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“How’s my favorite kidnappee?” he teased.
Drake had to rein in his temper over Maddox’s spontaneous display of overdone affection. He knew well why he’d done it. If Drake hadn’t allowed himself to be distracted, something he found himself guilty of with increasing frequency ever since Evangeline had walked into his club that first night, then he would have damn well known she and Jax were on their way up in the elevator. Hell, he would have known the moment they hit the entrance to the club.
When Evangeline continued to regard Maddox warily, he sent her a look of indulgence and laughed.
“Don’t go getting all timid on me now, sweetheart. You’ve already shown me your claws. Don’t worry. I didn’t really dump anyone into the Hudson. It was merely wishful thinking on my part. One has that kind of reaction when their accountant informs them, after filing an extension and paying estimated taxes due because all my K-1s from my investments don’t come in until well after April fifteenth, that I owe substantially more than he first estimated.”
Even Silas blinked in reaction to how convincing Maddox sounded. Not lost on Drake was the fact that Maddox had purposely used terms Evangeline wouldn’t possibly be familiar with given her economic status, and well, rich or poor, no one loved the IRS.
Evangeline laughed, the melodious sound easing the tension in the room.
“You poor baby. I have something to make you feel all better,” she teased, just as he’d teased her.
Drake’s teeth were now baring themselves. Evangeline was here. Over an hour late, and he didn’t buy Jax’s trumped-up excuse about a fucking traffic jam, but she was here, which meant that everyone else should not be here. And yet here they all stood. He realized then just how much of a distracted idiot he was. His men knew Evangeline was coming in to the club today. Those who hadn’t met her were no doubt dying of curiosity, and those who had just wanted an excuse to see her again. Suddenly Maddox’s threat of dumping someone in the Hudson sounded very appealing, only in this case it was going to be a lot of someones.
Evangeline reached for the box Jax was holding, and he adopted a wounded puppy-dog look that had Drake wanting to beat his head on the desk. Were his men turning into complete pussies? For fuck’s sake.
“Hand it over or you don’t get one,” Evangeline said, her attempt at sounding menacing making Thane and Justice chuckle.
Jax sighed and made an elaborate show of reluctantly handing over the box—or was it a covered plastic food container?
Evangeline cracked the lid, reached inside and, to Drake’s eternal surprise, drew out one of the cupcakes she’d given him for dessert last night. She held it temptingly under Maddox’s nose.
“All better now?”
He narrowed his eyes. “That depends on whether you poisoned them or not.”
“If I did, it’s nothing more than you deserve. I’m sure your accountant would thank me.”
Another round of laughter sounded and Drake leaned back in his chair, any effort to disguise his irritation now gone. Not that anyone paid him any attention.
“Are those cupcakes?” Justice asked incredulously.
He and Thane were both eyeing Maddox and Evangeline as if they’d sprouted a third head. Drake supposed he could see the humor in the fact that a woman bearing cupcakes had walked into Drake’s inner sanctum where no woman had ever been before. Much less bearing fucking cupcakes.
Evangeline turned in Thane and Justice’s direction, but Jax cleared his throat. Evangeline rolled her eyes and then handed him one of the baked treats. Drake had a bad feeling that his angel was going to have his men trained like dogs by handing out puppy treats whenever she came near.
Then she walked over to where Thane and Justice were lounging on the leather couch and dutifully handed over a cupcake.
What she did next astounded Drake.
She first walked over to Hatcher, who glanced nervously between her and Drake as if gauging Drake’s reaction or perhaps determining whether he should even be speaking to Drake’s woman.
“Hi,” she said in a shy voice as she held out a cupcake. “I’m Evangeline.”
Hatcher took the cupcake and smiled at her. “Hello, Evangeline. I’m Hatcher.”
But when she then turned her attention to Silas, who had since melted into the farthest corner, one that was so dimly lighted that Drake was surprised she’d located him with such ease, it seemed the entire room held their breath.
She walked right up to the big man, who stood as still and silent as a statue, and issued a shaky smile. Drake realized then that for all her false bravado, she was, in fact, terrified. All of his earlier irritation fled as pride surged in his veins. Evangeline was doing just as he’d asked her. To walk into his world and accept it—and him. And she’d obviously sensed that by accepting him, she was accepting his men as an extension of himself.
