Chapter 22
EILISH
I’m furious. But I’m almost more furious at myself for even being furious in the first place. And I hate that I broke down like that on the street in front of that…that… cunt . Whoever the hell she is.
A dark green monster churns inside me as I remember her words.
“I taught him everything he knows. You’re welcome .”
Jesus Christ, I want to go back to that moment and stab her in the fucking eyes. Then I take a breath and try and clear the rage from my system.
I mean, what the fuck. What am I, jealous ? Gavan and I are not a couple. He’s not my fucking boyfriend. We’re not “going steady”.
We’ve never once had a conversation about whether or not we were exclusive, even within the context of our arrangement. And I mean, the reality is, Gavan’s a ridiculously handsome, dark and brooding, insanely powerful and wealthy guy in New York.
What stings the most is how naive I was to be blind to the fact that he’d have a whole harem of women out there who blush like I do when he beckons with those two fingers. Who drop to their knees and moan when he asks. Who—
“Whoo hoo! Elsa’s here!”
I blink, mercifully ripped from the swirling black downward spiral of my thoughts at the sound of Callie’s voice.
Seriously , fuck Gavan. And fuck that raging cunt who tried to be as shitty as possible to me yesterday.
Shaken from my sour thoughts, I look up and force a smile when Elsa Guin walks into Fort Defiance, one of my favorite brunch spots in New York even if it is way the fuck out in Red Hook.
I haven’t told Callie in so many words what happened yesterday.
But she knows something’s up. And she’s an amazing enough friend that she dragged me out here for their famous French toast drowning in mascarpone, maple syrup, and candied walnuts, washed down with their signature marmalade gin breakfast cocktail.
She even somehow got Elsa—perpetually up to her eyeballs in work—to meet us. I grin as I stand and hug our tiny blonde lawyer friend, who’s also Callie’s soon-to-be sister-in-law, now that she and Hades are engaged.
“You made it!” Callie beams, embracing her before we all sit back down again.
Elsa grins at the breakfast cocktail we already ordered for her, taking a sip before she exhales luxuriously like she’s on a tropical island vacation.
“ Oooh , that’s good,” she sighs. “And hell yeah I made it. When you’re about to make equity partner, it seems they dial your workload back a little so they don’t burn you out,” she snickers. “Plus, Hades took Nora to a classic car show out on Long Island. What else was I going to do?”
Callie shakes her head. “I don’t want to know how you did it, but thank you for turning my brother from the perpetual child he was for the twenty-nine-odd years before he met you into a respectable adult.”
Elsa snorts, shaking her head. “Please. I didn’t do a thing.”
“Does he still give oversized dildos as gag presents on extremely inappropriate occasions?”
Elsa’s brows raise. “Um—what?”
Callie shrugs. “I rest my case, your honor.”
I laugh along with the two of them, glad for the distraction from the dark mood swirling inside me.
“I love that he’s so amazing with Nora.”
Nora is Elsa’s fifteen-year-old sister, whom Elsa basically raised herself from when Nora was a toddler, when Elsa herself was only eighteen.
I had my doubts about Elsa and Nora moving in with Hades, even though Nora got her own floor at his place so the two of them could have their privacy.
But I have to say, Elsa’s right: my historically wild brother-in-law is incredible with Nora.
He’s been teaching her how to drive in his prized ’67 Camaro Z28—a car he barely lets Callie even touch.
And now it seems they’re bonding over classic muscle cars.
“Well, what do you say?” Callie grins impishly at Elsa. “Am I going to be an aunt someday soon?”
Elsa blushes, biting back a smile. “We’ll see.”
“It’s what I want for Christmas. You have to.”
We laugh, devouring our brunch and possibly one too many breakfast cocktails.
Callie and I drop teasing hints to Elsa about her upcoming birthday celebration, which is going to involve a private showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art followed by a private dinner in the Renaissance gallery—none of which Elsa is aware of yet.
Eventually, though, Elsa has to take off, and Callie ends up leaving with her. I stay for one last drink before finally throwing in the towel. I’m walking out when I literally bump into someone. Blinking, I step back before I stiffen.
Shit .
I’ve somehow managed to avoid Britney Torres ever since the night I broke into Gavan’s office.
I never heard back from anyone in the Crown Society, which was obviously a disappointment, given the sort of doors it could have opened.
But whatever. I sort of assumed my application was toast when I never reported back to them with the egg I was supposed to steal.
“Oh. Eilish.” Britney gives me a withering look, her nose wrinkling like I’m a stinking pile of garbage. “ Hi .”
She’s with two other girls who give me the exact same look before pushing past me into the restaurant. Britney stays where she is, still sneering at me.
