I grab my phone from the table and text the name to Sin.
It rings within a few seconds.
“That’s his name?” His voice is low. I can hear the twins in the background and Stella trying to read them a bedtime story.
“The new Sovereign.”
“Leonard broke?”
“Cracked like a rotten egg. He’s gone now.” I sigh as I pour myself a drink. “Going to be kind of lonely around here without him.”
“Can you be serious for one fucking second?”
“What? I am being serious.” It’s a big house, after all. So much space for just one man. But instead of a Leonard, maybe I should fill it with more attractive prey.
“And Evie?”
“She’s gone. We had a little heart to heart about how badly she wants to ride my dick. Went swimmingly.”
“Lucius.” He says my name with the same warning tone he’s used since we were kids.
I respond with the same smartass tone I’ve used since we were kids. “I’ll handle her.”
“The way you handled Leonard?”
For some reason, I don’t like the thought of that. In fact, I find it … abhorrent. “No.”
He sighs. “We protect the family, Lucius. That’s it. If you start thinking with your dick, you’re going to make mistakes. A lot of them. We can’t afford that right now.”
“I’m perfectly level-headed. Calm the fuck down.” I drain my glass. “I’ll handle the Magnolia dealings, and I’ll put my team of miscreants on finding every scrap of information on Beau Corrigan.”
“Dada!” one of the twins squeals.
“Coming, sweetheart.” When he speaks to his children, he’s almost a completely different man. Then again, perhaps that’s the sort of man he would’ve been if it weren’t for the Acquisition. As it is, he’s cold and calculating, much like me. It’s the only way we could survive.
“I’ll look back through Mom’s stuff. That last name is familiar. They’re definitely players. I just don’t know how big.”
“Talk tomorrow.” I end the call and settle back in my chair, my gaze on the woods.
Evie is long gone. She probably thinks she’s safe and sound in her little apartment.
I pour another and lift my glass toward the window. “To you, my darling survivor.”
It doesn’t even burn on the way down, and I sit for a while longer, my thoughts moving along the lines of her body, through the curves of her mind, and into the deep ravines of her heart.
She loved her brother. That’s the fact I keep returning to. She loved him, even though she knew he was a monster.
I swirl my bourbon and ponder that simple yet impossibly complex truth. And then I take the next step. The one that I’ve been holding my breath for from the moment she shot me in the heart.
If she already loved one monster, why not another?
16
Evie
The Garden District boutique is small, unassuming, and only for the filthy rich denizens of this city.
I select a handful of gowns and sip Riesling as I try them on. My assistant zips me into them and looks at me with a critical eye.
The entire thing is a farce, and I’m nothing more than a child playing dress-up in my mom’s fancy clothes. But I play the part. I have to. This is what the Sovereign expects me to do. And I know without a doubt they’re watching my every move. So, I drink my white wine and try on dress after dress until I find one that fits the occasion.
“Classic, clean lines, and elegant on you. It accentuates your long neck and high bust and helps subdue the widening of your hips.” Jeanette taps her finger on her lips.
We wouldn’t want anyone being offended by my figure, now would we? I would laugh if I’d had more to drink. Or maybe if my heart wasn’t sinking lower and lower with every second I get closer to the Acquisition affair. Just thinking about it makes my stomach churn, and I have to put my glass down.
“We have it in black or deep wine.” Jeanette cuts me a sharp look when I start pulling the gown off.
“Allow me.” She hurries behind me and strips me out of it.
“I’ll take it in the wine color, please.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll take it to the seamstress myself. It will fit you like a glove.” She squeezes out the door and closes it, and the moment she’s gone I sink onto the white chaise along the back of the dressing room.
I shouldn’t be here. I should be out meeting with shareholders and board members, putting the stranglehold on Magnolia. Instead, I’m just trying to keep it together. I knew taking Magnolia would be difficult, but I didn’t plan on the rest of it. Not the Sovereign, and certainly not the way Lucius gets under my skin.
He was so untouchable, like a dream to me when I was young. Now, he’s a shadow that I glimpse at the edge of my vision. He’s there, watching and waiting. The moment I stumble, he won’t be there to catch me. He’ll be there to rip me apart.