My eyes narrowed because I couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mouth. “What did I say to her?”
She kept her gaze down.
My hand moved under her chin, and I forced her to lift her gaze and look me in the eye.
Her eyes started to water more, like she might cry again.
“What did I say to her?” I whispered.
When she blinked, new tears ran down her cheeks. “I’m the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen…”
“And I meant it.” It hurt me to see her like this, to have her ever feel inferior to a woman with half the brains, half the courage, and a fraction of her looks. Raven had a glow in her eyes that reminded me of the brightest stars in the night sky even on a cloudy night…because they were that luminous. There was no comparison, and there never had been one.
“I know…” Her hands moved to my chest, her fingers feeling the buttons of my tuxedo shirt. “It’s the first time in my life that I have a man who thinks I’m the pretty one…who only notices me and not her…and I never thought that would happen.” When she blinked, her tears fell down her wet cheeks. “I don’t have to compete with her. I don’t have to compete with anyone. Because you see me…you really see me.”
Now I finally understood why she’d come out here to be alone, finally understood what her tears really meant. They grew from heartbreak. And then they fell down her cheeks for a different reason altogether. “Ma petite amie…” My girlfriend. My hands cupped her face, and I wiped her tears away with my thumbs, cradling her face in my embrace. “You see me too.”
Twenty-Four
The Slap
Two weeks away from the camp had never been enough, and now it felt like even less time with Raven. The first day at the apartment was always a rough transition. We were tired from the long journey, and the dirt was still deep underneath our fingertips because only an intense scrubbing could clear it away. But the following day…the camp felt like a distant memory.
It gave us two different lives.
The one in Paris was one…and the camp was another.
I lay on the couch with the TV on, Raven cuddled into my side in my t-shirt, one arm over my stomach while her leg was tucked between my knees. Her soft hair was always against my skin, gently tickling it, taunting me.
I hit the screen on my phone and knew it was time for me to go. I shifted gently underneath her so she would know to move aside. I took my phone with me into my bedroom and changed into my jeans and t-shirt. When I came out dressed, she knew I was leaving.
“Where are you going?”
“Work.”
“When you say work, what does that entail?” She was cold without me, so she grabbed a blanket and pulled it over her legs.
“I’m meeting Fender to prepare a new distributor.”
“The one you don’t like?”
I nodded.
“Be careful, okay?” Every time I left, she wanted me to come back. She wanted me to be returned to her in the same condition as when I left.
I drove to Fender’s place, and Gilbert let me inside. It wasn’t as grand without a party taking place, but it was still a beautiful property that displayed his ridiculous wealth, wealth that hadn’t been passed down through generations until it reached his hands. It had been earned in one lifetime.
Gilbert guided me out the back patio to where Fender sat at one of the tables. The rectangular pool was lit up a deep blue color, and Melanie rested her arms on the edge next to her drink, looking the other way to the lawn that stretched for acres behind the estate.
Fender didn’t look at me as I joined him.
Gilbert immediately placed a scotch in front of me and silently excused himself. A cheese board was on the table, with hard and soft cheeses as well as Marcona almonds, dried cherries, and dried apricots. A long baguette had already been sliced.
I wasn’t hungry.
Fender didn’t touch it either.
It was probably for his muse in the pool.
He stared at her for a long time, the light from the pool reflecting on his face. “You left early.”
“Raven wasn’t feeling well.” After our conversation outside on the portico, I took her home. Neither one of us wanted to go back inside and mingle with people who didn’t matter. Her cheeks were puffy and her eyes were too red not to be noticed, and I didn’t want Stasia to rejoice in her success, even though her tactics only brought us closer together.
Fender was quiet, but his silence showed his annoyance. “Napoleon and I agreed on a starting amount, a small introduction to the game. We’ll see how he does and go from there.”
Our conversation at the party had only deepened my suspicion, but I kept those doubts to myself this time.
“You’re the one who has to work with him most of the time. Is that going to be a problem?”
I stared across the grounds, surrounded by fantastic gardens and a distinct sensation that made us feel separated far away from everything else. The city lights were visible, but they were easily blurred out by everything right in front of us. “You already know how I feel about him.”
“But can you play nice?”
“I can do my job. Didn’t say anything about being pleasant while doing it.”
Fender grabbed his glass of wine and took a drink, his eyes on Melanie again.
“But this is a mistake, Fender.”
He took another drink before he set the glass down on the table. “If we can get product through Spain, we can use Napoleon to supply the entire African continent. That’s a lot of money on the table.”
“If he has such a big cut, why wouldn’t he just overthrow us?”
“Because he doesn’t know how to get the drugs.”
“Come on, Fender,” I snapped. “If he really wanted to figure it out, after some time, he could. And this guy works in a whole different country. We really don’t know enough about him.”
When Melanie heard us raise our voices, she turned around to look at us.
“We agreed from the very beginning that we would only have small distributors, that we would keep them oppressed so they can’t rise up and defy us. But by recruiting someone like Napoleon, you’re risking all of that. And who the fuck names himself Napoleon? He’s not even European.”
Fender remained calm despite my outburst. “We’re expanding. That’s how it works.”
“There are a lot of other ways to do that.”
Melanie got out of the pool and wrapped herself in the towel waiting for her at the edge. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, with gold hoops from her lobes. She had a full face of makeup even though she was swimming.
Fender watched her round the pool and approach. “Most beautiful woman in the world, isn’t she?”
I stared at the side of his face, remembering when he’d insulted Raven when she was right there, and I realized I knew exactly what she was talking about. He’d never remarked on the appearance of any woman I’d been with, but since Raven was Melanie’s sister and they looked different from each other, he felt compelled to say something cold. “I disagree.”
Fender didn’t seem to hear me because his entire focus was on the woman walking toward him. He gently patted his thigh, and she came to his lap like a well-trained animal. He pulled her legs across his thighs and kissed her.