Chapter 36 Evan
EVAN
Iwoke up with a groan and blinked my eyes as the sunlight streamed onto my face.
“Stupid fucking windows,” I muttered, shielding my eyes before I rolled over to find the bed empty. I knew damn well I’d fallen asleep with Anson at my side, but now that part of the bed was cold, and he was gone.
I sat up and rubbed my eyes before I went to the bathroom, took a quick shower, and did my morning routine.
I came out of the bathroom after sliding some ugly brown contacts into my eyes, wearing jeans, a black V-neck shirt, and my sunglasses.
I didn’t like to wear the contacts, but if I were beating on people, I didn’t want my white eye to be the subject of a police line-up should that happen.
I slid my feet into my boots just as Anson came into the room.
“Good. You’re awake,” he said.
I glanced at him. “Did you sleep, man?”
“A few hours,” he replied. “Listen, we need to talk.”
“Ro?” I asked immediately.
“No. Nothing on that yet, but E is here. He stayed overnight.”
“Oh,” I said. “OK.”
“I just didn’t want you to come out and be surprised. So just stay in here—”
“I’m not going to fucking hide in here,” I said immediately. “I don’t give a fuck if he recognizes me. I want to hit the streets again and look for our girl.”
Anson eyed me. “You don’t look like Fox anymore.”
I grunted at that. That was the entire point when I tatted nearly my entire body.
Even my neck was tatted. I shaved my head.
Put on a fuck ton of muscle. Pierced my ears and my nose.
My dad said he didn’t recognize me when he came to visit last month.
Even my voice was a little different. Deeper.
More raspy. I suppose spending weeks screaming in a place no one could hear you took its toll on a lot of things.
And some of those things never returned.
I didn’t even sing anymore. I hated the way shit sounded.
I grabbed a face gator and pulled it on to cover most of my face. My aviator sunglasses took care of the rest. There would be no way anyone would recognize me now.
“OK. Then let’s do this,” Anson said, giving me a quick nod. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m fine,” I said stiffly, not really knowing if I was. I suppose this would be the determining factor on how well I did at reinventing myself.
I followed him out of the room and downstairs, where I found E sitting on the couch, talking to Klaus.
E looked up when I came into the room.
The air shifted. He stared back at me, his lips parted.
For a moment, I thought he recognized me, but then he blinked quickly and got to his feet.
“Hey, this is Evan,” Anson said softly, gesturing to me. “Rosalie’s husband.”
Klaus cast a quick look at me without a word. He told me it was a bad idea to come out of hiding here in Chicago, but I told him I’d never hide when Rosalie’s safety was involved.
“Hey, man,” E said, coming over to me.
He looked damn good. He’d changed so much. His hair was a little longer. He dressed nicely in designer clothes. His confidence oozed off him. He definitely wasn’t the man I remembered. Bigger. Stronger. No-nonsense.
I was impressed.
“I’m Ethan. Everyone calls me E. Uh, I’m Rosalie’s ex. The one she’s been talking to and hung out with.” He offered me his hand.
I took it in my hand and gave him a firm shake, noting he still wore blossom’s ring. I had taken mine off long ago and put it into a box next to Rosalie’s. We’d gotten tattoos instead to honor her. We had the B tattooed on the inside of our thumbs, where the rings had once been.
He winced as my wedding band cut into his finger.
“Evan,” I said, my voice low.
“It’s good to finally meet you. Rosalie talked a lot about you.” He paused. “Wow. Pardon me for saying this, but you are one big motherfucker.”
Anson and Klaus both chuckled at that.
“Those tattoos are incredible,” E continued. “Is that over your entire body?”
I nodded my head for him.
He simply stared back at me, looking dumbfounded.
“What’s wrong? Doesn’t look like someone Rosalie would date, let alone marry?” Anson asked.
“No. He’s not,” E admitted. “Sorry, man. I was told you were into the arts and writing. I expected someone shrouded in black with eyeliner and thick glasses. Definitely not someone who looks like he benchpresses Klaus in his spare time.”
I smirked at that beneath my gator.
“He can’t bench me,” Klaus said, eyeing me.
I shrugged. I probably could without batting an eyelash. Maybe. I’d be eager to try, and if our girl wasn’t missing, I’d have told him to climb on, but we had shit to do.
Once we got Ro back in our arms, I’d show Klaus what I could do.
E’s phone buzzed, so he backed away to answer it. I watched as he went to the floor-to-ceiling windows to take his call, out of earshot of us.
“Bold move coming out,” Klaus said.
“He doesn’t recognize me.” I eyed E as he continued to talk on the phone. Whatever he was talking about was pissing him off because his voice rose.
