by Lily White
The only problem, at least how I saw it, was he did have a responsibility: Luca. A responsibility he just barely managed from the minute she was stupid enough to say ‘I do.’
It didn’t bother me that Clayton had made Luca’s life hell. Breaking her was just another factor that worked to my advantage. But listening to him prattle on about how much he enjoyed having the option of choosing between her pussy or someone else’s? Yeah, that set the last nerve I had on edge with the need to teach him some manners.
Clayton was begging me to leave Luca penniless, and I had every intention of making him believe that’s what I planned to do.
If Clayton thought for one second I was in this to help him screw over Luca Bailey, he had a lesson to learn.
Backing into the four car garage of my home in Highland Hills, I shoved the gear into park and killed the engine. My skull fell heavy against the headrest, my hand clenching over the gearshift in both anger and anticipation.
For five days, I’ve been playing a game against Clayton Hughes, and each time I had to stare at his smug face or listen to the nasally quality of his weak voice, I’d resisted the urge of rearranging his nose with my fist.
He was as much of a spineless coward now as he had been in college.
My head spun left over the seat, my eyes staring at the first floor windows that were softly lit.
At least three of the guys were in the house waiting to hear how court went, and now that Luca had agreed to meet me tonight to discuss my terms, I had to make sure they were out of sight and out of mind when she arrived.
Her reaction to me in the courthouse was quite telling. She didn’t miss me. She didn’t think of me. And I was the last person she wanted to see after what happened at Yale.
Sure, her body reacted when I touched her. Those big blue eyes widened when our gazes locked, but like she had in the past, she hid behind a wall of stubbornness and refusal that drove me mad.
Meeting me tonight would be difficult for her, but seeing the guys, specifically Jase, would be too much.
I couldn’t care less if she hated me, but I wouldn’t let that son of a bitch with his roaming cock and devil-may-care attitude ruin the one chance I had to bounce Luca on my dick again.
She was the girl who thought she got away, and fortunately for me, circumstance had landed her firmly back in my grasp. I’d have her screaming my name before I let her go again - one way or another.
As soon as I walked into the house, a cloud of Sawyer’s pot smoke collided against my face, the faint tinkle of ice being dropped into Gabriel’s crystal tumbler caught my ear, and the not-so-quiet moans of a woman getting her body rode hard by Jase hovered over it all like a familiar song welcoming me home.
The pot smoke and drinking didn’t bother me. The bitch now screeching out an orgasm did. Not because I took issue with a man getting his dick wet, but because I somehow knew the woman was another of Jase’s employees, a woman I would have to pay off to keep her from suing our firm for sexual harassment.
Why he thought it was okay to bring her here was beyond me. I assumed it had something to do with his inability to understand I didn’t need his sexual harassment mistakes leading to my door.
How in the hell was I supposed to protect the firm and pay off these women to stay silent when he committed the act three doors down from my living room?
Their proximity to my personal life only meant I’d be forced to add a few more zeros to the check before they signed on the dotted line of the non-disclosure agreement. Thankfully, they were Jase’s zeros to give up and I wasn’t going bankrupt as a result of his inability to keep it in his pants.
Shoving my hand through my hair, I yanked in frustration before turning a corner to find Sawyer on the couch and Gabriel standing near the side bar.
Gabriel spoke first.
“How did it go? Is Luca going to give you the information we need?”
Straight to the point. Gabriel wasn’t the type to bother with small talk. Of my eight friends, Gabriel was the closest to me, a man with a black heart and remorseless mind. He didn’t care who he had to screw over, or who he hurt in order to get what he wanted.
“I don’t know yet. She’s coming over tonight at seven. I’ll need the three of you to find another house for your get together.”
Laughter burst from the couch, Sawyer’s eyes tiny red slits as he blew out a smoke ring with what was left of a joint clutched between the tips of his fingers. It amazed me he was able to practice law as well as he did when there wasn’t one hour of one day that he wasn’t high on something.
“You owe me two grand, Gabriel. Be sure to pay up.”
My eyes dragged from Sawyer to Gabriel to see him shrug his shoulders.
“I should have known better than to take that bet.”
“What bet?” Tugging at the knot of my tie, I slipped it loose and unbuttoned the top buttons of my shirt.
Sawyer stabbed the joint into an ashtray on the coffee table beside him.
“I bet two thousand that you wouldn’t be able to seal the deal without dragging Luca into bed.”
He canted his head toward the bar. “And Gabriel took the bet thinking you aren’t still angry that Luca dodged you.”
Of course, I was angry. She’d been a thorn in my side without knowing it, an aggravation I didn’t need that had ridden me every fucking day I didn’t seal the deal I’d needed with her.
They say it’s wise to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, yet Luca had been the enemy who’d managed to retreat into shadow. But the distance she kept hadn’t ended the war…it only managed to delay the next battle for a bit.
My eyes bounced between them, my voice coming out on a practical growl.
