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I bite down on my tongue. “Of course you did. The man running them went after my friends.”
Elijah clucks his tongue. “Seth. I never did like him.” He brushes some lint from his pants. “I found him rather,” a deliberate pause, “distasteful.”
I tap the edge of my pen on the desk, an impatient movement. “Just tell me why you’re here. I have to get back to work.”
“You’re not going to offer me a drink?”
I feel a hint of rebelliousness rise in me at the open disappointment in his voice.
“I heard you’re not allowed to drink anymore,” I eye him. “Something about a near stroke. That’s why you were in Germany, no?”
Elijah studies me, a small smile playing on his lips, and he murmurs, “Well, look at you; keeping tabs on me.”
I take out a file and open it to reveal some documents that need my approval. “Not out of any sort of love, I can assure you.” The pen moves swiftly as I sign my name on the bottom of a document. “If you just came here to bother me, then leave.”
Elijah is silent for a few moments. “Mila Wolfe. That’s why I’m here.”
Fury flows through my veins as I nearly shoot out of my chair with a snarl. “You stay away from her!”
Elijah doesn’t look the least bit startled at the threat in my tone.
“I have every right to want to get to know my granddaughter.”
6
Eve
“I don’t see the problem, Eve,” Ron speaks over a mouthful of chips as he leans on the kitchen counter.
Mark sits next to him, dressed in an elegant suit, with the navy blue suit jacket draping from the back of his chair, the waistcoat unwrinkled and fitting his form. He is reading the newspaper, a steaming cup of coffee in front of him on the kitchen table.
He spent the night here and was forced to have breakfast here at his boyfriend’s insistence.
“How can you not see the problem?” I exhale. “He wants to sleep with me.”
Mark turns the page, not bothering to look at me. “In your own words, he wants more than that.”
“That’s just what he’s saying,” I feel like screaming: screaming at the sheer unfairness of the nonsense. Zayn is insufferable, wearing his arrogance like a well-tailored suit. It pisses me off that he carries it off so well.
Ron scrunches his nose at Mark when he very neatly removes the packet of chips from in front of him and replaces it with a banana. As he peels the banana with a tragic air, he eyes me. “It’s been two weeks, Eve. He’s been nothing short of a gentleman. He’s great with Mila, and he’s been very courteous with you. I mean, the way you’re describing it, you’d think he gropes you in dark corners or something.”
My mouth twists. “That’s because I avoid him. I know him, Ron. I know when he’s up to something. And he’s definitely planning something.” I sip my coffee, muttering, “He always was a cryptic, shifty asshole.”
Ron takes a swig of Mark’s coffee, waggling his eyebrows at me. “Funny how you still crawled into bed with him.”
I throw him a dirty look. “Fuck you.”
Mark clears his throat, narrowing his eyes at me momentarily. “Don’t take out your grievances on Ron. Nobody made you sleep with Zayn in the first place.”
I stare at him. “Thank you. Your input is most helpful.”
I straighten, stretching. “This is a waste of time.” I knock back the remaining coffee and put the cup in the sink.
“Where are you going?” Ron asks, slapping Mark’s hand away as it tries to reclaim the coffee. “I thought you were going to stay in today.”
Grimacing, I shift on one foot, then the other. “Zayn wants to take Mila out for breakfast. Family bonding, he calls it.”
I sneer at the word ‘family.’