“Just keep your sunglasses on. Should be fine,” Klaus added.
“Or put in the damn contact lenses that are in the bathroom. They’re a nice shit brown color,” Anson muttered.
I chuckled at that and lifted my sunglasses up to show him I had the contacts in.
“Wow, not bad,” Klaus said. “You pull off shit brown really nicely.”
I gave him the finger, making him chuckle softly.
E hung up the phone and came back to us.
“You good?” Anson asked.
“Yeah, man. All is well. Just my guys checking in on me,” he muttered. “I didn’t call and was gone all night.”
“Probably think you’re getting laid,” Klaus said, eyeing Ethan. “You doing that? Getting laid enough?”
Ethan scoffed. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m going to worry about it,” Klaus said immediately.
“You have a hard-on for our girl. I want to know you’re clean.
You said you weren’t interested in joining us, but just in case, we need to be safe.
Once she’s back, we’ll be celebrating. If you’re half the man you appear to be, I wouldn’t kick you out of the bedroom. ”
“I’m not… Rosalie and I…” He looked at me. “We’re not. I-I can’t. We have a son. The guys and I. I can’t leave him.”
I inclined my head. I figured as much. I knew Enzo had a son. E wasn’t the type of guy to run out on people, especially once he loved them. It was clear to see he gave a fuck about the kid.
I could empathize.
“So his dick status doesn’t matter,” Anson said. “No offense, E.”
“None taken,” he said softly, his eyes back on me. He couldn’t see my eyes beneath my sunglasses, but I was looking back at him, too. God, he’d changed. It was a completely different person standing in front of me.
“We need to stop at the underground this morning,” Klaus said. “Dante messaged and said Ellis is asking for us.”
Anson nodded sadly. “OK.”
E looked at his feet. I didn’t like going back to the underground either, but Church didn’t live at the same estate. He had a mansion over another part of the underground, so it wasn’t exactly what it used to be.
“You don’t have to come with us,” Anson said gently to E. “We can meet up later if you want to join the hunt for today.”
E snapped his attention to Anson. “I’ll go with you. I’d like to meet Ellis if that’s OK.”
I held up my hand and looked to Anson, who cleared his throat.
“Listen, E, I think you’re a good guy. You know I do, but Ellis is our daughter, and she means the world to us—” Anson started.
“She’s Cole’s daughter too,” he said softly.
I frowned. I didn’t think Rosalie would tell him that information until she was certain she wanted Cole involved.
“She showed me a picture of her,” E continued.
“I won’t tell Cole, but I do want to meet her.
I just… I want to know her. I swore I’d keep Ellis a secret.
I swore I’d not tell the guys I was talking to Rosalie.
I will take those secrets to my grave if she decides she doesn’t want them to know. But please. Let me see Ellis.”
“Evan decides,” Klaus murmured. “He is her husband. He makes those decisions.”
I studied E for a long moment before nodding.
E let out a breath, and that was it. We left Klaus’s apartment and went downstairs to a blacked-out SUV Klaus had waiting for us with Frank, his old driver.
“Oh, a horseman,” Frank said as E climbed into the SUV. “Going to the underground. This should be fun.”
“Fucking drive, Frank,” Klaus snapped. “Arschloch.”
“Sprich Englisch, Klaus. Wir haben einen Gast,” I said.
“Er kann kein Deutsch?” Anson asked, nodding to E, who looked at us in bewilderment.
“Nein. Es sieht nicht so aus, als würde er das tun. Soweit ich zuletzt wusste, tat er es nicht.” I looked at E again.
“Fine. Asshole,” Klaus muttered to Frank.
“I feel like I’m missing something,” E mumbled.
I gave Anson a pointed look. “See?”
He seemed good with that and settled back in his seat.
The interior of the SUV was set up so the back seats faced each other. I took the opportunity to study E more as he pulled out his phone and typed a message.
He really did look good. So much better. I was glad he’d found his way through this hell. He seemed like he dealt with it better than I had. Of course, I didn’t really know the levels of hell he’d gone through. I only knew what I’d gone through and the things I’d seen when we were together.
He glanced up and saw me focused on him. He offered me a quick smile before looking back at his phone again.
He was the same E, yet… wasn’t.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in getting to know him again because fuck, I’d missed him.
When we arrived at Dante’s estate, we were led inside by two guards. He knew we were coming and was waiting for us in a large study.
His green eyes immediately went to E.
“Why?” he asked in a monotone, sliding his gaze from E to me.
I knew Anson had texted him before we got here to say E was with us and that he hadn’t recognized me.
“Because I make the rules,” I said coolly. “In my group.”