Chapter 4
“Dude, he looked like he was going to clear the table, shove you down onto it, and eat you alive!” Noon’s cackle came through the speaker of Eden’s multi-slate, which was set on the edge of his bathroom counter.
He rolled his eyes and swiped steam off the mirror.
His friend had called him almost as soon as he’d stepped out of the shower, and he dried his hair as he listened to talk about the dinner.
“Don’t be ridiculous. He’s a senior at Sacrum Cor University and a Black Hart. That guy isn’t lacking bedpartners.”
“With a face like that?” Noon whistled. “He could be dirt poor and without title, and I guarantee people would still beg to sleep with him. Do you think he likes to be fucked, or is he the one doing the fucking?”
“I think you should be less crass and more careful with how you speak about the new major shareholder responsible for our livelihood.” Eden toweled off his chest, checked to be sure the one wrapped around his waist was secure, and then grabbed his device and exited into his bedroom.
The house he lived in was small, a fixer-upper that he’d never gotten around to fixing.
It’d been all he could afford at the time, after he’d sold the building where his family had lived and run their store from.
Since the murders were still fresh in the news, the value of the property had been abysmal, but he’d been desperate to be rid of it.
Every inch of that place had felt haunted, and Eden had shamelessly run from those ghosts like the devil was hot on his heels.
Only, now the devil might have actually found him.
“Don’t get too involved with Ares Major,” Eden warned. “Black Harts have a reputation.”
“He left shortly after you did, but he didn’t seem that bad. He did start playing the new banner at the table, though.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, Yarrow was chuffed to bits.”
Eden dropped his phone on the bed and walked the five steps it took to get to his single dresser, opening the doors to pull out the thin terracotta robe he’d had since his college days. “He wasn’t kidding about being a fan.”
“You’ll never guess who his favorite love interest is.”
“Who?”
Noon snorted. “Come on, man. You, obviously.”
“Uh, not me, obviously.”
“Whatever. You and Ransom are basically the same person.”
“Not true.”
“He has your face.”
The character would have the same hair color as well, only Eden dyed his.
He’d gotten tired of being stopped in the streets the year after the game had taken off.
Unlike Yarrow, he wasn’t in this for attention or fame.
Even when his dream had been to become a singer, that yearning had stemmed purely from a love of music and a desire to share that love with the world.
He would have been happy either as a performer or a professor. So long as he got to share his passion with others? That’s been the ideal world in his mind growing up.
Eden had a degree in Arts in Vocal Performance, as well as one in Music Education, but had done nothing with either since graduation.
At the time, he’d been the lead singer in a band that’d been well on their way to signing a contract with a label, but after the deaths of his family, he’d dropped out and pulled away.
If Vanity hadn’t taken off, there was little doubt in his mind that Eden would have dropped Noon and the others as well.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to his friends, but his focus had shifted, and the loss had been too raw and traumatic for him to humor anyone back then.
Now, with the terms of his contract firmly in place, Eden couldn’t legally try for his own music career.
“You’re both still blond,” Noon stated. “Even if you’ve dyed yours a couple of shades darker. You both hate leafy greens, and—”
“I suppose that means you and Six are the same person?” Eden didn’t bother tying the belt at his waist, letting himself air dry the rest of the way as he picked his device up a second time and carried it with him out into the small living room, straight to the kitchen.
The house had two bedrooms, one that he’d converted into an office where he could keep all the information he’d gathered about that harrowing night.
Aside from that, there was an attached bathroom in his room, a three-quarters bathroom in the hallway between the entrance and the living area, and then the kitchen.
It wasn’t much space, but he didn’t need very much anyway.
“I love when people call me Six,” Noon said.
“Makes me feel like I’m a part of something.
And the attention?” his tone turned suggestive.
“That’s what you need. Get yourself laid.
For all your comments about the new shareholder, you should look in a mirror.
You’re not too shabby yourself. Go out there and get some.
Maybe it’ll finally help take that stick out of your ass. ”
“I don’t have a stick up my ass,” he grumbled as he flicked the tea kettle on.
