Chapter 15 #3
"Or the Greenich Bay Police force." Beck shrugged as Jonah and I slid him a sidelong look. "I didn't want to be left out."
It only took a moment before our flustered attendant escorted us toward Mr. Lacott's table. Lara's date accepted a flute from the floating trays that flitted to each table with a flutter of her lashes. There was something calculated underneath the coy movement. My stomach twisted.
"Who is he?" I didn't recognize the man who held Lara's focus like a magnet.
He looked like an accountant who had won the lottery, dripping in designer wear, but the kind that splashed its name in neon.
The clothes swallowed his forgettable appearance.
An early receding hairline, and round cheeks flushed with alcohol.
He was forty or twenty, depending on what angle you looked at him.
Lara reached out and fiddled with his collar.
He fumbled with his chips, and she helped him stack them.
"No idea." Jonah's voice was rough as gravel.
"This isn't something Adelaide organized?" I had to rule it out.
Jonah shook his head with a vehement growl. "She wouldn't."
"He's Cole Lacott. His father runs Topher Freight, and they handle most of the port. He's been in Europe for the past five years, but was called back to take over since his father became unwell. The board voted him in a few weeks ago, and he returned the favor by dumping them all."
"How do you know this?" I snapped at Beck, letting my anger at the situation latch onto him. He shrugged again, a movement I was quickly coming to hate.
"I pay attention. Now, are we going to teach her a lesson or what?"
Jonah hung back and plastered his phone to his ear, letting Adelaide know, like the good lapdog he was.
"Lara?" I shot him a look, but he just shrugged.
Did he know Lara was going to be here? And why did he care?
As I approached the table, I was done sparring with the chameleon police chief.
It took Lara far too long to notice me. Her nails were painted black, with sharp points, and she dragged them down her date's arm.
Jealousy spiked through my stomach. They should rake down my back as I fucked the names of any other men out of her memory.
It was only when the dealer announced us that her gaze flew up.
"Mr. Donato, if you would take this seat, and your, ah—friend." The attendant held the cards in his hands.
Beck took the offered seat, and the color drained from Lara's cheeks, until there was only her artificial blush.
"Evening." Cole Lacott dipped his head with manners I didn't possess.
I wanted to throttle him, and it took everything in me to control the urge. Beck stacked his chips up in a tall tower and knocked them over with his pointer finger.
"Oops." His dark gaze flicked to Lara, like he knew something I didn't. "What a mess."
Lara's hand went to her throat, and my stomach twisted to see she was wearing my diamond necklace. It glittered under the ornate chandelier that hung above our heads.
"W-what are you all doing here…together?" Lara's words squeaked out, and she made a noise of distress as Jonah emerged beside me. His hand landed on my shoulder, and I almost laughed. I guess jealousy was good at bringing people together.
"You want to bet?" I asked him coolly, ignoring Lara.
What could I say to her, with my anger like burning poison in my veins?
Unwarranted fury coursed through me. I'd kept my distance for her safety, but looking at her with someone else was suddenly incomprehensible.
I told Jonah to take Lara, to make her his, and that hadn't filled me with choking rage.
Had I been around Adelaide for too long?
She had three guys who were happy to share her, and I never understood.
I didn't need another man, not when I had the skills of ten.
Jonah sniffed, bringing me back to my senses. "No, I'll watch."
The set of his jaw was tight. Lara's unsure gaze bounced between Beck, Jonah, and me with increasing panic.
Before it slid away, like it had never existed.
She turned to Cole and whispered in his ear.
The stupid man's cheeks turned pink, and he leered down at her.
With Jonah's seat empty, there were only two other players.
A young man with chin-length dirty blond hair, short stubble, and a leather jacket.
His wife was a dainty blonde with luminous green eyes.
On our arrival, he shifted closer to her, as if feeling the heavy undercurrent of tension.
"Wren," she protested as he threw a muscular arm around her shoulder and tugged her into an embrace. Warning us off without words.
"It's your bet," Cole interjected, taking a delicate sip of his whiskey. I rolled my shoulders and imagined running him over with one of my cars.
He'd pop like a grape, but I didn't want to sully my ladies with his mess. I took my cards and made my bet. Queen of hearts and a bunch of useless others. I didn't care about winning or losing. Everything was red-tinged madness.
"So how did you two meet?" I asked Lara and Cole, following her lead.
If she wanted to pretend we didn't know each other, I would play along. She narrowed her gaze. What was she upset about? Distantly, I knew my papa's spies would see her here on a date with someone else. It was good for my image, but fuck it.
I'd come here to be reckless.
"A friend set me up with Lisa." That little fuck answered instead of my girl.
"Lisa? Wow, I didn't know you had another name." I growled as the dealer took my chips and distributed them to Cole. He made neat little piles with a pleased hum.
"Do you know each other?" His pudgy fingers slipped under the table where Lara's thighs were.
I wanted to tear his damn arm off. Jonah was stiff as a board behind me, and his choppy breath hit the back of my neck.
"Lisa is my middle name. These gentlemen know me as Lara." She aimed a scathing glare at Beck in particular. "But they don't know me that well."
"We don't know you that well?" Jonah scoffed. "Are you kidding—" He cut himself off with a noise. "That's not what you said the other day when you were begging for my tongue between your legs."
Heat pooled in my stomach at the thought of Jonah with his head buried between Lara's lean, shapely thighs. My cock twitched, unaware of its terrible timing. Why was the thought of them together fine, but the sight of her with another man sending me into a murderous rage?