Page 62 of The Echo of Forever

When it shut behind us, we drew on one another. I nodded at her quick pull, but there was room for improvement.

On a normal day, I never let her enter before me. But sometimes, when I felt like checking if her head was in the game, I switched up the routine.

“Your timing is off,” I mused, tucking my pistol as she did the same. “Work on it.”

She dropped down on the sofa with a huff.

“I hate when you test me like that.”

I chuckled and sat at my desk.

“But it’s imperative to keep you on your toes.”

There was a pile of files on my desk, and I started to flip through them, while she decided whether to start the conversation I suggested.

“Is Demetrius who you want to talk about?” she asked eventually.

He was all I wanted to talk about, but who could I open to, really?

“Nah. Tell me more about Oliver.”

My gaze flicked in her direction briefly, catching her frown.

“Why him?”

I shrugged and leaned back.

“You tell me. Why him, Carmen? And for how long?”

Realizing that I hadn’t been focusing on the right things, I decided to start there. All this time, I let my family and Carmen fill in the gaps without asking questions.

Maybe it was easier to let them handle it all, less strain for the headaches.

Or maybe I knew something wasn’t right but didn’t have it in me to figure it out.

Demetrius’s intrusion changed everything.

There was a man who clearly loved me, and somebody else had to know it. Even if I hadn’t told Carmen myself, somebody did.

It’s the only reason she’d pursue a non-society man.

“Forever, my job is to have your back from all angles,” she started, moving to sit at the desk. “Before this office was yours, you were running wild. No one told me to do anything, let’s start there. But yes, I sought Oliver out to keep an eye on you once I learned about you and Demetrius.”

I closed my eyes and took a breath.

“How did you find out?”

She laughed.

“The red-light district of all fucking places,” she said, earning my gaze. “You took your beacon with you one night, and I went to see what was up. He was with you, and the rest sort of came together.”

I leaned forward, elbows pressed against the hard desk.

“You never said anything, or do I not remember?”

She shook her head.

“We’ve been in each other’s lives, all our fucking lives. I know you best, maybe not in the way he does, but I know you. Saying anything would’ve ended badly. I did what I had to do.”