CHAPTER 20 ELODIE #2
I give him a brief smile and stand up on legs that feel like jelly, making my way over. I grip the lapel of Caden’s blazer so tightly I’m sure my knuckles are turning white.
As I get closer to them, I notice his dad’s got some similar features to Caden. The sharp jaw, straight nose, but the eyes are different. He doesn’t have the mossy green but a deep dark brown. A colour so opaque it twists my gut.
Evil, the darkness hisses aggressively.
Pfft, I don’t need a voice in my head to tell me that.
It’s written all over him. Stained like blood all over the surrounding air.
He looks young to have a twenty-five-year-old, and his older son, Max, was a couple years older than Caden, the same age as Lewis. Barely any wrinkles, only speckles of grey peppering his brown hair, which is still thick.
Unlike Caden, he’s deeply tanned, as if he spends all summer in the Bahamas, or somewhere else ridiculously hot and expensive.
He wears a suit that probably cost a small fortune, fitted around his bulging muscles. He’s got Alfie’s build more than his own son’s. Caden must have taken more of his mother’s genes. How did she die?
Shaking off my spiralling thoughts and plastering a smile on my heated face, I come up to Caden’s side, preparing to meet the man who raised a monster.
The girl takes me in and has a less-than-enthusiastic look on her face. Am I competition for her? It does seem like she’s more interested in Caden than his father with the way she stares at him in awe.
Caden holds out his hand to me, so I take it while staring right at the brunette’s face, which, to my delight, turns a little bleak at the sight of our hands connecting.
“Elodie,” Caden says, “this is my father, Russell.”
Uncomfortably, I fix my eyes on his ominously dark ones and hold out my free hand to this intimidating man. “Nice to meet you, Mr Blackwood.”
Russell chuckles and takes my hand in his, but lifts it to place a soft, chivalrous kiss on the back. “Pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Valor, but please, call me Russell.”
His cheerful tone and gentlemanly manner contradict his intimidating appearance.
The more I stare at him, the more he unnerves me.
This is the man who overpowers and overrules and over-everything the man who does all that to me.
His eyes might be a different colour, but they do have the superiority in them that matches his son’s.
Like he’s looking down his nose at me without even trying to be belittling.
I realise I’m staring, Caden’s eyes are so wide beside his father they might just pop out of his skull.
So I force myself to speak again. “Thank you, Russell. And thank you for organising all this, it’s lovely.
” I gesture to the restaurant, although there’s been absolutely nothing done to make this any special engagement party.
All the tables have just been shoved together to make three long tables that run the length of the building. No balloons, no banners. Nothing.
Caden’s eyes finally sink back behind his eyelids, clearly reassured that I’m not going to make this hard for him. Making it hard for him only makes it hard for myself. I’m not doing it for you.
Russell waves a hand. “It’s nothing. It’s always nice to get the family together.”
I glance around the room briefly. “Is this all family? All Blackwoods?” I ask, wondering how many of these whack jobs I’m supposedly going to be related to by law.
“Not at all,” Russell says, “there are some of us, but mostly friends, other business associates. But we’re all family.”
Of course, Russell Blackwood is rather famous in the normal world as well. The Blackwoods established themselves above ground too, I suppose to help disguise the horrors they commit below the surface.
He continues, “But I’m very excited to have the Valors unite with us and become part of it.”
I gulp down and keep the smile on my face. “Of course. I’m blessed with the opportunity.” Not so blessed at what I had to endure to get the opportunity.
He seems pleased with this and opens his mouth to say something else when his “flavour of the week” cuts in.
“Oh my,” she squeals, almost outraged. “Your hand!”
I fling my hand up in front of me, wondering what the hell she’s looking at.
“What?” Russell asks.
“It’s… bare!” she cries.
This bitch.
She turns to Caden. “Where’s the ring?! Where’s the symbol of promise, commitment, love?!”
This fucking bitch.
Caden maintains his phlegmatic composure. “I haven’t found the perfect one yet. The perfect woman deserves the perfect ring.”
Alright, that’s laying it on a bit thick. But still, the irritated purse of the girl’s lips makes it worth the internal cringe.
“We’re in no rush,” I add in, noticing Russell’s raised eyebrows. “We have the rest of our lives together. I don’t care for such material things, anyway.”
Russell scoffs. “No, I don’t suppose you do, being used to destitution before we came along.”
