3
Dominic
This was the riskiest part of the plan.
I hadn’t gone into business simply to get to this moment. I might be unhinged where Ryan was concerned, but I wasn’t completely insane. Yes, starting the company with Taff had been a large part of my plan to win Ryan back, but not in this way.
I couldn’t lie though—time alone with him was a wonderful side benefit.
At least, it would be if I could get Ryan to talk to me. He’d followed me from the conference room to his car in complete silence. Every attempt I’d made at small talk had gone completely ignored.
Guilt niggled at me as I chanced a sideways glance at him. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel, a muscle jumping in his tight jaw. I knew he probably thought I was fucking with his career by doing this, but I truly wasn’t. Ryan already had the business with Blackthorn. He could’ve told me to fuck off and die before driving away. Hell, he could’ve hit me with his car thenreversed over me for good measure, and we’d still be signing on the dotted line.
A good man would tell him that and not force him to sit through lunch with someone he clearly detested. But I wasn’t a good man.
I was a desperate one.
“Did you really take a bullet to save Taff?”
I whipped my head around as Ryan’s question pierced the silence. “What?”
He didn’t look at me. With how intently he was watching the road, you’d think we were on a country lane during a blizzard, as opposed to the sunny A-road we were actually traversing. “Did you know someone was shooting at Taff?”
“Yes.”
Something about my answer seemed to upset Ryan. “And your response was to jump in front of it?”
I winced. I fucking hated how people said shit like that. Like I’d wanted to be a hero, rather than just doing what I’d been trained to do. “Technically, I tried to push him out of the way and got hit.”
“But you knew there was a chance that would happen.”
I studied him closely. He might be better at hiding things now, but the telltale signs of stress were there—the tense lines in the corner of his eyes, the thinning of his lips, the red tint at the top of his ears.
“It was a warzone. There was always a chance of being hit by a bullet.”
Ryan didn’t speak again until we were parked outside a bistro-style restaurant. “Yet you chose to go there anyway.”
He got out of the car before I could respond. I stayed frozen where I was for a second, trying to figure out what precisely was getting to him. The answer didn’t come.
I darted out of the car and raced around to get in front of him. I stopped in the middle of the path, blocking him off. “Shadow, what’s upset you?”
“I’m not upset,” he lied, his eyes fixed on a point over my shoulder. “We should hurry if we don’t want to lose our table.”
I sighed as my fingers twitched at my side. Wanting to grab his chin again. To make him look at me. “You know what really fucked us over the first time?”
Ryan’s nostrils flared. “That you lied to me before vanishing for ten years?”
“Yes, but really it all boils down to one thing.”
“Lies.”
“Communication,” I corrected him quietly. “Yes, I lied. I hid things from you. But most of all, I didn’t communicate with you. That’s what really fucked us over. If I’d been open, if I’d told you everything, I don’t think that would’ve happened.”
Ryan’s nodded slowly. “No. It probably wouldn’t have.”
Fuck.His confirmation that we’d missed out on all those years threatened to break my already shattered heart all over again.
“That’s why we need to communicate this time,” I said, trying to focus on the now. I couldn’t change the past, but I could make sure it wasn’t repeated. “We won’t stand a chance if we don’t. So tell me what’s wrong.”