“Then you owe Gabriel the money because that’s not why I invited her here. I had to get her alone in the woman’s bathroom during a quick recess just to talk to her. It didn’t give me a lot of time to discuss what I wanted.”
Head falling against the couch, Sawyer rested his hands on his chest and closed his eyes.
“If that’s what you have to tell yourself to sleep better at night.”
Liquid gold poured into Gabriel’s glass as he helped himself to my best scotch.
“Leave Tanner alone. You know how he is about Luca. It’s a sore spot that never fully healed. The woman is like herpes that way.”
“My father is like herpes that way,” I corrected him, “or have you forgotten how this entire fucked up situation started?”
Gabriel swallowed the scotch in three large tugs, his glass clinking against the bar where he set it down.
“Maybe tonight will be the night you finally move past her and we can end this war. I’m sick of hearing you and Jase cry like little bitches about it.”
Ignoring him, I shrugged off my jacket and hung it from the back of a chair. “I mean it. I need both of you gone in the next hour.”
A door opened down the hall, high pitched, flirtatious laughter sliding through the air in harmony with Jase’s low voice.
I turned to watch him slap the woman’s ass and show her out of the house. Cocking a brow when he returned inside, I stared at his guilt-ridden face.
“How much is that one going to cost you?”
Jase dropped his weight in an armchair before answering.
“Too much, I’m sure. She wasn’t worth it.”
His brown eyes held mine, disheveled hair tumbling over his forehead where it had been combed through by the woman’s fingers.
“Where’s Everly?”
He’d cut right to the chase, to one of the payments I would need from Luca in order to throw her husband’s case.
Everly had been hot and heavy with Jase at one time. It was no small feat for her to manage to hold his interest for so long, but the way she’d left things had been a sore spot he refused to move past. Jase was out to get even and, as such, he’d been looking for Everly ever since she’d run away.
I would feel sorry for the girl when he finally f
ound her if Everly hadn’t also been a large part of the reason Luca kept her distance from me.
The two girls were inseparable friends until Everly disappeared, Luca cutting things off from my group immediately after.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” His normally casual voice turned serious.
“Is she going to let you help that asshole she married deny her the millions she’s owed just to protect her old friend? Tell me she’s not that stupid.”
Shaking my head, I crossed the room to pour a drink. I needed it to deal with Jase’s bullshit.
Although he claimed he only wanted to find Everly to make her pay for ditching out on him and causing a significant problem after doing so, the rest of us knew he was dedicated to that girl from the first second she let him shove his cock in her golden pussy.
The way I saw it, Everly must have been bestowed with the magic of the Gods to entice a man like Jase to settle down. I often wondered if she hadn’t taken off, would he have given up his manwhore ways years ago to stick with one girl?
Not that the rest of us had done so either. Of the nine men who made up my group, only one of us had found somebody worthy enough to make us consider giving up the vices in our lives.
The tumbler damn near overflowed for as much scotch as I dumped in it. Taking a large swallow, I pulled it from my lips to answer.
“I didn’t have time to ask her. I had to corner her in a bathroom for two minutes just to give her the offer to discuss terms. That bitch she hired to represent her wouldn’t take her eyes off Luca for a second. Not that I could blame her. If Clayton ever gets near Luca again, I’ll personally end his life for it.”
“Personally?” Sawyer’s lazily voiced question cut through the room. “Or do you mean you’ll send Ezra over to handle it?”
Although Ezra wasn’t the resident hothead of the group, he had a cold temper that led to several missing persons reports. But, despite his talents, I wouldn’t give him the pleasure of taking out Clayton Hughes. Not after what I learned over the past five days while we’d pretended to enjoy our attorney-client relationship.
“Personally.”
My gaze cut to the window, the sky beyond it ribboned in color by the setting sun.
“I’m serious, though. I need you out as soon as possible. I want to be ready by the time Luca arrives.”
“Just do what I do and answer the door naked.”
My head shot left to glare at Jase.
“It’s not like that.”
“Sure it isn’t,” Sawyer laughed. “Don’t forget to pay up, Gabe.”
Jase’s laughter boomed through the room to answer Sawyer’s.
“You actually took that bet? You might as well have lit the cash on fire for as easily as you lost it.”
My patience was running dry. “Everybody out!”
Snapped to attention by the volume of my voice, the three of them gathered their things and moved toward the front door. Before they could see themselves out, I volleyed one last reminder.
“And be sure to let everyone else know the party’s not here tonight. I don’t want any interruptions.”
The front door slammed shut as the house was doused in silence, the headache that had been pounding my skull since court this afternoon finally easing to a bearable, low pulse.
After opening a few windows to air out the smell of pot smoke and three different types of men’s cologne, I made my way to the shower to prepare for Luca’s arrival.
The only thought running through my head as I stepped into the spray of seven showerheads was that, despite my claim, this wasn’t only about getting Luca in bed. It was about the plan I’d always had for her.
Not that I didn’t plan to see Luca sprawled across my sheets again, but only after she begged. And only because I was forgiving enough to allow her that second chance.
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