Chapter 112 Should I Tell Him?
Elijah
Hazel came through the door wearing the particular expression she reserved for things she considered personally offensive. Her eyebrows were pulled together, jaw set, the look of someone who had just been handed information they hadn’t requested and absolutely did not want.
“What is going on?” She didn’t wait for permission to speak. “Why did he come to get me? Why is Luke here in this house? What exactly is happening right now?”
I gestured to the chair across the desk. She sat, but barely, settling at the very edge of it like she was ready to be back on her feet at a moment’s notice.
“He came in and asked for a job. so I gave him one.”
Her gaze stayed on me. The silence after that had texture to it.
“I’m sorry.” She broke the silence when i didn't speak, her head tilted to the side. “Can you say that one more time?”
“I gave him a job here.”
She leaned back slowly, like something had gone out of her, and brought her fingers to the bridge of her nose and pressed them there.
“Alpha.”
“Beta.” I kept my voice level. “I didn’t call you here to argue about it. I called you because I want you to test him. He claims his combat skills are strong. If he can beat you, he stays. If he can’t, we send him on his way. That’s the whole conversation.”
She made a short, flat sound that wasn’t quite a laugh.
“You already know how this ends though. You know nobody beats me. So what exactly are we doing here?”
“I want to see what he’s capable of. Even if he loses, that tells me something about how he moves, how he thinks under pressure. It’s useful information regardless.”
She stood, straightened herself, and started for the door. Then stopped with one hand on the frame and looked back at me over her shoulder.
“Are you coming to watch?”
“No.”
“But you just said you want to know what he’s capable of.”
“You can tell me about it when it’s done.”
She studied me for a moment. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you.”
“Genuinely, yes. Now go.” I chuckled.
She left without another word. I turned back to the papers on my desk and stared at them without reading anything written there.
The honest question was why I’d given him the job. I’d been circling that question since the moment Luke walked out of my office and I still hadn’t found a clean answer. He had no business here. No appointment, no letter, no introduction from anyone I trusted. He’d walked past my gate guards and stood in my office and asked for work like that was a reasonable thing to do.
The other piece was simpler and less comfortable to sit with. Someone who shows up in person usually shows up because they don’t have many other options. I couldn’t turn that away easily. It wasn’t in me to do that and sleep well afterward.
But there was a third piece. One I kept coming back to even when I tried not to.
Adriana and I were not where we should be right now. That was the truth of it. The distance between us was real and it was mine to fix and I hadn’t fixed it yet. Having him here, in this house, while we were still at odds — I didn’t need to draw a picture of why that bothered me. I trusted her completely. I didn’t trust him at all. And trusting her didn’t mean the situation wasn’t uncomfortable. It just meant I had to be smarter about it.
I could hear raised voices from outside. I left it alone. Hazel had never needed me watching from the sidelines to remind her how to handle herself.
Leo had apparently relocated to Adriana’s room more or less permanently. I’d stopped finding him in his own space days ago. I understood the impulse. She made wherever she was feel like somewhere worth being. I missed that myself and I didn’t say so to anyone.
A little over an hour passed then the door opened.
Hazel walked in looking entirely composed. Not a hair out of place, not so much as a scuff on her jacket. She stood in front of my desk with her arms folded and looked at me with an expression that said she was waiting to be told the thing she already knew was coming.
“So.” Her voice was careful and flat. “Do I go tell him to leave, or do you want to do it?”
“I want to make a deal with you first.”
Her expression closed over immediately. “I’m listening.”
“He stays. Gate duty only. He doesn’t come inside the house, he doesn’t interact with you or Leo or Adriana, he doesn’t cross the path of anyone in this inner circle. He stays at the perimeter and does his job from there.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Why are you this committed to keeping him here? He lost. That was the agreement.”
“He came himself,” I said. “He didn’t send a word, didn’t have someone arrange it for him. He walked in and asked. I think he needs the work and that’s why.”
Something moved across her face, she quickly covered it, though not before I caught it. She had a soft place in her that she guarded carefully, and reasons like that one had a way of finding it whether she wanted them to or not.
She exhaled and sat back down.
“If I find him where he isn’t supposed to be, I’ll handle it and you don’t step in.”
“Agreed.”
She looked at me for a long moment, like she was deciding whether to say the next thing. Then she stood, smoothed her jacket, and moved toward the door without rushing.
She left with a parting sentence. “I hope you’re not going to regret this.”
So did I. I didn’t say that out loud.