Chapter Five #2
He wasn’t a man who was used to backing down or surrendering, not after he’d surrendered all his critical thinking facilities, not to mention his soul, for years in the criminal underworld.
So it went against all his instincts to be the first one to open up.
But if that was the only way to get what he wanted from her, then he’d have to.
‘You want to know what Banks offered me?’ he asked. ‘Nothing. He blackmailed me instead.’
Shock flickered across her face before she hid it, her black lashes veiling her gaze.
‘Oh?’ she said, her tone neutral. ‘I wouldn’t have thought that was possible.’
‘It shouldn’t be,’ he agreed. ‘But Banks has evidence of those early days when we siphoned a lot of money out of that insurance company’s coffers.
I deleted most of the incriminating things he had on me before I left, but I didn’t know he’d printed out bank statements and screenshots and kept them in hard copy in his filing cabinet, the bastard. ’
Zoe blinked but didn’t say anything.
‘I can’t have that evidence getting out,’ he went on. ‘For the sake of my company, naturally. So I made him a counteroffer. I would do what he wanted and in return, he would give me any remaining evidence he had on me.’
She lifted her glass and swallowed the last mouthful of champagne. ‘Why did you tell me that?’ she asked after a moment. ‘Is this some kind of quid pro quo?’
He let out a breath, holding onto his patience. ‘Maybe,’ he admitted. ‘This is going to be a very long year if you’re going to continue to be this hostile. I thought we should find some common ground.’
‘I don’t think we should.’ She reached for the bottle of champagne and poured herself another glass. ‘I don’t want to share any ground with you at all.’
‘You’re angry with me for leaving, aren’t you?’ he asked bluntly. It was the second time he’d asked the question, but he hadn’t believed her answer the first time, and if she gave him the same answer this time, he was going to call her on it.
‘Perhaps I just don’t like you,’ she shot back.
‘You didn’t not like me when we were kids.’
‘Feelings change.’ She lifted a shoulder and took another gulp of champagne. ‘People change.’
She wasn’t going to admit it, was she?
‘I was going to take you,’ he said, deciding to address the elephant in the room if she wouldn’t.
‘But Banks made it clear that if I did, he’d report me to the police and I’d go to jail.
The only way I could get out was to leave you behind.
’ For the second time that night, shock flickered over her face, but he went on, because now he’d started, he might as well keep going.
‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have put my own freedom above yours, but I thought that once I’d got my life on track, I’d come back for you. ’
Zoe blinked. ‘But you never said—’
‘Banks said he’d pass on my goodbyes to you,’ he interrupted, searching her face. ‘But I guess he didn’t, did he?’
Her mouth was in a hard line, her gaze direct. ‘No, he didn’t. And I only have your word for that.’
‘I should have written you a note. But I suspect Banks wouldn’t have given you that either.’
She lifted a shoulder. ‘So you say. But whatever. It was years ago and it doesn’t matter now.’
* * *
Zoe wished her voice sounded as definite as the words that came out of her mouth.
She wished that hearing he’d been going to take her with him if Banks hadn’t got in the way hadn’t come as quite the shock that it did.
She wished she still felt the nothing for him that she kept telling herself she felt, yet…
The lines of his beautiful face were thrown into stark relief by the leaping flames of the candles. Those winged brows and high, perfect cheekbones. The proud blade of his nose and the hard line of his jaw. The blue of his eyes…
Her Demon. That was what she’d called him all the time when they’d been children. That was his handle. Everyone in the house used their handles rather than their actual names, plus ‘Demon’ had been easier to say than ‘Archimedes’.
She didn’t want him to be her Demon any more, though. She wanted to hold onto the anger and hurt that still dogged her, even after all these years. She didn’t want to give him even the tiniest part of herself.
Yet he’d been the one to offer her something, and while he might expect her to give him something in return—nothing came for free and they both knew that, another lesson Banks had taught them—she didn’t have to give it to him.
Then again, where would this continued hostility get her?
It wouldn’t make her feel any better about this marriage or being here, and while she fully intended to have a separate life from his, they’d probably run into each other now and then.
And that would be difficult and awkward if she continued holding onto this anger.
Also, the information he’d given her, in admitting that Banks was blackmailing him, was a pretty big admission for a man like him to make.
