Page 28 of Scars of Silk

“Yeah, I know. I’m trying to detox, so it’s black and…” her face is priceless, “disgusting, I’m not going to lie.” I chuckle as she grimaces one last time and then tips it down the sink.

“You really don’t need to detox.” Jesus, someone slap a plaster on my mouth.

She doesn’t say anything, well not about that anyway. “I’m going to drive us to London and then leave you at my flat while I go to my parents for afternoon lunch.”

“You don’t seem excited about the lunch. Why are you going?” I ask. I’m genuinely interested. Here, if you didn’t want to join in, you’d just shout down the stairs or call ahead. Your dinner would be waiting for you when you got back or wanted it. It worked both ways with me and Dad, then with Faith when she was here.

I really need to stop thinking about her. It’s like a fucking disease.

“My parents are trying to set me up with a guy I knew at Uni.”

Yo, blow to the stomach.

“Is he worth being set up with?” I take a sip of my own coffee. I kid you not, it’s as perfect as the bacon roll.

“Hell no.”

“So why are you going?”

She shakes her head slowly, a small smile lifting her lips, but I catch the bitter hardness in her gaze no matter how much she tries to hide it. “It’s not that easy.”

“So you’ve got to go and have dinner with this guy?”

“Yes.”

“Then what?”

She shrugs. “I’ll probably agree to go for a drink with him in front of my parents.”

“And will you go on the drink with him?”

Another shrug. “Maybe. Probably not.”

“It seems a lot of effort to go all the way to London. Why don’t you stay here, and we can start looking into the list of names I gave you? Someone will have some dirt on that evil bastard who hurt Faith.”

Sienna’s smile is genuine this time. “I’m sure someone does, but it can wait until tomorrow. Are you ready?”

I shift uncomfortably, not even sure why I’m awkward considering she’s the uninvited guest in my house. “Uh, I rang girl I know. She’s going to come around and sit with me.” The room becomes unbearably hot. Reaching past her, I open the window, sure I see her stiffen as I lift my arm over her head. “I’m just opening the window.”

She steps away. “Sure. Right.” She grabs her keys and bag off the counter.

“I mean, I can come with you, I guess. I just didn’t want to be in the way.”

Sienna holds her hand up. “No, it’s fine.” She walks for the door and then stops. “I’m going to be honest with you here, because I feel you deserve it.”

“What?” The skin prickles at the back of my neck.

“It didn’t take me long to find your underground fight club. Turns out they weren’t that underground at all.”

“Sienna—”

She holds up a hand to cut me off. “I got a call put in to the local police. They’ve been shut down.”

I literally feel the blood drain from my face. “What the fuck?! You can’t do that. Jesus, you don’t know what these people are like. If they find out it was you or me? There’s a pier just down the road that makes an excellent drop-off point.” I grab at my hair, pulling it hard with my fingers. “Fuck, you had no right.”

“No? Maybe. But I did what I thought I should do.” She stares at me long and hard, those eyes of hers sweeping over my face, reading my reaction.

“Get out. And don’t bother coming back. Go find a hotel and stay there while you work.”