Chapter 50
Electra
One of Gael’s guards enters the kitchen with two catering racks of food he picked up at a local restaurant. I should probably eat, but the knots in my stomach have developed knots. I suspect that if I tried to take even one bite, I would throw up.
“I hate that you brought her,” I tell Dorian as we pop the lids off containers and set them out on the enormous kitchen island.
My brother rolls his lips.
“I don’t even care if she came to keep Gael in check… I told you I never wanted to see her, yet you brought her.”
Another roll of his lips. And then, without looking up from the feast we’re laying out, he says, “I heard you’re getting along well with Alexander.”
Something gentle flows through my chest. Although it doesn’t rid me of the knots, it does loosen a few.
I walk up to Dorian and tie my arms around his waist and lay my cheek between his shoulder blades.
“Remember that mug I made you when Dad forced my thirteen-year-old ass to take a pottery class with him? The misshapen one?”
“You mean, my favorite mug?”
I smile against his giant back. “Remember what I inscribed on it?”
“I use it every day, so yes.”
“You’re irreplaceable, My #1 Brother.”
One of his large palms lands on my linked fingers. “You know, when you gave me that mug, I freaked out. I was sure it was your way of telling me that you’d learned about Alexander.”
“It was my way of telling you that I loved you, because I was still incapable of saying it with words.”
Dorian’s presence appeases me in a way no one else’s presence ever could.
I soak up his calmness until it loosens more snarls. “I feel so stupid. I hate feeling stupid.”
His fingers spasm. “You’re anything but, Elle,” he growls.
“Have you ever been conned?”
“I have. By Symeon.”
“I meant you specifically. Not the lot of us. Did you ever fall for someone’s lies?”
“My first boyfriend. He told me he was dating me for me, but he was only dating me to get dirt on the Hadezes.”
I pick my head off his taut spine. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re not just creating this parallel to make me feel less dumb?”
“He was thirteen years older than me and a reporter for the Boston Globe.”
The level of detail combined with the tension hardening his broad shape tells me that this isn’t some kind lie.
“First boyfriends suck,” I murmur, releasing Dorian.
“Agreed,” he replies gruffly. “One day, you’ll find someone incredible. And maybe he’ll even be a mortal—like Callie was.”
If he isn’t, then my pool of candidates is minuscule.
As I dump spoons into containers, Dorian says, “I interrogated him.”
“And?”
“And he really did leave the Holy Hunters six years back. Lived in Maine for most of that time and worked in a restaurant. He’d just been promoted to sous-chef when Quinn asked Trenton Caruso for a divorce and the…” My brother’s cheek tics like he’s holding back the crude word Trenton deserves.
“Asshole? Degenerate? Sadist?” I suggest.
Dorian nods. “When he cut into her face. That was a little over two months ago.”
“She’s even worse than I am at picking men. Though in my defense, Reeve picked me, and not the other way around,” I huff.
Dorian mustn’t have heard me, or doesn’t want to encourage my pity party, because he continues telling me about his cross-examination. “Mal’s still interrogating her, but from what I understood, she survived because she managed to get in touch with Reeve, who rushed back to save her life.”
“How heroic. Granted, with Trenton out of the picture, he finally gets his shot with Quinn.”
I want my brother to rebut my conclusion. To tell me that what Reeve and Quinn share is the same bond that Dorian and I share. But my brother doesn’t refute it, which just causes glumness to plaster itself over my dread.
“Hmm. Smells delicious in here.” Gael’s cowboy boots click against the stone tiles of the kitchen as he enters, Alexander in tow.
The latter tightens his short ponytail as he grabs a plate and begins to heap it with a little of everything.
“Any movement on the perimeter?” I ask, since my biological father and brother have self-tasked themselves with monitoring the coast—skies and roads.
“Nothin’,” Alexander replies. “How are the interrogations goin’? Have Mal and Ines been able to get anythin’ out of the Hunters?”
“You let Ines go downstairs?” I direct my shrill question at Dorian.
Alexander’s gaze dips to my balled fists. I loosen them.
“She’s with Mal,” Dorian says softly.
“Is that supposed to reassure me?” I hiss. “We’re talking about Ines. The woman who abandoned me in the human world.”
“Electra’s right to worry. My wife holds grudges like it’s nobody’s business.
” Gael scoops risotto onto his plate, smoothing it into an even layer before finishing it with parmesan.
“I’m not sure whether we should be more concerned that the hostages remain alive or in captivity.
I wouldn’t put it past her to try and sabotage my daughter’s arrest of two high-value targets. ”
Through barely separated teeth, Dorian growls, “Who would that serve?”
“Herself. She’d get to apprehend them and come out the hero.”
“You’re delusional, Monta. Ines would never jeopardize what my sister has achieved.”
Though I love my brother dearly, I can’t help but think that he’s the delusional one if he believes Ines means well.
I planned to stay away from Reeve, but Gael’s doubts root itself inside my brain, driving me down to the basement.