Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Gavin stepped around the table and drew me into a hug. “To what do we owe the pleasure? You look smoking hot. Has anyone told you that today?”
I laughed. “Actually, no, they haven’t.”
“I’m not saying that I’m happy that you’ll soon be single,” he said with a wink. “But… when you’re ready to date, you know who to ask.”
“Is that right?”
Court’s frown deepened. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
Gavin smacked Court’s arm. “Fucking manners, Kensington. Shouldn’t we introduce her around?”
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” I said, all business. “I’m just here to steal Court away from you all.”
“Why?” Court asked suspiciously.
“When a beautiful woman asks to steal you, you don’t ask why,” Gavin said with a laugh.
Court looked like he was going to object, but he gracefully rose to his feet. He looked… stupid good in a gray Tom Ford suit. He tugged his jacket forward, pulling it taut against his broad shoulders and buttoning the top button. He grasped the martini in front of him and drained it.
“Gentlemen,” he said casually. “Business awaits.”
They laughed and said their farewells. He shook hands with the familiar-looking guy—Robert something—and then Gavin.
“Poker tomorrow?” Gavin asked.
“I’ll see you there.”
“Don’t have too much fun.”
Court shot him his inimitable grin. “Don’t I always?”
Then, he gestured for me to precede him out of the restaurant. I glanced left and right, making sure no press had flagged him down before me, and then hustled him into his awaiting black car. I didn’t relax until the rest of Manhattan fell away with the snap of the car door.
“What’s going on, English?” he asked curtly. “I thought you had planned to let me live my life how I saw fit. That was a rather important luncheon.”
“Jane,” I whispered, hating it.
He froze. His entire body stiffened. “What about Jane?”
I swallowed. Fuck, I hated this.
“She refused a plea deal. They just scheduled her trial for December 10. I’m sorry, Court. I had to get you out of there.”
11
Court
I had no words.
I couldn’t believe that Jane hadn’t taken a plea deal. She wasn’t stupid. In fact, she was incredibly smart. That was how she had swindled her way into my life and the Upper East Side. She couldn’t think that a trial was going to be more favorable to her. If they kept digging through everything she had done, it could only get worse from there.
And even though she had wrecked my life—used it and abused it and completely fucked it all up—for a moment, I wanted to protect her. Tell her not to do this. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t speak to her.
Not that I’d even know what to say to her. But it would look horrible.
I hadn’t seen her since the night of Natalie’s party when we were arrested together. Jane had gone catatonic. She hadn’t even told me what was going on.
Though she had confessed to someone at a later date that I’d had no clue about what she had been doing. I was thankful that she’d admitted the truth. And wondered why the hell she’d done it. Any of it. Why me?
“Court, say something,” English said gently.
Too gently for her. She wasn’t gentle. She was fierce and hard and determined. Not… this.
“Why didn’t she take the deal?” I asked, my eyes cold and empty as I turned to look at her.
She straightened at that look. “I don’t know. I just heard about it on the news.”
“You haven’t even heard it from a lawyer or the source or anything?”
She shook her head. “I wanted to get to you as soon as possible. I figured if we just got you out of the public eye, then we could formulate what we were going to say while we figured everything else out.”
“God,” I groaned. “Just… who the fuck is representing her? Are they even doing their fucking job if they told her not to take the plea deal?”
Her head tilted slightly. I could see something shift in her expression. This wasn’t what she had been expecting from me. After her assessment of my previous relationship at the primary victory, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I didn’t correct people’s initial judgments of me. It was easier to let them think the worst.
“Does it matter?” she finally asked.
I turned back to face forward. “I guess not.”
She opened her mouth like she was going to say something. Maybe offer me an apology. But I didn’t want to hear it.
“Let’s just get back to my place and then talk.”
She closed her mouth and didn’t say another word until we pulled up in front of my building. I couldn’t believe that there were already two or maybe three news people with cameras set up in front of my apartment. It had been months since Jane and I were arrested. Why did they even care?
“If any press approach us, just say no comment,” she said before pushing the door open.