Blood Vow (Black Dagger Legacy #2)(134)

And yet he didn’t recognize himself.

Maybe that bullet had given him brain damage, he thought as he opened the door and stepped out.

’Cuz he hadn’t felt right ever since he’d been shot in the head.

Elise was sitting at her computer, combing the “Apartments for Rent” section of the Caldwell Courier Journal online, when the house phone rang beside her little Tiffany lamp.

Picking the receiver up, she listened to the butler tell her she had guests and that they were waiting for her in the parlor. “Thank you. I’ll be right down.”

As she hung up, it dawned on her that she hadn’t even asked who they were. But she didn’t really care. Could be cousins. Or, hell, an intervention set up by her father to scare her straight.

But she wasn’t afraid of even that. If she could get through losing Axe, she could get through anything.

Heading out of her room, she walked down the hall, passing by Allishon’s old suite. Nothing had changed. Her uncle was still floating around, trying to find his footing, while his shellan self-destructed in their bedroom. Her father still didn’t understand why Elise had to go, what she was doing getting her Ph.D., why she insisted on being such an iconoclast.

Everything would be okay, he had maintained, if she would just settle down and stop trying to talk about things that simply didn’t need to be discussed.

To his credit, he wasn’t telling her he would never see her again.

But he was sad that she was breaking away.

And so was she. She was going to miss the family she had been raised in, even if it was so broken that her only chance of living an authentic, halfway self-aware life was outside of it. You couldn’t change others, though. Only yourself.

On that note, she hadn’t heard from Axe.

She hadn’t expected to.

She was surprised she missed him as much as she did, though. Was frustrated by that, actually. The trouble was, the high points of their … whatever it was … had been so high that in quiet moments of reflection, it was impossible not to remember them and mourn.

It was a process, though.

Or at least that’s what all her fancy schooling had taught her.

And part of what was going to help her through her grief was that her and Troy’s seminar started in a couple of days.

She was going to make it.

Because she wasn’t going to have it any other way.

Downstairs, Elise crossed the foyer’s marble squares and went over to the parlor—but before she entered the pretty room, she halted.

“Peyton? And …”

Okay, it was hard to say the female’s name. Hard to look at that incredible body that just seemed to ooze sex appeal.

“You have a minute?” Peyton said. “We need to talk to you?”

Elise nodded and made herself walk forward. Peyton was looking great, as usual, his casual suit the kind of thing that had obviously been handmade for him, that open collar and perfect fit making him seem ready for a spectacular New Year’s Eve night. Novo, in all her black leather, looked more prepared to fight.

Or have some hardcore sex.

Elise shook her head at herself and closed them all in. “What … ah, what can I do for you?”

God, even though she told herself to keep calm, her heart was pounding.

Novo looked at Peyton. Peyton glanced at the female … and then stared at Elise.

“You need to know some things. It’s about Axe,” he said.

Elise put both hands out like she was warding off an attack. “No, I don’t need to know anything about him.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I really don’t. And unless you’ve come for some other reason—”

“I’ve never had sex with him.” Novo’s voice was clear, unforced, and calm. “He took me to the club, yes. So I could become a member there. I asked him to do it for me as a favor. I’ve never once been with that male—and as far as both he”—she pointed at Peyton—“and I are aware, Axe hasn’t slept with anybody since that night he first met you.”

Peyton spoke fast, as if he were worried that Elise was going to run out of the room and he was going to lose his chance to say what he needed to. “I know this is not my business, technically, but you kind of made it mine when you came to see me.”

“And I know you found that key of his.” Novo nodded at Peyton. “He told me that Axe made like he didn’t know what it was. I don’t want to speak for the guy, but when you join the club, you’re not supposed to talk about it. You’re not supposed to reveal to anyone what the key is, where you use it, what it’s about. It’s a members-only thing, and if you blab, you’re out. I’m not saying that’s why he didn’t tell you about Allishon’s. But it’s just something you should think about. Before you shoot him in the foot for apparently lying to you.”

Elise’s mind started to grind on the information. Even as she didn’t want that whole door reopened.

It had been too hard to shut the damn thing in the first place.

Peyton came forward, stopping when he was right in front of her. “It’s New Year’s Eve. I want to start this next year on the right foot. That’s why I’m doing this. See, there are some people who feel like I’m an asshole—”

At that point, Novo muttered under her breath something that sounded like, “Go figure.”