Chapter 12 Alessia was waiting at the door like the perfect wife she wanted to be. She rushed me, wrapping her arms tight around my neck, pressing her body to mine like she thought I might vanish if she let go. Her grip was needy, too tight-I felt like she was trying to crawl inside me. "I thought something happened to you," she whispered. I didn't hug her back. Just let her cling. She pulled away, blinking fast, smoothing her robe like she could wipe away the neediness. "You said you were with Priest. Can I call him? Just to hear it from him?" The corners of my mouth stayed put, my jaw easing into a calm I didn't feel. I handed her my phone. The one without the pictures and messages from Maya. "Go ahead." She put it on speaker. Priest answered immediately. "Yeah?" "Priest, hi. Sorry to bother you..." Her tone full of sugar and nerves. "Raziel said he was with you last night?" "He was." Flat. Unimpressed. "We were at the warehouse going over the Tampa run. Phones were off." "Oh... okay. That makes sense. Thanks-I was just really worried." "You good now?" Priest asked. "Yes! Actually..." A bright pivot. "I'm hosting a little dinner next week. Just close friends. You and your wife should come. I'd love to get to know everyone Raziel works with." My jaw locked. "Sure," Priest said. "Text me the time." "Perfect." She beamed, handing me back the phone like she'd just won a prize. "See?" Her smile was all teeth. "Painless." I gave her a nod-short, dismissive-and walked past her. She didn't need words to know I'd seen through her. She wasn't trying to be social. She was trying to keep tabs on me. Wanted to know who I dealt with, who I trusted. Figure out who mattered to me, so she could wedge herself into the parts of my life I kept from her. Who I let close. For such a pretty girl, she could be calculating. But it wouldn't help her. I wasn't the kind of man who could be manipulated. But maybe I deserved her trying to. For letting this engagement get this far. For going through the motions like any of it meant something to me. Lately, I'd been asking myself why I was doing any of it. Guilt? Habit? Or just loyalty to the ghost of the man I became when she died? I hated that I was here. I told myself it was for family. Legacy. Duty. For my mother. But maybe I was just a coward. By the time I reached the stairs, my anger had curdled into something emptier. I was tired. Because my mind was still across town, in that tiny beach shack. In the bed I'd just left and couldn't go back to. Five-year-old Annie, who can understand animals, saved Landon Hawthorne, a wealthy businessman, from suicide. Now she's his whole world and he's her legal cheat-code against every villain fate throws ...