A pause. "Still there."
I switched tactics. "Damian must be running himself ragged. The news said Voss Group is breaking into a brand new sector. With the way he hoards every decision, he must be drowning."
"He can take it."
"Pass the potatoes."
"Here."
I had never, in my adult life, been so thoroughly stonewalled by a man.
I lifted my eyes and really looked at him. Darius wasn't the boy who'd once chased Beatrix past my front porch with grass stains on his knees. He wasn't even the Darius I'd seen at the Voss estate last week. The man across from me had built a wall behind his ribs and bricked over every window.
I refused to leave empty handed.
When the plates were cleared I tilted my head. "Walk with me? I twisted my ankle, remember. You wouldn't make a poor injured girl hobble h
