Piece by Piece

43. Second Chances

Millie's eyes widened with fear, and Davyn felt the savage need to find Baron and beat him into a pulp. But he knew his number one henchman was not the issue. He was. Him and his duality, and the second life he chose to make for himself. That didn't mean he couldn't try to have it all. He would hate himself if he didn't.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

She shook her head, still looking afraid. He'd honestly hoped she'd start missing him by now, seeing as her absence tore him apart. It hurt that she didn't, but he'd saddled up for the pain. This could go wrong in so many ways.

"Go away," she finally said.

"I gave you the time and space to come to terms with what happened. Now it's time to give you the chance to decide how it's going to go."

The fear slipped off her face, replaced by surprise and a bit of curiosity. "What do you mean?"

Davyn opened his mouth but stopped when the sound of footsteps sounded from the staircase. A few seconds later, a girl appeared and glared at the two of them. She strutted between them and hissed a "You can't have boys here," to Millie before moving into one of the rooms.

"Can we go inside?" he asked.

"No," Millie said, her tone sharp.

This was so ridiculous since he would never hurt her, but he knew it wouldn't be as easy as to state that, so he accepted her refusal. "I meant to say that there is one way for you to make sure--"

Another door opened at the end of the corridor, and he swallowed the rest of his phrase. She seemed to get annoyed this time as well because she glared towards the intruder.

"They're just going to keep coming out and interrupting."

 "You could just say what you came to say."

"I was hoping to actually explain some--" Another door, another curious set of eyes, another cut off.

Millie groaned. He was seconds away from doing that himself.

"This is ridiculous. It's not like I'm going to assault you. I won't even touch you."

She didn't seem convinced, but her impatience seemed to win out because she opened the door to her room and strode inside. He followed, closing the door behind him.

The place was blissfully empty, but Millie headed for the window and stepped outside on the roof. The idea of being out there again gave him a bit of pause since it reminded him of simpler times. They weren't happier times, though. He had been a lot more miserable then than he was now. Now, he still had hope. At least for the next couple of minutes.

He stepped out, too, and sat down at a respectful distance. She could touch him if she reached out, but they wouldn't brush against each other accidentally.

"Go on, then," she said, looking down into the street.

"This brings back memories."

She huffed and still didn't look at him. He had no reason to hurry either, so he gave it a few more seconds before speaking again.

"All we need is some cheap booze and weed."

"It's not the same," she snapped.

"Why not? You didn't like me much back then either."

The expression on her face was definitely filled with pain, and it gave him hope that she wouldn't end it.

"Millie..." He let out a long breath. "It doesn't have to be this way, you know."

"You should've thought about that before you decided to become a crime lord."

"I did. I gave it a lot of thought."