Cole(59)

Yeah, Dawn. The realization had merit. The Dawn who hid in closets, who staged a sit-in to find out who owned the building and had her bench removed because of it. The Dawn who snuck around, stole phones, who probably knew everything or most of everything that went on in this building. I didn’t think she knew about Cole.

I hoped not, anyway.

“Yeah, I guess.”

Sia’s tone didn’t agree with her words.

I hit the button to call the elevator. “Are you okay?”

“Huh?” She’d been chewing on her lip.

I pointed at it. “You do that when something’s on your mind.”

“Well, I mean—” She peeked over her shoulder at Jake, who was sitting at his desk now, and quieted her tone. “Cole Mauricio. Even that name is scary. I saw the news coverage about Carter Reed. There was a mob war, and some of it happened here. That guy was their hit man, and now what? Is he out? We don’t really know anything. Yeah, I’m worried. I’m really worried. I don’t want to lose my boyfriend and my best friend.”

He was their hit man. I’d read that online the night before, but hearing those words out loud sent chills down my back.

“Jake’s a mob nut. The geek inside of him is doing somersaults. He can’t see this as reality. Someone really dangerous lives here.”

Carter Reed was dangerous. Cole was dangerous. My throat closed. Cole could kill someone, probably already had…and he’d been inside me just hours ago. And I knew he’d be there again tonight. And the night after, and any other night as long as I let him. I didn’t think I could stop. I didn’t think I wanted to stop.

“Why aren’t you scared?” She grabbed my arm, holding it lightly as she moved closer. “Why am I the only one who’s nervous?”

Because… I had a vision of Cole holding me in the shower as he thrust inside of me. His hips moving, holding mine as I moved right along with him. My body heated, and that ache came back. It was always there. It just took a thought, that was it.

He was my drug.

“Addison?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“You’re insane. Both of you,” she said. “You guys have lost your heads.”

I couldn’t speak for Jake, but maybe I had.

I said my goodbyes, promising to meet Sia for lunch on Monday, and as the elevator closed, my eyes did the same. I leaned back against the wall and felt the car carry me down.

Maybe I was crazy.

Maybe I had lost my mind.

Maybe I had fallen more than I realized.

Just maybe.





As Jake predicted, Liam’s parents dropped the lawsuit two weeks after I saw them. Mahler said it was because they realized they’d caused me enough grief. Jake and his partner laughed at that once the doors closed behind Mahler and his team. A judge would never have allowed the suit to proceed, and everyone knew it. I continued to hope Sia’s prediction wasn’t true, that they hadn’t used it to look at my bank statements as preparation to come back with a lawsuit for Liam’s inheritance. Jake and his partner promised that wouldn’t happen. The inheritance would be protected.

I was pissed at Carol and Hank, but that had faded to annoyance, and the more time that passed without hearing anything from them, even that was starting to dissipate. I preferred not to think of them at all.

For the first two weeks after Sia learned about Cole, she and Jake slept at her apartment. Then, even though the facts hadn’t changed—Cole Mauricio was still in the mafia, and he was still Jake’s landlord—somehow Sia’s concern faded. They were back to sleeping at Jake’s. Sia and I met for lunch every other day, and I had dinner with them at Jake’s a couple times, too.

But I never invited them to my floor—because of Cole.

He came over every night, or almost every night. Each time was different. Some nights we ate dinner, watched movies. Other nights we went straight to bed. And still other times, it was even later. Cole would slide into bed next to me. There were times I couldn’t let him go, and nights when he acted like he’d been starving for me.

We did what normal couples did, but we weren’t a normal couple. I tried not to think about how much I missed him when he wasn’t there or how my body ached to touch him, to feel the answering pressure of his body against mine.

Today was one of those days. I was trying not to count the hours away until he came back. I needed a distraction, and checking my email, I got the perfect one.



Addison,



We have an opening for our column this week. Could you put something together? Let me know asap if you can. If not, we’ll run someone else, but if you can, we’ll save that space for you.