“Just to let you know, I’m so sorry, but your application to the Crown Society has been denied.”
I smile, not meaning it. “Yeah, I sort of figured. Thanks. Bye.”
I start to push past her, when she stops me.
“Yeah, well, just so you know?” she continues coldly. “The only reason we even entertained your attempt to join was that Brooks McKinnley is an alum, and he…” She shrugs. “Put in a word for you.”
I swallow back the bile in my throat.
Britney keeps prattling on. “We were never going to actually let a criminal like you in.” She shrugs as I glare at her. “Anyway, have a nice life, I guess. Maybe I’ll see you on the news when you’re going to prison someday.”
She laughs as she shoves past me and into the restaurant after her friends.
“ Fuck off ,” I mutter, turning and pulling my phone out to get an Uber.
“Who the fuck was that?”
I almost scream. My phone flies out of my hand when I start…
…But he catches it.
My heart swells and twists. My pulse quickens and my face heats as a million different conflicting emotions surge through me. Gavan’s leaning against the side of a black Range Rover, his gunmetal gray eyes locked on me.
I glare at him. “Here for the breakfast cocktails?”
He shakes his head. “Here for you, actually.”
My brows knit. “And how exactly did you know I was here?”
“Because I’ve been having you followed.”
He says it in such an easy, matter-of-fact tone. But I know it’s not a joke.
His brows furrow as he nods past me with his chin. “And again I ask, who the fuck was that girl?”
“No one,” I shrug, my lips twisting. “Just some bitch from school who loves to make my life miserable.”
His eyes stab past me in the direction Britney went with a lethality that honestly scares me a little.
“Gavan,” I swallow. “She’s just being a cow. It’s fine.”
His lips curl. “What, did you think I was about to assassinate her on the street or something?”
I shiver. “I…don’t know, truthfully.”
He frowns. “Why?”
“Because sometimes you scare me.”
Gavan says nothing for a moment. He just looks at me with this burning intensity as he sucks on his teeth.
“Get in the car.”
I snort. “Uh, no thanks.”
“It wasn’t a request.”
“Then I guess this is mutiny. Bye .”
I roll my eyes and start to walk away.
“Get in the car or so fucking help me God I will pick you up and throw you in myself in front of the whole street and everyone in that restaurant.”
I glare at him. He just cocks his eyebrow and shrugs.
Goddammit .
Muttering to myself, I get into the back seat.
Gavan shuts the door before going around, getting in on the other side, and raising the partition separating us from the driver.
The SUV drives through Red Hook in silence, pulling onto the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, then heading over the Brooklyn Bridge back into Manhattan.
It’s only then that he clears his throat and turns to me.
“You’re jealous about that woman you saw yesterday.”
“ Nope .”
Yes .
“Her name is Svetlana.”
“Great,” I snap, staring out the window. “I don’t care—”
“She’s my father’s sister.”
I frown, turning to him. “That was your aunt ?”
Something menacing flickers behind his eyes. “She’s my father’s sister.”
“Yeah, that means—”
“She is not my aunt,” he snaps coldly. “Vadim raised me. For that, I call him father, even if he didn’t sire me. Svetlana does not get the extension of being family to me.”
I nod. “Okay,” I say quietly. Obviously, Gavan isn’t a fan.
That makes two of us. But it’s also beyond weird and unhinged that she clearly tried to get under my skin by implying she was his lover or something.
All that bullshit about him “fucking like a god?” That she “taught him everything he knows”?
I mean, eww.
I frown as I turn to him. “I’m…sorry. For the way I sort of freaked out.”
“You don’t need to apologize.”
“No, I do,” I shrug. “I thought she was—”
“Another woman.”
I nod.
“She’s not,” he growls quietly.
I smile wryly. “Well, yeah. But still. Even if she was , I’d have no right to act like—”
“Yes, you would.” He turns to level a fierce look at me. “If it’d been me walking in on another man talking that closely to you, with his hands on you, I’d have thrown him through the window.”
My core pulses.
Fuck , why is that so hot?
We cruise the rest of the way uptown in silence before the car pulls up outside the Kildare family brownstone. Gavan turns to me.
“There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”
“Okay…”
“Not now. Tonight. I’m picking you up at eight.”
A blush tingles through my cheeks. “Oh? For what?”
“For dinner.”
My bottom lip sucks between my teeth.
“If that’s okay with you,” he grumbles. “It’s not a date, in case you’re wondering.”
“Oh no, two people who fuck each other a lot having dinner alone together is…definitely not a date.”
Gavan smirks. “Be ready at eight.”