He shrugged. “Balance. If you’re too much in the shadows, then people will forget about you, so it’s good to be there and give reminders. Stay visible enough that the idea of crossing the family is a very bad one, but not so visible that the guy at the coffee shop knows what you do,” he said.

“Smart,” I said.

I discreetly, or as discreetly as I could, silenced my phone, and then cursed myself for not turning it off altogether.

This was the sixth? Seventh? time my phone had gone off since we’d left the gallery.

“Give that to me,” Elias said.

“Why?” I responded.

He didn’t answer but instead reached across the seat and grabbed the phone out of my hand.

I watched as he read the screen, trying to gauge his expression.

But, like always, he didn’t reveal anything.

I knew who those messages were from, and though I hadn’t had a chance to read them, I could guess what they said.

Elias didn’t make me wait. “Let’s read these together,” he said.

I didn’t dare argue.

“Kayla, it was nice seeing you tonight. Well, it was mostly good,” Elias said.

His voice was flat, monotone, and as the car sped down the road, I could feel the tension in the vehicle start to rise.

“I’m not going to lie. I’m not happy to hear that you’re engaged, especially not to a person like that. You deserve so much better than he’d be able to give you,” Elias said, his voice still betraying nothing.

But his hands gripped the phone tight, and his jaw was clenched.

“This really isn’t necessary,” I said.

With every second that passed, I found myself worried more and more for Todd’s safety.

It was sometimes easy to lose sight of, but I could never, ever allow myself to forget what Elias was capable of.

I honestly couldn’t say that I completely knew what Elias was capable of. The one thing I knew, had known always, was that once Elias made a decision to eliminate someone, he would show no mercy.

And I feared Todd was dangerously close to crossing a line he wouldn’t be able to come back from.

Elias went on. “I’m supposed to do the honorable thing. Tell you I’m happy for you and I won’t interfere. I don’t know if I can do that yet. Because I know what we were together, what we could be again. I just wish—”

He stopped abruptly, turned off the screen, and handed me the phone.

And then he said nothing.

The tension was thick; my stomach was wobbly with it.

“You can go,” Elias said to the driver when we got to the building.

He nodded, and then I got out of the car, not waiting for Elias to open the door.

That annoyed him.