“Melanie—”
“No, listen.” She straightened and looked at her sister. “We went back and burned that place to the fucking ground, and it didn’t change anything. I know you want to put an end to it, but you need to understand this is bigger than the two of us. I told you we shouldn’t go back, that we had no chance, but you forced us to do it anyway. We lost our freedom because of it. I’m never going to be able to walk away from Fender at this point, so I need to make the best of it. Yes, I feel something for him, but how can I sleep beside the same man every single night and see his goodness and not feel something?” She paused to take a few breaths, her eyes filled with emotional intensity. “I know I can get him to free you, but that’s the best I can do.”
They spoke candidly because they didn’t realize I was there, so my trust in Raven was even more solidified than before. It felt pointless to stand there when there was nothing new to listen to, so I walked away and gave them their privacy.
Napoleon walked right up to me, as if he’d been waiting for me to turn away and step into the room. His hand gripped the pommel of his black cane, and he looked at me with his stony expression. Every criminal had a specific energy, usually bad, but there was something about this guy that felt innately malevolent. “Your brother tells me you don’t like me.” A slow smile spread across his lips, like that was a compliment rather than an insult.
“I like you even less now.”
His grin widened. “We’re going to make a lot of money together. You’ll see.”
I wished I didn’t have to see.
He gave me a slight nod before he moved into the crowd and took a drink from a passing waiter.
I watched him go, feeling that same unease in my stomach, like this guy was bad news. I’d been digging into him for a while and couldn’t find any red flags, but just because I couldn’t find them didn’t mean they weren’t there.
A new face appeared in my vision.
With long dark hair, green eyes, and a slight smile full of arrogance, she looked at me like she’d been waiting for this moment all night. “I have to admit, I’m a bit offended.”
I stared at Stasia and felt the annoyance flood my body. I’d always been indifferent to her, just interested in the way our bodies felt when they were together. But the words out of her mouth always fell on deaf ears.
Her eyes glanced past me before she looked at me again. “That you prefer to be with a hag over a woman that looks like me.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and gave me a cold stare. “I guess we’re all into weird shit sometimes.”
My eyes never trailed away from her face, and instead of just walking away like I normally would when a conversation was displeasing, I actually said something back. “I disagree.” It must have been her anger that provoked me, even though her words were so completely false that I shouldn’t feel obligated to fight them at all. Stasia was just a poor loser, trying to get into my head to get my attention. “Because she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
After Stasia walked away, I spotted Fender across the room—his arm around Melanie.
My eyes narrowed in confusion before I turned around to search for Raven. She wasn’t there, so I returned to the sitting room to see if she was still sitting there, composing herself after the emotional conversation with her sister.
But she wasn’t there either.
I scanned the room, searching for the brunette in a black dress, but there were lots of women who fit that description, and none of them was ever the woman I was searching for. The front door opened, and I caught a glimpse of Raven through the cracks between people as she left.
I had no idea where she was going.
I maneuvered around the crowd to get to the entryway. Gilbert quickly opened the door, like he knew I had somewhere to be based on the intense look on my face. I stepped onto the main portico underneath the twenty-foot pillars with the lit-up lawn and enormous fountain out front. I turned to the right and didn’t see her. The valets were at the bottom of the stairs talking since everyone was inside and enjoying the party.
I looked to the left and saw her standing there at the very edge, leaning against one of the pillars and looking at the lights from the city in the distance. Her long hair was down her back, and her arms were crossed over her chest.
I came up behind her and stopped when I heard a sniffle. Her back rose with deep breaths, like she was doing everything she could to silence her sobs and turn quiet. Melanie looked fine, so I wasn’t sure what had provoked this raw emotion. Why would she go outside when she could stay in the sitting room?
Then I remembered the way Stasia glanced behind me.
Melanie had a drink in her hand and was engaged in conversation like she’d been standing there a while.
Raven must have been behind me when Stasia decided to be a ruthless bitch.
She’d heard everything.
I stood there with my hands in the pockets of my tuxedo, unsure what to do to fix it. I could just go back inside and give Raven time to calm down on her own, but I didn’t want to leave her out there alone, suffering over something that wasn’t even true. There was only one thing that could bring her to tears, and name-calling wasn’t it. So, this had hurt her…deeply.
I came closer to her and placed my hands on the backs of her arms so she would know I was there.
The second she felt me, she stopped breathing.
I moved until my head rested against the back of hers.
She took a few moments to slow her breathing, to return herself to calm, to get the hot tears out of her throat so she could speak. “Who is she?”
I took my time composing a response because I’d never had to give an answer like this before, never wanted to answer a lover’s intrusive question. “An on-again, off-again physical relationship. We were off when I was at the camp, and then when you burned it down, we were on again…and then off when you came back.” I’d always known Stasia had an ulterior motive with me, but she was easy sex, good sex, so I’d let her come back to me. “But we’re off for good now.”
She didn’t turn around.
I waited for her to say something, to turn around and brush off what she heard.
But she didn’t.
“It’s not true, Raven. You know it’s not.”
She still didn’t move into me.
My brother had made some comments, but he was an asshole, at least when it came to women. Anything less than perfect wasn’t good enough for him.
Raven finally turned around, letting me see her puffy eyes, the pain still etched into her features, her ruined makeup because she had cried hard enough to make it run like black rivers down her face. “My whole life, Melanie has always been the pretty one. Every guy I liked would like her instead. If I met someone without her around, we’d hit it off…but then they would meet her, and it was always obvious they were more attracted to her than me. I’ve just been compared to her my entire life, and it hurts.”
I’d never understood Fender’s fascination with Melanie when she was so unremarkable, but I didn’t say that…because Raven probably wouldn’t believe me.
“When I moved to Paris, it was liberating. She was never there for comparison, and I met guys in bars and had a great time…but I always had that chip on my shoulder.” Her eyes were slightly down, looking at my chin like she was too self-conscious to look me in the eye. “And then, that woman is far more beautiful than I’ll ever be. And you’re the sexiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on… I’ve always known that you’re out of my league.”