Shade watched her with an unreadable expression. “I’m not sure how to answer that.”
“With the truth.” Eddie had to laugh as she flipped foyer lights off. “And why wouldn’t you answer truthfully?”
“If I tell you yes”—Shade’s voice came out of the darkness toward her—“you might hold it between us.”
“And if you say no?”
His teeth flashed white in the gloom. “You’ll know I’m lying to you.”
Eddie’s heart beat erratically as she took the passage between the foyer and the backstage area. The statement about her holding it against him was as close as he’d come to any reference to what he’d said in their conversation before she’d been taken hostage.
Since then, he’d been attentive when she was sick, kind and caring—she might even say loving and gentle—but he’d made no move on her and never said a word further. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Aaand she was a dirty, rotten liar. Inside, she was a mixed bag of anxiety, disappointment, and hope. But she didn’t have the courage to bring it up herself.
The backstage was quiet with most of the lights already turned off. Eddie climbed the stairs to the dressing rooms. A light gleamed beneath the women’s dressing room door.
“Sophia is in there,” Shade said as he followed.
“How does that work?” She glanced over her shoulder at him. The dim light of the stairwell carved shadow beneath his cheekbones and highlighted his perfect bone structure. “That sensing each other thing.”
“We have the same root power.” He touched his chest. “And I can sense when she’s near.”
“But you’re opposing forces?”
“Two sides of the same coin.” He nodded. “And what we sense is the coin in each other.”
Nodding, Eddie pushed open the dressing room door.
Sophia was tidying up the row of dressing tables, and she turned to look at them as they entered. “Time to go?”
“I’m shutting up for the night.”
“Good.” Sophia stood, her movements so effortlessly graceful that Eddie felt like a lumbering heifer. “It was a good audience tonight.”
“And they loved Lillian.” Eddie didn’t have to stretch the truth with Sophia. “And they’ll love you as Cecily.”
Sophia shrugged and blushed. “The Importance of Being Earnest is an excellent play, and the cast is all very talented.”
“Modesty, Sophia?” Shade drawled.
Laughing, Sophia shoved his shoulder. “Shut your mouth.” She shrugged. “I do love acting. I should have started years ago.”
“Does Gabriel know?” Shade leaned his shoulder against the wall beside her mirror.
Sophia gathered her things in a bag. “I’ve made no attempt to conceal what I’m doing.”
“Then, no,” Shade said.
Blue eyes flashing retribution, Sophia glared at him. “I don’t have to get anyone’s permission. I am doing no harm.”
“Still.” Shade smirked. “I’m betting there’s a regulation somewhere in Gabriel’s files about it.”
“Undoubtedly.” Sophia laughed. She looked from him to Eddie. “I spoke to Wrath before he went back.”
It surprised Eddie that she could miss someone she barely knew, but she did miss her father. Her father. Just the ability to be able to say those words and apply them to a living being made her heart skip a beat. All through her childhood, her father had been a mystery figure who would swoop in and save her from whatever misfortune had beset her. Turns out, she’d been right. Her father was more than capable of saving her from just about anything. “Is he okay?”
“Not really.” Sophia sighed and shouldered her bag.
Shade straightened. “Haziel?”
“What else?” Sophia shrugged. “I don’t mean to offend, Eddie, but your mother really did a number on him.”
Rosabella had done a number on anyone close to her. “I know.” Come to think on it, Rosabella had not been around the theatre for the last couple of days. Eddie was so accustomed to her fly-by visits that she hadn’t bothered to keep tabs on her. “Do you know where she is?”
Sophia and Shade shook their heads.
Shade said, “I know Wrath and her had a conversation before he left, but I haven’t seen her since then.”
“He loved her.” Sophia’s voice had softened and the look on her face was breathtakingly gentle. “He loved her for years.”
“He had quite the reputation before her,” Shade said to Eddie. “But after he met your mother, he became more reclusive and cleaned up his act.”
Eddie trod carefully. There might be things she did not want to know about her father. “Reputation?”
“Best not to ask.” Shade grinned at her. “But let’s say that despite what one might think, I was not the biggest man whore in hell.”
Sophia frowned at him. “You weren’t a man whore at all. You never have been.”
