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“Trust me,” Elle interrupts, taking the same drink Gaby just spilt half of and downing it in one. “Fucking a friend only ends bad for me.”
Gaby makes an exaggerated gasp and clutches her chest. “That’s what happened with Adonis!”
“Huh?” Elle screws her face up.
Grabbing Elle’s face in both palms and squeezing her cheeks together, Gaby turns her face so both of them are looking directly at me. “You fucked that gorgeous specimen over there and then you stopped being friends. That’s right, isn’t it?”
For what feels like the hundredth time tonight, everyone looks at me. Even Hayden, although his amusement was back. “Is this what it’s been like the whole time?” He whispers to me.
“Pretty much,” I finish my current drink.
“Right,” Tony announces loudly. “I think you’re done for the night.” He grabs Gaby by the waist and hauls her over his shoulder. Dipping to give Elle a quick kiss on the cheek and a quiet word in her ear that makes her smile, he then addresses the group. “I’m getting this one home, have a good night, everyone. Enz, you coming?”
The second twin glances quickly at Gray and then shakes his head. “Nah, I’ll stay a bit longer, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
With a nod and a salute, Tony leaves, taking Gaby with him.
Elle’s looking at me with a sheen over her pretty grey eyes and fuck if it doesn’t make the gaping void in my chest ache. There was always a point in Elle’s drunkenness that she became emotional and she’s obviously hit it now. I used to be the one to draw her back to joyfulness but now I’m the one dragging her down.
“Elle,” Gray asks, leaning around the remaining twin to speak to her. “Can we expect any more drop-dead gorgeous men that you went to uni with to join us?”
As if the bastard had been waiting for his cue, Brents strides through the door at that exact moment. The club is big enough and busy enough that someone coming or going wouldn’t be enough to grab a table’s attention but when that person coming is a six-foot-six ex-cage fighter, built like a brick shit-house, and wearing an Armani suit, people notice. He clocks me almost immediately and approaches in long and confident strides. I am suddenly aware of the awkwardness of the situation, the last time Brent and Elle had been in the same room, I’d caught them moments away from fucking against a wall. Things between my cousin and I had been bad…for quite a while, after that.
Brent spares Elle hardly a second’s glance and showed no emotion as he gets to me. Clearly, he never really liked her. Why he put our relationship on the line three years ago for a quick fuck, I’ll never know.
“Bitch, who’sthisguy?” Gray asks but she doesn’t answer.
“The car is at the front when you’re ready.” He speaks to me as though there aren’t six sets of eyes watching his every move.
Elle is gaping, actually gaping at Brent. I realise that she never saw him in full-on bodyguard mode. At uni, Brent played the part of student and lived in jeans or sweats. When he works for my father, for me, he wears suits and they only work to add another layer of intimidation to his overall surliness. I have to admit that he makes quite a sight in the deep blue suit with a crisp white shirt with a couple of top buttons undone to show off the ink on his chest and encroaching on his neck.
“I think I should go now.” I stand and button my jacket. Hayden follows suit and we looked to Elle. “Eleanor.”
“Maybe you could spare me a text back now, baby?” Hayden winks as we turn to leave.
I glare at him as we walk out the door, what does he mean text back? As we reach outside and the cool air hits my heated skin, I am painfully aware of the giant spanner that has been thrown into the biggest deal my father has ever trusted me with.
20
ELLE
Iwake up with the mother of all hangovers. Fuck, my head feels like my brain is trying to burst out of my skull. My mouth is dryer than Death Valley and my stomach churns. It takes me a couple of moments to realise that laying face down in my bed, I’m still wearing the dress I was in last night and flexing my toes tells me that I have one shoe on and one shoe off.
Why did I drink so much? I haven’t been this bad since…shit. Lance. Hayden. Brent. All of them were there last night.At my birthday. What the actual fuck isthatabout?
They’re back and it’s not just a fleeting visit. I feel like Hayden having one of his ‘feelings,’ a tight ball of foreboding rolling in my stomach. Something huge is happening and I have to decide if I see it through or run now. I bet I could do okay in Paris…
That ball seems to be growing and bouncing around like a round of doubles at Wimbledon. It takes a few seconds to realise that it’s not just nerves and that I need to haul arse to the bathroom. I make it just in time before my stomach rejects its contents.
After a few minutes or hours (hard to tell) of hugging the toilet bowl, a glass of water appears in front of me and Gray’s hand smooths up and down my back.
“Hey birthday bitch.”
“Hey minx,” I lean back against the tile wall and close my eyes. Yes, I’m still wearing yesterday’s clothes and yes, makeup is probably all over my face, but not in the order it should be. But Gray wouldn’t judge me. Okay, he would totally judge me, but he doesn’t care and he will love me regardless.
“Oh, I’m a minx? Please do explain.” He sits next to me and places the glass in my hand; it’s slick with condensation and I run the coolness over my forehead.
“I may have been utterly rat-arsed last night, but I did see you sneak Enzo into your room and back out again a few hours later.”
