Chapter 27 Lofton
LOFTON
I tipped back the bottle of wine, lamenting that I hadn’t had the foresight to grab a glass while dodging the prying eyes of Guardian Protection Agency.
Lifting my head, I glanced around the room, positive that there was a camera somewhere. “Hey, Apollo? Any chance I can get a glass?” I turned the bottle sideways to see how much was left. “And another bottle.”
Not surprisingly, he didn’t answer.
Also, not surprisingly, he didn’t magically appear like the wine fairy.
I guessed Guardian had it’s limits.
I started pacing again.
I hated that damn room. The seashells, the fish, the nails-on-a-chalkboard sound of the waves in the distance. Seriously, how did anyone love the beach that much?
But more, I hated that room because the last time I’d been there I’d been a different kind of broken—raw, hollow, and convinced I would never feel safe again.
I’d spent days in that bed eating nothing and crying over everything, believing the world had fundamentally changed in a way I wasn’t going to recover from.
And then Devon had walked into my life and started putting the pieces back together.
Which was extremely inconvenient in retrospect.
Because now I was back in that room, broken again, and he was the reason. I had no idea what to do with that except pace and drink wine directly from the bottle.
Every so often, the sound of laughter would filter through the door.
That pissed me off too. I was glad Guardian Protection Agency was enjoying dinner.
It would have been a shame for all that food to go to waste.
Besides, I’d been excited to meet them and thank them for helping Devon with my security at the soundstage.
I’d also been excited about seeing Devon in his element with his friends.
They didn’t know we were together, but I could have still pried some embarrassing Devon Grant stories out of them without it looking suspicious.
Turned out, the only embarrassing story I got was the one I wished I could forget.
I took a long pull from the bottle and kept pacing, my mind racing in every direction trying to make sense of the pain in my chest. Over the last twenty minutes, I’d struggled to put my finger on why I was so upset. Or was it angry? Or hurt? Or betrayed? Or—the list went on and on.
He’d lied to me.
Except he hadn’t, technically. He’d just never said anything. He’d carried on with his life, showing me one man, while secretly keeping his secrets hidden.
Which was exactly what Sebastian had done.
Only that wasn’t fair. Devon’s omission about Levee and Sebastian’s betrayals weren’t even in the same ballpark. And yet, my mind kept taking me back to that parallel, like I was pressing on a bruise to see if it still hurt.
It did. Every time.
Because Devon was supposed to be different.
And he had been. Almost.
A knock at the door pulled me out of my spiral.
I crossed to the door and called, “Go away, Devon.”
“Um, it’s not Devon,” a woman replied.
I put down the wine so I didn’t look like a drunk pirate, and then opened it.
A short woman covered in the most beautiful, colorful tattoos was standing on the other side. Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, bright red cascading out from under the blond. A soft smile that reached her eyes immediately graced her face.
And then she frowned. “He did send me to check on you, though.”
“Son of a bitch,” I mumbled. That damn man knew I was too nice to slam the door in this woman’s face. “I appreciate that. I’m good.”
She nodded. “Okay. How do you want me to report back to him on that?”
I blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“I have options.” She held up a finger. “I could tell him you’re absolutely devastated.
Inconsolable. Curled up on the floor in the fetal position, ugly crying into a pillow.
Which, emotionally, will do the most damage.
” She added a second finger. “Or I could tell him you seem fine. Suspiciously fine. Eerily unbothered, actually. Like a woman who has already done her grieving and made her peace and is currently considering her options.” She tilted her head.
“That one will keep him up all night.” She lifted a third finger, and her eyes lit up.
“Or, I could tell him you were furious. Like, pacing, muttering to yourself, plotting, the kind of mad that has very creative consequences.” She paused thoughtfully.
“Men find that one deeply unsettling.” She shrugged, then lifted a forth finger.
“Or there’s always the nuclear option. I can tell him you seemed totally calm, happy even, and that you asked me to have someone open the gate when Levee arrives. ”
I stared at her for a long second, and then despite it all, burst out laughing.
She smiled like she’d been waiting for exactly that. “I’m Rhion, by the way. Jude’s wife.”
I snapped and pointed at her. “Apollo’s sister, right?”
“Guilty. Though I usually lead with Jude. It gets me in trouble a lot less.”
I laughed again. Clearly, the wine was working. “Thank you so much for letting me stay here. I feel awful about kicking you out of your own house.”
