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They say it’s wise to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, yet Luca had been the enemy who’d managed to retreat into shadow. But the distance she kept hadn’t ended the war…it only managed to delay the next battle for a bit.
My eyes bounced between them, my voice coming out on a practical growl.
“Then you owe Gabriel the money because that’s not why I invited her here. I had to get her alone in the woman’s bathroom during a quick recess just to talk to her. It didn’t give me a lot of time to discuss what I wanted.”
Head falling against the couch, Sawyer rested his hands on his chest and closed his eyes.
“If that’s what you have to tell yourself to sleep better at night.”
Liquid gold poured into Gabriel’s glass as he helped himself to my best scotch.
“Leave Ta
“My father is like herpes that way,” I corrected him, “or have you forgotten how this entire fucked up situation started?”
Gabriel swallowed the scotch in three large tugs, his glass clinking against the bar where he set it down.
“Maybe tonight will be the night you finally move past her and we can end this war. I’m sick of hearing you and Jase cry like little bitches about it.”
Ignoring him, I shrugged off my jacket and hung it from the back of a chair. “I mean it. I need both of you gone in the next hour.”
A door opened down the hall, high pitched, flirtatious laughter sliding through the air in harmony with Jase’s low voice.
I turned to watch him slap the woman’s ass and show her out of the house. Cocking a brow when he returned inside, I stared at his guilt-ridden face.
“How much is that one going to cost you?”
Jase dropped his weight in an armchair before answering.
“Too much, I’m sure. She wasn’t worth it.”
His brown eyes held mine, disheveled hair tumbling over his forehead where it had been combed through by the woman’s fingers.
“Where’s Everly?”
He’d cut right to the chase, to one of the payments I would need from Luca in order to throw her husband’s case.
Everly had been hot and heavy with Jase at one time. It was no small feat for her to manage to hold his interest for so long, but the way she’d left things had been a sore spot he refused to move past. Jase was out to get even and, as such, he’d been looking for Everly ever since she’d run away.
I would feel sorry for the girl when he finally found her if Everly hadn’t also been a large part of the reason Luca kept her distance from me.
The two girls were inseparable friends until Everly disappeared, Luca cutting things off from my group immediately after.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” His normally casual voice turned serious.
“Is she going to let you help that asshole she married deny her the millions she’s owed just to protect her old friend? Tell me she’s not that stupid.”
Shaking my head, I crossed the room to pour a drink. I needed it to deal with Jase’s bullshit.
Although he claimed he only wanted to find Everly to make her pay for ditching out on him and causing a significant problem after doing so, the rest of us knew he was dedicated to that girl from the first second she let him shove his cock in her golden pussy.
The way I saw it, Everly must have been bestowed with the magic of the Gods to entice a man like Jase to settle down. I often wondered if she hadn’t taken off, would he have given up his manwhore ways years ago to stick with one girl?
Not that the rest of us had done so either. Of the nine men who made up my group, only one of us had found somebody worthy enough to make us consider giving up the vices in our lives.
The tumbler damn near overflowed for as much scotch as I dumped in it. Taking a large swallow, I pulled it from my lips to answer.
“I didn’t have time to ask her. I had to corner her in a bathroom for two minutes just to give her the offer to discuss terms. That bitch she hired to represent her wouldn’t take her eyes off Luca for a second. Not that I could blame her. If Clayton ever gets near Luca again, I’ll personally end his life for it.”
“Personally?” Sawyer’s lazily voiced question cut through the room. “Or do you mean you’ll send Ezra over to handle it?”
Although Ezra wasn’t the resident hothead of the group, he had a cold temper that led to several missing persons reports. But, despite his talents, I wouldn’t give him the pleasure of taking out Clayton Hughes. Not after what I learned over the past five days while we’d pretended to enjoy our attorney-client relationship.
“Personally.”
My gaze cut to the window, the sky beyond it ribboned in color by the setting sun.
“I’m serious, though. I need you out as soon as possible. I want to be ready by the time Luca arrives.”
“Just do what I do and answer the door naked.”
My head shot left to glare at Jase.
“It’s not like that.”
“Sure it isn’t,” Sawyer laughed. “Don’t forget to pay up, Gabe.”
Jase’s laughter boomed through the room to answer Sawyer’s.
“You actually took that bet? You might as well have lit the cash on fire for as easily as you lost it.”
My patience was ru
Snapped to attention by the volume of my voice, the three of them gathered their things and moved toward the front door. Before they could see themselves out, I volleyed one last reminder.
“And be sure to let everyone else know the party’s not here tonight. I don’t want any interruptions.”
The front door slammed shut as the house was doused in silence, the headache that had been pounding my skull since court this afternoon finally easing to a bearable, low pulse.
After opening a few windows to air out the smell of pot smoke and three different types of men’s cologne, I made my way to the shower to prepare for Luca’s arrival.
The only thought ru
Not that I didn’t plan to see Luca sprawled across my sheets again, but only after she begged. And only because I was forgiving enough to allow her that second chance.
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