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Ford appeared behind him and closed the door. “He’s got three guys in the hall.”
“Which means nothing to Dunn,” Evander said, coming her way. “He’s faced rougher odds.” He picked up her hand to kiss her knuckles. “I’m sorry for your loss, Princess.”
Her instinct was always to pull away from Evander when he made physical contact. This time, she had to resist the urge. If she needed his help, she had to tolerate his advances… to a point.
“I want to know who did it,” she said, plain as day, just like that.
Beating around the bush got no one anywhere fast.
As Evander straightened, he checked every other face in the room. “And you came to me,” he said. “I’m honored.”
“I’m exploring a lot of avenues. You’re one of them.”
“And if I come up with the goods?”
“You don’t seem shocked,” Imogen said. “That he’s dead or that Sersha’s asking.”
“Sersha and me go way back,” he said, turning to peruse Imogen’s figure. “Every time you’re stunning.”
“Focus, Evander,” Sersha snapped, trying to save Imogen from the leering she knew only too well. “What do you know?”
“You’ve got nothing to be jealous about,” Evander said, coming in closer, putting himself between her and Strat. “You know I’m all yours. Just say the word.”
“What do you know, Evander?”
He inhaled. “Not much. But I can find out… After we talk.” That piqued her interest, especially when she read the gravity in his. “Alone. Outside.”
“Not outside,” Strat said. “In here. We’ll give you the room.”
Outside could lead to kidnap and torture and God knew what. Did she think Evander would do that to her? No. But she would be the first to admit she didn’t always make the best choices.
None of the others argued; they filtered out while Strat held the door for them. They made eye contact. He’d be right outside. Strat wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He cared about her… And knew more about her relationship with Connel than anyone else.
“What do you want, Evander?” she asked.
“I’d think that was obvious by now,” he said, his hands sliding onto her hips. “You.”
NINE
“NO,” she said, silencing the voice in her head that screamed déjà vu. “Forget it.”
“Don’t blow me off,” he said, putting a hand on the counter to block her escape route. “Think about this. Your grandfather’s killer. I can deliver him to you.”
“If you know who it is and are withholding, why would I want to be with a man who’d manipulate me like that?”
“I don’t know now, but I will,” he said, leaning in. “For you, Princess.”
“We’ve known each other a long time,” she said, appealing to his humanity. Now was the time to prove he had some. “There’s no reason we can’t be friends. Why does it always have to be about sex with you?”
Alone with him, with so many other things hanging in the balance, she couldn’t reject him outright. It had always been like that. Balancing his ego with her own revulsion. Evander was attractive, in his own way. Yet he loomed with expectation, as though their being intimate was a foregone conclusion, and it turned her off completely.
One look from Connel filled her with need and contentment. In contrast, just the thought of being intimate with Evander was a nauseating nightmare. In a lot of circles, the two men would be lumped in together like they were the same. They never would be to her. One was defiantly essential to her taking every breath; though he shouldn’t be, not with them apart. The other could walk off the end of the earth and she wouldn’t care unless someone told her to fake it.
“He couldn’t please you…” Evander said, obviously thinking of the man in her mind. “I won’t make that mistake…” He stroked her hair. “We’re destined to be together. On the inside, with me, we can take this city. The whole city.”
“I just lost a man I was close to, I can’t think about this now.”
Was he playing on her assumed vulnerability? Just when he couldn’t get any lower, he dug deeper into depravity.