“Don’t be silly. You are welcome here any time.” She crinkled her nose. “Though maybe next time it won’t be because of the security system.”
“That would be a nice change of pace.” I blew out an exasperated breath. “Sorry for not coming to dinner. Devon and I had a, um—disagreement.”
“No need to explain. With men as stubborn as those guys, it’s impossible to have a relationship without a disagreement or two hundred.”
“Oh, we aren’t together,” I rushed out. “He just—ya know, works for me.”
“Yeah. Jude used to just—ya know, work for me too.” She shot me an exaggerated wink.
I studied her closely, wondering if this was some kind of trap that was going to end with Devon losing his job.
While also wondering why I cared.
While also wondering why I was lying to myself about caring.
While also remembering that Devon had lied to me and now I was standing in a room with Jude’s wife and Apollo’s sister, who he had sent to check on me.
My smile fell.
Rhion lowered her voice and leaned in. “Just so you know, your, um, bra covered a camera in your bedroom a few weeks ago. It set off all the alarms and, well, yeah—the guys heard enough to piece things together.”
I slapped a hand over my face, peeking at her through the gap in my fingers. “Please tell me you’re lying?”
“Sorry. It was only a matter of time before they caught on. The ladies’ group chat called it as soon as we saw the ‘perimeter’s predictive latency’ video.”
My mouth just about came unhinged. “There’s a video? In the ladies’ chat?”
Panic hit her face as she lifted her hands in surrender, like maybe she was the one who had fallen into a trap.
“No! Not like that. You’re not in the video or anything.
It’s just a closeup of Devon talking mumbo jumbo that Apollo clipped off the cameras.
Leo gave him absolute hell about it and forced him to take an Ethics of Privacy course.
He learned absolutely nothing, but he did get a certificate.
” She cast her gaze off to the side. “See why I lead with the Jude’s wife thing? ”
“I do now.”
She flashed me a tight smile. “Anyway, Devon gave me full permission to answer any questions you might have about him. I took a vow not to pull any punches or romanticize anything. He said it was only fair since you have a Wikipedia page and all.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course, he did.”
Rhion rocked back on her heels, studying me like she was deciding how much truth I could handle.
“Look, if you’re up for talking, I’d be happy to grab the rest of the girls and see if we can help.
I know I’m technically a stranger, and you probably don’t want a group of us barging in here asking questions and pretending we’re therapists—”
“That would be correct,” I deadpanned.
She grinned. “Yeah, figured. But just so you know—the ladies of Guardian. We’re not really strangers.”
I arched a brow. “No?”
“Leo’s a paranoid maniac. In the best way. Anyone even remotely connected to Guardian signs an NDA. Wives. Girlfriends. Family. Hell, I’m pretty sure the pizza delivery guy had to sign one once.”
I blinked. “That’s—”
“Weird,” she finished for me. “But that’s Leo. We’ve all been through hell with one of the men out there and know what it’s like to need a friend you can trust. I can personally vouch for all of them.”
I swallowed hard. That was rare and virtually impossible in a world like mine.
“Thanks. I appreciate that. But I kind of just want to be alone for a while.”
“Fair enough.” She extended a hand my way. “But just so you know. I’ve decided to go with the fully nuclear option. He’s going to be losing his mind for the next hour or so waiting for Levee to arrive. It should buy you some time to get into bed before he tries to talk to you again.”
I smiled. “I like you.”
She clapped her hands and bounced on her toes. “Excellent addition. I’ll tell him you hit on me too. He’ll be furious—and turned on.” She winked again.
While torturing Devon did sound like fun, it wasn’t going to help me sort through the mess in my head or pinpoint why I was so hurt in the first place. I’d still wake up in the morning lost, confused, and without him. Nobody won there, except the hangover I was sprinting toward.
“Hey, before you go, tell me something about Devon?”
She pursed her lips and then blew out a raspberry. “Okay, that’s a tall order. What kind of something?”
I shrugged, but the words that came out were anything but simple. “How often does he sleep with his clients?”
She also shrugged. Though her answer really was simple. “Just you.”
“Right.”
“I’m serious. Devon is a lot of things. But he’s not a womanizer, always looking for his next conquest. On or off the job.”
I hated how nice that felt. Especially coming from his friend, who I had no idea if she was being honest or just trying to help him get out of the doghouse.
But there was only one way to find out.