“Seriously though, when was the last time you got some?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“If not mine, then whose?”
“No one’s.”
“Look, I’m your best friend, E, and I hate to break it to you, but enough is enough.”
He bristled.
Let it go.
“Careful, Noon. I’m not in the mood.” The last thing he needed was for his oldest friend to repeat those infuriating words. He didn’t know what he’d do if that happened, and he was barely holding onto his rage as it were.
A rage that had no one to direct toward. Nowhere to go.
It just seethed and boiled over within him, building and building until—
“You’re never in the mood, E, that’s what I’m saying.
I’m not going to lie and claim I understand what you went through—what you’re still going through, but…
” Noon inhaled, preparing himself for the next part, and then said in a rush, “Mr. and Mrs. Baldur wouldn’t want you to be like this.
They wouldn’t want to see you walking through life, acting like you died with them. ”
It stung.
It pissed him off.
And the worst part was knowing his friend wasn’t wrong.
Noon and he had grown up as neighbors when his family was still living in an apartment building downtown.
The neighborhood had been rough, and they’d had more than their fair share of scuffles with the other kids before junior high school, when Eden’s mom inherited the store, and they were able to relocate.
Coming from anyone else, those comments would feel more like a platitude than anything, but from Noon?
Noon had known Eden’s family well. Had eaten dinner at their table, helped Ella with her homework, worked part-time at the store whenever an employee called out last minute, leaving them shorthanded.
“I know you’re worried, but you don’t have to be,” Eden sighed. “If you must know, it’s tonight. I’ll be getting laid tonight, happy, perv?”
“No shit?” Noon let out a whistle. “Who is it?”
“Just some guy I met online.” Some guy he’d matched with on Enraptured. It’d been a few months since they’d last met up, but the sexual frustration left from both Lucifer and Ares had gotten the best of him, and Eden had found himself contacting the booty call before he realized what he was doing.
Fortunately, Pan was available, and even more fun, the guy had remembered Eden’s interest in a CNC scene possibly being played out at his house. A quick glimpse at the clock showed Eden still had a couple of hours before their agreed-upon window opened.
He couldn’t know the exact time Pan would arrive, because that would ruin the illusion, but they’d set it for any time after nine and before midnight.
“Hey, as long as you’re putting yourself out there, I don’t care whose dick you end up riding,” Noon said.
Eden scowled. “I have to go get ready.”
“Good luck!”
“Shut up, you pervert.” Eden hung up and flicked the kettle off just as it started to whistle, but didn’t have the energy to make the instant coffee he’d been planning. Instead, he rested his palms against the cool counter and shut his eyes, focusing on his breathing.
He didn’t want to disappoint anyone. Like Noon, he also wanted this to be over. But…
He couldn’t let it go.
He couldn’t—
There was a buzz and then the sound of something shattering. His eyes popped open, and his head turned to the left, where the glass sliding door leading to the backyard was.
The bulb he kept on outside had gone out, casting the porch and the yard in darkness.
Cautiously, Eden circled the stove and the counter, moving into the living room and to the door. It was locked, just like he’d left it, and when he pressed his forehead to it to try and see, he caught sight of shards of glass on the porch, glittering in the pale moonlight.
What the hell?
Eden jolted when a loud bang came at his front door, hard enough that it shook the wood. The pounding continued five times before stopping, and he was already halfway across the room toward it.
Forgetting the fact that he was practically naked, Eden flicked the lock undone with one hand, the other grabbing the hefty baseball bat he kept nearby for this very reason, and tugged the door open quickly.
There was no one there.
A car drove leisurely down the quiet street, headlights illuminating the road and his front yard.
Empty.
It’d been too loud for him to mishear…Someone had definitely been out there…
He laughed at himself when it occurred to him what was actually going on.
Pan must have come early to surprise him. It didn’t get more realistic than that, and it’d certainly done the trick, because Eden could feel his heart racing. He’d lean into it, maybe send Pan a message asking if it was him, so he could play along and say no.
Eden turned, recalling he’d left his multi-slate in the kitchen in his haste, but he’d only made it a single step before he came up short.