Chapter 19 #2
Dawn screwed up her face in concentration. “Umm…let me think. I didn’t talk to him, but I did try to eavesdrop on his conversation with the owner. She called him Robin. Or maybe Roger? I should ask her next time. I’m pretty sure he was single.”
Dawn babbled on but Bianca had stopped listening. Robert had definitely been at her gym during a fitness class she frequented. He’d been loitering around the classroom where she should’ve been sweating alongside Dawn. He’d looked in more than once, as if searching for someone.
It might not be a big deal. Maybe Robert was just checking out all the sweaty women, which was sleazy but not criminal. He’d indicated he was in Smyrna City on business. The Burn Barre job could just be an unlucky coincidence.
But it was the second time his job had brought him into direct contact with Bianca’s social circle.
And there was that glimpse of a familiar face at the masquerade ball, the same one that had shown up in the background of Alicia’s brunch photo.
The hair on the back of her neck prickled.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm the surge of anxiety clawing at her belly.
“I know you have better prospects, and better sense than to fall for a working guy. You and Alicia and the others are all so clever.” Dawn interrupted Bianca’s thoughts again, her voice uncertain and a bit sad.
She looked down at her hands contemplatively for a few moments before brightening again.
“Anyway, how are those distinguished gentlemen I saw you with at the ballet? They were obviously sooooo into you. I don’t think anyone has ever looked at me that way. ”
Bianca was distracted from her anxiety by a pang of sympathy. She’d always thought of Dawn as being clueless, but it was obvious she was quite aware of her shortcomings, and more affected by them than she appeared. Maybe she wasn’t as na?ve as she seemed.
“If I was so clever, I’d figure out how to attract mates who are rich and younger than my grandparents,” Bianca quipped dryly, surprised again by the urge to show a little vulnerability and kindness.
“Pack Willoughby is exactly what they’ve always been: polite, extravagant, and dull as dish water.
I’m hoping their days left on this earth are numbered. ”
Dawn snorted a startled laugh. “Bianca Bonnycastle! You’re so naughty!”
Bianca couldn’t help but think of Callum as she replied. “Darling, you have no idea.”
Since their departure, Pack Willoughby had maintained communication with Bianca primarily via ostentatious gift-giving.
They’d sent her at least one present a week, including a pair of diamond earrings to match her watch, a designer handbag, and a bouquet of rare Juliet roses.
Aside from the handwritten notes accompanying each delivery, they sent the occasional email or text message, which Bianca dutifully answered with more enthusiasm than she felt.
“There’s something different about you lately,” Dawn mused, head tilted curiously and a gentle smile playing around her lips. “You seem…lighter somehow. Less terrifying.”
Bianca laughed, surprising herself yet again. She felt lighter, like an oppressive veil that had long blanketed her in suffocating dimness had finally lifted. She didn’t want to think about why she felt that way. And she certainly didn’t want people to think she’d gone soft.
“If you say that in front of anyone else, I’ll destroy everything you love,” Bianca deadpanned, taking Dawn’s arm and steering her toward the bar. “Now come on. Let’s get a drink.”
If anyone had told Bianca a few months earlier that she would ever find herself enjoying Dawn Fairmount’s company, she would’ve laughed in their face.
And yet, that’s exactly what happened. The two women talked about nothing over a couple of espresso martinis, and Bianca found that Dawn’s inane prattle didn’t aggravate her like it once did.
Occasionally, she even found it amusing.
When Dawn was called away to play hostess, Bianca decided to call it a night. Before she could signal to Daniel, however, a woman sidled up to the bar beside her. Bianca immediately recognized the strikingly beautiful, endearingly familiar face.
“Chloe Clifton-Merriwether, what a pleasant surprise,” Bianca greeted the gorgeous omega with a nod.
“It’s Chloe Breckenridge now. I recently decided to take my pack leader’s name.
” Chloe had a husky voice and a dry manner that were very different from her brother’s exuberant sarcasm, but she had the same mischievous amber eyes.
They sparkled now as she openly studied Bianca.
“Don’t tell me you’re leaving before we’ve had a drink.
