28. Waiting on the Other Side
Chapter twenty-eight
Waiting on the Other Side
SILAS
Someone rapped on the door four times before I was finally able to make it downstairs to answer. I was already fucking irritated. Noah hadn’t answered my message, and I found myself eager to text him again, even after I said I wasn’t going to chase him.
The problem was, I wanted to chase him. I wanted to fucking crawl to him.
This wasn’t normal for someone like me. I was sophisticated.
A professional. This sort of desire crap wasn’t supposed to make me feel like my world was crashing down.
Yet, I was going mad envisioning his arrival, praying that he’d show up while I had the house to myself.
If that was him at the door, I had plans for us—that much was sure.
I tried to act like I wasn’t tripping over my own feet to get to the main doors. I wanted to take my time, but the knocking sounded urgent.
I swung open the door, forgetting the cardinal rule of checking before doing so.
And when I saw who was waiting for me, I knew I was about to suffer for it.
Before I had a chance to speak, Damian Hansen took hold of my shirt collar with two fists, ripping me from the security of my house and smashing me against the wall adjacent to my door.
“Where is he?” he growled menacingly. “Where the fuck is he?”
I knew that Damian was referring to Noah, so when he asked me blatantly where he was, my first instinct was to worry, which was odd for someone like me.
Where the hell was Noah, and why hadn’t he gone home?
I kept my emotions under control, and instead I remarked cutely, “You still haven’t found him? ”
I gripped Damian’s wrists in an effort to pull him off me. “You’re an awful excuse for a brother.”
He clenched his teeth, clutching tighter onto my shirt. “You cocky little shit. I know he’s here, dammit! Don’t you lie to me!”
I knew that he wished he could throw me in a cell and be done with me. All those pigs were the same, walking the world like they owned it, puffing their chests like it benefited me to be afraid. News flash, I wasn’t scared of Damian Hansen. In fact, part of me had been craving this confrontation.
I grinned, unfazed by his adorable little power play.
Something about him being here, being this pissed at me, was a rush.
I had jumped out of his little brother’s window after making him scream my name without a care in the world.
Even as I tormented Noah, I answered Damian’s phone call. Damian had no clue how deranged I was.
He was about to find out.
“Do you really think I would bother answering the door at this time of night if my dear Noah was here?” I licked my lips, ready to start a riot.
I leaned in. “I’d be too busy fucking him.”
His eyes blazed in return. “You really do want to get the shit beaten out of you.”
I chuckled, my features relaxing. I had nothing to lose and Damian could sense that. That must eat him alive, knowing that he couldn’t get to me the way he wanted to.
His anger was peaking, and soon he’d crack. For a cop, he had no idea how to control his emotions.
“What’s the matter?” I crooned. “Can’t take the fact that your “innocent” little brother likes me to give it to him?”
I was ready for him to swing. I wasn’t ready for his calm response.
“Does your family know that you’ve come out of the closet?” he countered.
My confidence faltered. He noticed.
“I wonder if your family would accept you,” he said with a raised eyebrow. “If they knew that you were having a sexual relationship with a man.”
I seethed. I couldn’t speak. He had gotten me where it hurt. A low blow, and he knew it, too. Really, he was threatening me. Blackmail, by the way it sounded. Perfect police tactic. Pig.
“But not just any man,” he continued. “A Hansen. Your corrupt “family” would fucking disown you, and you know it.”
If I could kill him with my gaze, I willed it to be so. Damian didn’t back down from the intensity of my glare.
“Let me tell you something, Damian Hansen,” I finally said through gritted teeth. “You act as though you know everything, but I don’t give a shit what you, or my family think of me.”
I tightened my grip on his wrists and could see the subtlest of clenches in his jaw.
“It’s not like I’m fucking happy anyways.” My voice dropped to a low rumble. “Do you really think I enjoy pretending to be something I’m not? You’re fucking clueless about me, about Noah, about everything that I care about.”
I swallowed, realizing I’d just exposed my kryptonite.
I said aloud that I cared about Noah. I did it without thinking.
Like second nature. The words just slipped out.
As I said them, I realized that it had always been true.
Noah had always been in the category of “things I care about”—I just never told anyone.
Until now. My literal enemy.
I think Damian was startled too. I couldn’t be sure, but the air seemed to shift somehow in my favor. Perhaps, I took him off guard.
“All my family cares about is the business and how to prosper it. They don’t care what I want. They’re smothering me.”
I made sure to let the next words sink into his thick skull.
“And then I have to deal with distracting obstacles—like you—placing yourself so conveniently in my way. You are nothing to me but a stone in my path, Hansen.”
Damian stared at me quizzically. I dared him to throw the first punch with my eyes. What I’d give to have my fist make contact with his privileged fucking face.
Suddenly, he chuckled, releasing my shirt. My hands almost instantly lost grip on his wrists. “Well, what do you know.” He took a few steps back, giving me some space. “We have something in common.”
For a while we stood in silence, chests heaving.
I didn’t trust him, and I knew the feeling was mutual.
Damian had come here looking for someone to indict, but now he’d have to take his rage elsewhere.
The fact of the matter was that Noah wasn’t with me, and I had nothing to do with his disappearance—this time.
He’d have to have a good lawyer and a ton of cash to prove otherwise.
Damian paused, adjusting his collar and brushing a stray lock of hair from his face before muttering mostly to himself, “He’s not here then. ”
“Obviously not,” I retorted, slowly simmering down.
Damian rolled his eyes from my sarcasm. “That doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, Thorne. He was with you last.”
I watched in delight as his nostrils flared, knowing he was recalling a certain phone call.
I shrugged. “Unfortunately, I was forced to leave him in the middle of our–”
“Don’t push it,” Damian warned, cutting in.
“Discussion,” I pronounced delicately, a smirk inevitably tugging at the corners of my mouth.
Damian scowled, rubbing the back of his head. I was impressed that he didn’t snap back at me for that one.
“It was not right of me to put my hands on you,” he spoke quietly and with a careful tone. “I apologize for my outburst.”
My face must have appeared puzzled. I was unable to determine if he was being sincere or not.
“But I do not apologize for this warning,” He locked his eyes with mine. “Stay away from my brother,” he said sternly.
I scoffed. Like hell. “I can’t make any promises.”
Damian’s jaw tightened. “Just know that if I ever catch you around our mansion, I’m throwing your ass in jail.”
“If you ever catch me,” I repeated with a smirk.