He didn’t release a chuckle or give any indication he’d heard what I said.
“I have a doctor’s appointment in a couple days…if you want to come.”
He sighed loudly over the phone. “Of course I do. I’ll be there.”
I wanted to stay on the phone with him forever, but there was nothing to say. I couldn’t even ask him about work because that would mean I would be asking him about Maddox. I couldn’t ask about Damien because they weren’t friends anymore. I couldn’t ask about anything…
But I continued to sit there because it was better than nothing.
“Are you doing okay?”
“Yeah. Just busy with work and my mother.”
“That’s one thing I don’t miss…”
A small smile came over my face. But then I wondered if he missed me. He never told me he loved me anymore or stopped by for a random visit. When we’d decided to end things, he seemed like he wanted it more than I did. It was crazy to think we’d been so in love just months ago, and now we were so far apart. The only thing keeping us together was the baby we made.
It made me hate Maddox even more.
Hades’s deep voice made the phone vibrate. “I’ll let you get some sleep.”
Disappointment deflated my lungs like popped balloons. I wasn’t sure what I expected him to say. We had nothing to talk about other than how miserable we were. I didn’t want to hear about his personal life, and I didn’t have a personal life at all. We could talk about our son, but since he hadn’t been born yet, there wasn’t much to say. “Goodnight…”
“Goodnight.”
3
Hades
I approached the table in the strip club. Music played overhead, and there were girls everywhere.
When Maddox saw me coming toward him, he dismissed one of his men. “Get the fuck up. My boy is here.” Once his guy was gone, he kicked out the chair so I could sit. He had girls on either side of him, but neither one of them actually touched him. What was more perplexing was the fact that he wasn’t facing the stage. Sometimes it seemed like he forced his sexuality when he really didn’t possess one. He wasn’t that interested in women, but he wasn’t interested in men either. He was just interested in power, making people do things that he wanted…preferably against their will.
I sank into the chair and felt the usual wave of nausea drown me. Maybe he only wanted me because I seemed unobtainable for so long. I was a prize he got to put on display, a captive that showed his strength. Maybe that was all I was to him…a trophy. He was already filthy rich, he was already powerful, so what made him tick? What did he want? I honestly had no idea.
The waitress brought me a scotch.
I took a long drink, but nothing could get this taste out of my mouth.
There were cards on the table like they’d been playing blackjack before I got there. Maddox had a glass of water in front of him. I’d never spent extensive time with him so I didn’t know him that well, but this was the third time I’d seen him in a bar setting and he hadn’t ordered a drink.
Odd.
Maddox gently nudged the brunette beside him. “My good friend is down tonight. Why don’t you cheer him up, sweetheart?”
Just as she rose to her feet, I shut down the offer. “No.”
The girl returned to her seat, a little offended.
“No pussy tonight?” Maddox took a sip of his water, holding it like a glass of vodka.
“No booze tonight?” He said I couldn’t kill him, but he never said I couldn’t insult him.
Maddox set down his glass again, his expression slightly provoked. With a gentle wave of his hand, he dismissed all the girls at the table. Now, it was just the two of us, sitting in the center of an empty strip club, girls climbing on the bars like monkeys.
I knew I’d pissed him off because the air was different. It was tense, cold. I held his gaze and refused to be intimidated.
“You can have any girl you want tonight. I paid for them all.”
“I don’t have to pay for sex.” I’d done it many times in the past, but now that I’d had the real thing, real passion, it was hard to imagine going back to anything else. I could pay a fortune for a woman to be what I wanted, but she still would never come close to