You wouldn’t be friends with Callum if you couldn’t hold your liquor, so I assume another espresso martini wouldn’t hurt? ”
Bianca let herself smile. She’d tolerated Chloe whenever their paths had crossed in the past and had found her to be less vexing than most people.
She was smart and driven, qualities Bianca appreciated, and she didn’t talk unless she had something intelligent to say, which was a rarity in their circles.
Chloe had avoided most of the rich omega social scene by showing her tech talents early and making herself invaluable to her family business.
The Clifton-Merriwethers were as rich and traditional as the Bonnycastles, but they had the good sense to let go of the gender and designation norm nonsense when they realized their daughter’s brilliance could make them a fortune.
Thus, Bianca didn’t know Chloe well, but she respected her.
Knowing that she’d stood by Callum after their parents sent him away, and that she’d influenced them to lift his exile, had raised her further in Bianca’s opinion.
“Make it a dry martini and you’re on,” Bianca countered, nodding at the bartender, who’d been close enough to hear. “I’ll be up half the night if I have another espresso, and I need my beauty sleep if I’m going to keep up with your brother’s shenanigans.”
Chloe smirked and the resemblance between her and Callum grew stronger.
“Cal does love a shenanigan, but you don’t need any beauty rest. You’re objectively attractive by most measures, and the majority of our mutual acquaintances think you’re strikingly beautiful.
The people who disagree do so out of jealousy or because they dislike your personality. ”
As usual, Chloe spoke with a matter-of-factness that appealed to Bianca.
She’d witnessed more than one conversation where Chloe bluntly and unemotionally countered someone’s argument so thoroughly that they were offended, but they never could refute her because she was so damn smart.
The word genius might be thrown around a lot, but it was literal in Chloe’s case.
Bianca had read a Bizfeed article that speculated her IQ was over a hundred and sixty.
“Thank you,” Bianca replied, feeling oddly comfortable with Chloe already, despite being unable to remember ever having a one-on-one conversation with her before this.
“You, of course, are every bit as lovely as your mother, but with a brain to rival history’s greatest thinkers. It’s disgusting, honestly.”
Chloe smiled and slid a bill to the bartender, who’d returned with their drinks. “I can already see why Cal is so enamored with you. You’re not like him exactly, but you complement him perfectly. Cheers.”
Bianca was glad the martinis spared her the necessity of having to respond right away. She clinked her glass against Chloe’s and sipped her drink, letting the crisp bitterness ground her. She didn’t need to think about why such a simple remark had sent a thrill through her core.
“Callum sees the best in people, which I usually find irritating, but he makes it endearing,” Bianca said finally, trying to be honest without giving too much away. “I don’t know why he took a liking to me, but I’m glad for it.”
Bianca swallowed against a lump in her throat.
She really was grateful he’d pushed past her prickliness to become her dearest friend, despite the short time they’d known each other.
She knew that her connection with Callum was special, but she still didn’t know how he fit into her life plans.
She could ask him to join her in Pack Willoughby—she had no doubt they’d leap at the prestige of having two young omegas of distinguished birth—but the idea made her angry.
Callum deserved better than that. He deserved love and adventure and laughter, not to languish away the years as some rich assholes’ plaything.
He was too vibrant for such a colorless life.
Chloe was right about Bianca not being like Callum. Bianca had always been gray and cold, made of steel and ice. She couldn’t condemn Callum to share her drab fate.
Chloe fixed her amber eyes on Bianca’s face, intently studying her expression. “Cal has a big heart, but he also has a hell of a bullshit detector. He’s one of the only people who has made me feel seen and unconditionally loved. If he likes you, I like you.”
Bianca didn’t know how to respond to that.
She wasn’t accustomed to being liked and had actively avoided forming human attachments.
Callum had been a fluke. Pack King had been paid to put up with her and then, for some inexplicable reason, decided they enjoyed her company.
On a low day, Bianca could explain that away with money and sex.
But now here were Dawn and Chloe and what the entire fuck was going on?
Her instinct was to pull away, to retreat into herself and hide behind a shield of cold indifference.
It had protected her for so long. The walls around her heart were what had held it together after it’d been ripped to shreds by her parents and her almost-mates.
Now, she was voluntarily talking to people and caring about their feelings. It was weird.