Damon stepped sideways, blocking Julian's view of me completely, his shoulders broad, tense.
"You have heard nothing, you know nothing, leave, now," Damon said, quiet, but every word was a threat.
Julian finally looked back at Damon, his friendly mask slipping just a little, showing something sharp underneath.
"Relax, Vane, I'm not here to steal your new toy, I'm here to warn you, the board meeting is tomorrow, and they are not happy that you spent three million dollars paying off some girl's student loans and buying her slum building, they think you're... distracted," Julian said, sweet, poisonous.
My stomach dropped. Three million dollars? My building was worth nothing, my loans were nothing, how did he know the exact numbers?
Damon went completely still.
"How do you know that?" he asked, too calm, too quiet.
Julian tapped his temple, grinning.
"I have friends in accounting, you know I do, and friends like to tell me when the great Damon Vane finally falls in love with a charity case from St. Agnes," he said, his eyes flicking back to me again, hungry, mean. "No offense, sweetheart, you are very pretty, I get it, Cinderella story and all."
I flinched like he slapped me, charity case, Cinderella, that word that always makes me feel small and poor and dirty no matter how many cream blouses Damon buys me.
Damon moved so fast I didn't even see it, one second he was a foot away, the next his hand was fisted in Julian's shirt, slamming him back against the doorframe, flowers crushed between them, petals falling on the expensive floor.
"You will never speak about her like that again, you will never look at her, you will never come to this house again, do you understand me, Julian, because if you do, I will ruin you, I will buy your new house and burn it down with you inside it," Damon whispered, right in Julian's face, his voice low, shaking with rage I had never seen before, not even with Jaxon.
Julian choked, scared now, hands up.
"Okay, okay, Jesus, Vane, okay, it was a joke, it was just a joke, let go," he gasped.
Damon let go, shoving him back outside, and Julian stumbled onto the porch, suit wrinkled, lilies destroyed.
He fixed his jacket, breathing hard, his friendly face now twisted, ugly.
"You always do this, Damon, you find something broken and you think if you keep it, no one will notice how broken you are, but she will, she will notice, they always do," Julian said, loud enough for me to hear, and looked straight at me where I was frozen in the hallway. "Run, Cinderella, before midnight, before he locks the doors."
Then he got into his black SUV and screeched away down the cliff road, tires spitting gravel.
Damon slammed the front door so hard the whole house shook, locked it, deadbolted it, then turned around, breathing hard, his hair messy, his white shirt torn at the collar where he had grabbed Julian.
His eyes found me, barefoot, shaking, holding the little key necklace like it could protect me.
"Ariadne," he said, soft, immediately soft again when he saw my face, walking to me fast, hands up like he was approaching a scared animal. "Hey, hey, look at me, don't listen to him, he is a liar, he is my cousin and he is a liar and he hates me because..."
"Is it true, did you spend three million dollars on me?" I whispered, tears burning.
He stopped, his hands dropping.
"Yes," he said, honest, no hiding.
"Why didn't you tell me it was that much, Damon, three million, that's... that's insane, I'm not worth..."
"You are worth everything, you are worth more than everything I own," he said, kneeling in front of me in the hallway, his hands on my bare knees, looking up at me like I was the one with power. "I didn't tell you because I knew you would look at me like that, like I'm crazy."
"You are crazy," I whispered, crying now.
"I know, I am crazy for you, I have been crazy for you since we were seven, and Julian is right about one thing, I am broken, I am very broken, but I swear on that fire, I swear on you finding me in that basement, I will never lock you, I gave you the master key, remember, you have the key, you can leave any time you want," he said, his voice breaking.
And I stood there, in his huge t-shirt, in his huge empty house that now had crushed white lilies on the floor, with a silver key around my neck and a master key in my pocket, and a man kneeling at my feet begging me not to see how broken he was.
And I did the only thing I knew how to do.
I knelt too, so we were both on the floor in the hallway, two broken kids from St. Agnes, and I hugged him, tight, my face in his neck.
"I am broken too, Damon," I whispered. "So we can be broken together."
He shuddered, wrapped his arms around me, buried his face in my hair, holding me on the cold floor of his mansion like we were back in that basement hiding from the smoke, waiting for someone to find us.
I thought Damon would stay home after Julian left, hold me all night on that hallway floor, but he didn't.
He stood up, pulled me up with him, his hands tight on my waist like he was making sure I was still there, and said, "I have to go to the office, now."
"What, now, it's nine pm, Damon, he just..."
"He just declared war, Ariadne, Julian doesn't send flowers, he sends warnings, if he knows about the three million, the board knows, and if the board knows, they will try to use you to hurt me," he said, already grabbing his suit jacket, his torn collar making him look dangerous, wild.
"Use me how?" I asked, scared, holding my little key necklace.
"By saying I'm unstable, obsessed, unfit to run the company, by trying to take it from me, and if they take my company, they take the house, the gates, the guards that keep you safe," he said, his grey eyes dark, pacing, already on his phone texting his lawyer, his assistant, someone named Kline.
"Safe from what, Damon, from who, Julian is your cousin, not a murderer," I said.