I’m just happy I was allowed to come and see you.”
“Me too.”
I look around and realize something. There are no guards watching us. I can’t see them anywhere. I would have thought Jaxon would have the place swarming.
“I spoke to Jaxon.” Cora speaks in a meek voice.
I grab my chest like I’m clutching a set of pearls. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“This morning. When the men told me he got to them I wanted to call, but I wasn’t sure if it would make things worse. It was my heist, after all.”
“Oh Cora, I’m so sorry. It was foolish of me to drag you into my shit.” My heart aches knowing I could have gotten her in worse trouble with Jaxon.
“Don’t apologize. I get it. Anyone would have asked for help if they’d been in your situation. Things just didn’t work out.” Her shoulders slump. “I toyed with the idea of talking to him and finally cracked under the pressure of worry. Strangely, he was calm. I apologized for my part and asked if I could still see you. He said yes.”
A tremor ripples through me. I don’t know what to make of this. Is Jaxon trying to smooth things over between us?
No. That’s not his style. Men like him don’t need to smooth anything over.
Use your common sense, Gabriella. He’s doing this because he knows I won’t try anything again. Because of Natasha.
Yes, he could have locked me away or kept the guards around, and he could have told Cora she couldn’t see me, but this way he’s inside my head.Taunting me.
He’s silently reminding me we have a mutual understanding he knows I wouldn’tdaremess up.
“Hey, what are you thinking?” Cora touches my shoulder lightly, pulling me from the unsavory thoughts about my husband-to-be.
“Nothing. It’s okay.”
“What was he like with you?”
“Furious.” I’ll still maintain my silence on Natasha’s whereabouts with Cora. I won’t let her know that Jaxon used that to blackmail me into following through with his marriage plans.
“I’m sorry. I truly am.”
“God knows what things will be like now. I already have no phone or any way of contacting anyone.”
“I figured when I tried calling and it kept going to your voicemail. I take it you won’t be allowed out either?”
God,allowed. Just hearing that word makes me sick. I haven’t been a fucking child in so long I can’t even remember what it was like. “No.”
“How are you feeling about him? I mean your actual feelings.”
I shake my head. “I feel confused and annoyed with myself for letting him get so close to me. Now I don’t know how to feel about him.”
And yet I do. That’s the part that annoys me because those feelings I had are still very much there. I want them gone. I want to despise him. I want to hate him as much as I hate death.
What a horrid thing to think a week before I take my vows. Just like the groom, that damn wedding has been like a shadow shrouding my mind in darkness.
“When is Jaxon back?”