An icy shock shoots up my spine. It’s not like he did much to ensure this partnership. It was all me. And Drago.
Does he think I’m indebted to him just because it’s his family we merged with?
Caden’s fingers squeeze gently around mine.
Does he know me that well by now? I hold back the retort, instead responding with a slightly strained voice, “Yes, you really did save us.” The words are sour on my tongue, but it’s better than upsetting this guy upon our first meeting.
He’s probably worse than Caden when he’s affronted.
“It’s a pity about your brother, Elodie,” Russell says, sorrow filling his deep voice, and the abrupt mention of Lewis curls around my chest like fingers to a throat.
Squeezing and twisting until I’m sure I’ll choke.
“Of course, we’ll always be connected from that day.
Losing my son as well as you losing Lewis.
What a terrible, devastating tragedy.” His eyes glaze over slightly, and I feel a twinge of sadness for him. And for Caden.
After all, as he said, we are connected in that way. Caden and I have never spoke about it. Well, Caden and I have never really spoke unless it’s been to argue.
“Yes,” I say, then clear my throat. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of Lewis.”
“Nor I with Max.” He looks off to the side, as if picturing his son in front of him now.
He chuckles sadly. “What I wouldn’t give to see him again.
My first-born, my heir.” Russell angles towards his son beside him.
“He always said Caden was more suited to take over than he was… I guess now he got his wish.”
I peer up at Caden, whose face remains blank and unreadable, bar the tightening of his jaw. I give his fingers a gentle squeeze and look back at his father, unsure how to respond to that.
“Well,” Russell says, snapping out of that sombre tone and back to his upbeat one. “We have so much to talk about, I have to get to know everything about my new daughter-in-law to be! We shall get together soon and get better acquainted.” He flashes me a grin.
I return it with one of my own. “I’d love that.” I’m suddenly hit with the possibility of having some sort of decent father figure in my life. He may be terrifying and intimidating, but… Maybe I could grow fond of him. The prospect has my strained grin widening into a genuine one.
He claps his hands together. “Fantastic. It was wonderful to meet you, Elodie, you really are simply stunning. A wonderful match for my boy. Keep him in line, will you? That is the responsibility of the women in the family, after all.”
I hold back the frown, feeling like I’m missing something there. “I don’t think any woman could keep this one in line, but I shall do my best.”
He laughs loudly. “It’s about time my son settled down and found a good woman. He’s too much like me in that respect.”
I glance over at his “flavour of the week,” whose pale cheeks go the colour of bright red traffic lights. I press my lips together hard to keep from snickering.
“Yes, wonderful,” Caden says brusquely, “thanks, Dad.”
“Well, I must mingle,” Russell says and sticks his hands in his pockets rather than taking his lady’s hand. “Please do enjoy the food and as much booze as you want. Make the most of it, I’d say. After The Cleanse I expect you two will be fucking like rabbits to give me a grandson.”
Caden visibly cringes next to his dad but immediately flashes a grin when he turns to him. “Thanks for that, Dad.” He claps the man on the shoulder. “Totally not inappropriate at all.”
Russell chuckles and for the first time, I see the Caden beneath the hardened, stoic veil. A normal twenty-five-year-old guy embarrassed by his parent. His dark, ominous presence floats away, and a light shines down on him, illuminating and softening those tight and tense features.
I’m momentarily blown away by the new image of him before me before Russell finally walks off and Caden’s usual icy glare returns.
He leads me back to the table and we flop down in our seats.
“One down, about four hundred and ninety-nine to go,” he mutters.
I huff a laugh. “If there were really that many, I think I’d pass out before the first hundred.”
His lips don’t so much as twitch. I don’t know why I bother engaging in conversation with this broody asshole. I thought we’d found some middle ground just then. Silly me for thinking the civility wasn’t actually fake.
Alfie’s hand comes onto my thigh from the other side and makes me start. God, I need to get a fucking grip. My nervous system can’t tell the difference between a gentle stroke and a fucking threat to my life right now.
He leans in and whispers, “How you doing, princess?”
I nod. “Totally fine. Not freaking out at all.”
He chuckles. “You’re doing great. Just breathe. And get drunk.” He pushes the flute of champagne in my direction.
As much as I’d love to numb my senses, quiet my raging brain, this is the last place I need to be intoxicated.
I smile and thank him, lifting the glass to my lips and taking the smallest sip possible.