She let out a silent breath. The hurt and fury about the way he’d left hadn’t magically disappeared on hearing that Banks had stopped him from taking her with him, but maybe they were a little less intense.
He’d still put his freedom above her own and as far as coming back for her went, that obviously hadn’t happened, but she could allow him a little grace.
Besides, she’d always had a strong sense of fairness and her continuing to be stubborn about this wasn’t fair.
‘I think it does matter,’ he said. ‘Why else would you be so furious?’
She took another sip—or gulp, rather—of the champagne, since her mouth was very dry and the liquid was cold and delicious.
‘Maybe,’ she said, not wanting to talk about that particular subject right now. ‘But if you want to know what he was offering me, it’s money.’ It wasn’t a particularly graceful change of subject, but she hoped he’d let her have it.
Archimedes sat back in his chair, shifting in it, restless, the way he always used to be.
‘Money for what?’ he asked.
So, he was going to let her have that subject change. Good.
‘For my own business,’ she replied.
‘What business?’
She was reluctant to tell him, but again, if she didn’t, that would give what he thought about it too much weight, and she didn’t want that.
‘I want to start a company, or maybe an organisation, to protect people from online scams and sextortion, stuff like that.’
His expression was unreadable, but he nodded. ‘Good idea. But you should have plenty of money by now. Or is Banks not paying you?’
She wouldn’t allow herself to feel pleased by his ‘good idea’. She just wouldn’t.
‘Of course he’s paying me,’ she said sharply, the question rubbing up against something painful she didn’t want to acknowledge. ‘But this would be a huge lump sum that will set me up for life.’
Archimedes didn’t say anything for a moment, his gaze searching in a way that made her feel exposed. She wanted to look away, hide her discomfort so he wouldn’t see it, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he affected her.
‘If you’d accepted that job offer I made you,’ he said eventually, ‘you would have that company by now, not to mention being set up for life.’
Ah. So they were going to talk about his job offer, were they? The one he’d made and then, when she’d refused, he’d never followed up on. Never sent an email or a text, or even a phone call. He’d just accepted it.
What did you expect him to do?
She had never been sure. She only knew that when he hadn’t followed up on her refusal, it had hurt. It had felt like him leaving her all over again.
‘So, was that you “coming back for me”?’ She couldn’t stop a faintly bitter edge from tingeing the words.
An expression she couldn’t read crossed his face. ‘I realise it was probably too little, too late.’
‘And the rest.’ She swallowed yet more champagne, because it was starting to hit now, and she was feeling pleasantly giddy.
‘I didn’t want to work for you, Archimedes. Not when it was a pity offer anyway.’
One brow shot up. ‘A pity offer?’ he echoed. ‘You thought I was offering you a job because I felt sorry for you?’
‘Well, weren’t you? I don’t hear from you for ten years and then suddenly, out of the blue, you send me a hard copy letter offering me a job.
No phone call, no “Hi, how are you, how have you been?”.
Just an offer of a position.’ She couldn’t hide the hurt in her voice and that was probably a mistake, but she’d said it now. She couldn’t take it back.
His expression suddenly became enigmatic. ‘I’d planned to talk to you once you’d accepted the job. I didn’t want Banks intercepting any of our emails or texts, and you know he would have. He wouldn’t have wanted you accepting any other job offer either. A letter was the best way to do it.’
As much as she hated to admit it, that made sense.
Banks managed to know all kinds of things that were supposedly private, because he was a manipulative old man.
He would have been furious if he’d found that letter of Archimedes’s.
He was a jealous keeper of her skills and she’d liked that.
She’d liked knowing that she mattered to someone, even if it was only for her hacking skills.
‘Okay,’ she allowed. ‘But why did you send it in the first place?’
‘Come on, Zoe,’ he said, sounding impatient. ‘I sent it to you because you’re the best in the world at what you do. Your skills would have been invaluable to Ares and you could have named your price. I would have paid it.’
She swallowed, her throat tightening. Yes, she liked being wanted for her skills, it was true.
She liked being valued for them. But even though she had only the dimmest memories of the love her parents had given her, that she’d lost when they’d died, that was what she longed for.
Someone to love her for herself. And while Banks had valued her, he’d never said that he loved her, not once.