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“Oh, so soon?” replies Elise. “We didn’t get a chance to get to know your lovely Indigo.”
Her words and her tone are warm, kind even, but something in her face reads the exact opposite—the disingenuous smirk, the eyes gleaming with some kind of snide delight, the way she glances over at Gabriella who is now eyeballing me as if she wants to ram that spoon down my throat.
I glance over at Tyrion who licks his lips most lewdly as he studies me before pivoting my gaze to Gabriella. She’s sharing Landon’s ravenous glower, only this time, unless I’m mistaken, she seems to be breathing through… rage.
“Another time,” replies Grey and I place my spoon down onto the plate.
“The food was lovely. Thank you,” I say, though no one answers as Grey gets to his feet, placing his hand on my waist and pulling my chair out as I make it to my feet.
He grips my hand tightly. “Please don’t get up. We’ll see ourselves out. Thank you for dinner.”
I throw them a lukewarm smile as my date pulls me from the room, leading me to the entrance hall where we don our shoes and coats in silence. The silence doesn’t come only from us but from them too, one that weighs on both of us as Grey holds out my coat for me to slide my arms into.
As he draws the door closed behind us, I exhale a shuddering breath of relief.
56
Indigo
“God that was… intense,” I breathe out, glad I managed to numb my way through some of it with wine. “Though a few of them could probably work on their social skills,” I jest, in some feeble attempt to loosen the tension clearly gripping Grey’s huge frame.
I look up at him to find him stone-faced and unspeaking, walking us in brisk long strides down the driveway, through the gate and back towards the car.
Pulling the key from his pocket, he presses a button to unlock the doors of his Bentley, opening the passenger door for me and holding it open.
We don’t speak as I get in, nor do we speak as he checks his mirrors and pulls out onto the quiet street.
“Are you okay?” I ask, observing how tightly he’s gripping the steering wheel and how shaken he looks. “Look, it honestly could have been worse,” I say, aware that the only way it could havereallygotten much worse is if someone’s face had ended up in the raspberry mousse cake. “I really was expecting blood at one point, so I’d say it was a success. Plus, at least now I know what to expect, so next time I’ll just give them a bit more attitude. I swear they’ll love me by the time I’m finished with them.”
As I say the words, he pulls the car over, stopping the engine and turning it off. We’re a couple of hundred feet away from his parents’ house but this patch of the street is flanked by a tall hedge on either side and very dark but for light seeping over from a frankly gothic-looking mansion behind a mammoth gate on the other side of the street.
Come to think of it, this entire street kind of feels like the set of a rich-people horror movie.
“Grey…”
He remains mute, his breathing ragged as he stares down at the steering wheel. “I’m very sorry for their conduct,” he says, his teeth gritted.
“It’s not your fault. Look, it honestly could—”
“Is your phone charged?”
“Um, yeah, I think so.” I grab it from my purse to check as he undoes his seatbelt, spotting a couple of messages waiting for me. “Yeah, it is.”
“Good. When I get out, I’m gonna lock the doors, but you can lock and unlock them by pressing this button.” He taps on a button in the console on his side of the car. “It will lock all the interior doors. I’m leaving the key inside. If anyone comes up to you, drive away, park and call me. Is that understood?”
“Wait a minute.”
“Is that understood?”
“You’re not going back there!”
“Don’t get out. Wait for me. Call me the second you need me and I’ll be back here.”
“Wait!”
Before I can stop him, he’s out of the car and slamming the door behind him. I turn, watching him disappear as he heads back to the house.
57
