Blackbird (A Stepbrother Romance #1)(48)

“I will.”

“I should leave first. Let’s not be seen together. Wait twenty minutes. You have a reason to be in here? If someone asks?”

“Yeah. We just ran into each other, that’s all.”

“Okay. I’ll see you Monday. Don’t email or text me anything, do it all in writing or by voice. I don’t want somebody stumbling on what you’re doing. I think we should go to the police now, but if I can’t change your mind…”

“Not yet. I’m not ready. If I try and fail…”

I sighed. “Yeah, I read you. Fine, Monday.”

I left first, as I suggested. I stopped in a few offices and said hello to some family friends, to make it look like I was there for a reason besides ducking into the vault for no readily apparent purpose.

When I got back to school, Eve was waiting for me. I copied a key to my room for her since we were living together in flagrant violation of the college rules. Not like I cared.

The key even said “Do Not Duplicate” on it. I’m a rebel.

“Where have you been?” she said, looking up from her book.

“Who, me? I was just out getting some air.”

“It’s five o’clock. Your last class ended at three.”

I’d skipped class, but she didn’t know that.

I answered her by scooping her up out of the chair. Eve was light as a feather then, and I was very strong. I picked her right up and kissed her, hard, and I could feel her worries melt away. There was a little jealous streak in my Eve. I thought it was endearing, really. Her father beat her down and ground her into dust but that iron core remained behind and she was bouncing back. She smiled, she laughed at my dumb jokes. Once that barrier was broken I found out how clever and subtle she was. I lifted her onto the bed and rolled on top of her. She slipped her legs around me and I felt the softness of her breasts through her sweat and smelled lilacs in her hair, and tasted her warm sweet lips for what felt like hours. Her stomach rumbled and she broke from a kiss, touching my shoulders.

“Let’s eat, huh?”

We ended up ordering pizza out. I ordered a big bowl of boneless hot wings and split a double cheesy with Eve, a big cheese pizza with more cheese in the crust around the edge. She loved those, used to eat them backwards.

You know, it’s the simple things. She wasn’t looking at me when it hit me. She was chewing on a wad of mozzarella and dough and working on some complicated expected value problem, her blue eyes burning with concentration. The fading afternoon light made her hair glow, the way it did. I just stared at her for a while, and realized that Eve was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me. I hated her father’s guts but I couldn’t hate him for bringing her to me. I should have done something sooner. I should have done something about the wedding. I should have found a way to protect Eve and protect my mother and protect all the people he was going to hurt in my name, prevent all the evil he was going to do.

The three worst words in the English language are I should have.

None of that mattered, now. I was going to shut Martin down, pull his hooks out of my birthright, and get him away from my mother. I was going to save the princess and live forever with her I my tower.

Dad would be proud.

She looked up from her meal and math. “What?”

“Nothing. I was just looking at you.”

The next day I went to shop for engagement rings.





Chapter Sixteen





Victor





That damn ring burned a hole in my pocket. Figuratively, I mean.

It took me two weeks to pick out the right one. I decided to combine trips. It made a good excuse. Lots of jewelers in Philadelphia, most of them, as you would expect, on Jeweler’s Row. It took three trips before I settled on the one I wanted. A big diamond in the middle, cut in a square shape, flanked by two sapphires on either side, and two more diamonds, all on a white gold band. The sapphires sparkled like her eyes. On the fourth trip into the city, I picked up the ring and carried it in my pocket while I was working with Brittany. That was the biggest mistake I ever made, I think.

If I’d gone to the police, if I’d used my head, but I didn’t want to involve Eve until I knew it was lock tight, until I knew Martin would go down.

The detective work was boring as hell. After listening to an hour of Brittany explaining the intricacies of a IPO and what Martin was doing with this tire company was illegal, I was ready to stab out my own ear drums with an ice pick. I leaned on my hand and thought about the look on Eve’s face when I took a knee before her. Dad told me I should never ask a girl until I already knew the answer. I was pretty confident Eve’s answer would be yes. I fingered the ring box in my pocket and tried to decide when to ask the question, and how. Should I just do it, right then when I got back to the room? Take her out? Where? We ate at McDonalds once a week. Billionaires do not propose to their girlfriends at McDonalds. I should do something fancy, I decided, something memorable. It needed to be something important.

School was almost over. I’d do it at home, at the house. In the library, I think. I needed to talk to Mom, first.

“We have enough here to make a case,” said Brittany, “what do we do?”

“Put it all together,” I said. “Take some vacation. We’ll set up a meeting. I think you need to meet Eve.”