A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)(191)

Bingo.

“Well, I don’t know about you,” he said with an exhausted groan. He stood and made his way over to it. “But I need a drink.”

Eva watched him pour two fingers into a crystal glass. He gestured toward her with it.

“No, thank you,” she bit back, dropping back into her seat. “It’s a little early for me.”

Carter sipped the bourbon and closed his eyes. Dutch courage never tasted so damned good. Eva avoided his stare, looking anywhere but him, staying annoyingly but not surprisingly silent. Fifteen minutes passed in the same manner until Carter couldn’t take it anymore.

“Kat’s a lot like you, ya know.”

Eva cocked an unimpressed eyebrow.

“She is,” he continued. “Caring, determined, passionate. Stubborn as all hell.”

“If this is your way of getting into my good books,” Eva said firmly, “believe me: it isn’t working.”

“Oh, I know that,” Carter agreed. “Like Kat, you don’t back down when it comes to things you believe in.”

“Katherine doesn’t know what she believes in.”

“Bullshit. Kat is the most strong-minded person I know. You don’t give her enough credit. What she believes in, she does without equivocation.”

“Impressive language,” Eva scoffed.

“Thanks. I had a good teacher.”

Eva sat back and crossed her legs. “Yes, you did. As I understand it, you had an upstanding education, which you threw away without thought so you could run around dealing drugs and boosting cars.”

“It wasn’t quite like that,” Carter remarked, sipping his drink.

“Semantics. The point is you’ve been in prison more times than most people in this country go on vacation, including your most recent stint for cocaine possession.”

The corners of Carter’s mouth pulled down impressed. “You’ve done your homework.”

“I love my daughter. Of course I’ve done my homework.” She eyed him. “I also know that you’re the main shareholder in one of the biggest companies in the continental US, worth millions, and yet you continue to live this insignificant life of crime.”

Carter cleared his throat, too unnerved to fill in the blanks. “Well, at least Kat won’t go hungry, right?”

“Are you trying to be funny?”

Obviously not.

He wound his index finger around the lip of his glass and closed his eyes. “Look, would you understand what I meant if I said that my last time in lockup, the cocaine, was my pound of flesh?”

Eva frowned. “What?”

“A pound of flesh,” he repeated, lifting his eyes to hers. “Do you know what that means?”

Bewildered, Eva answered, “A debt that must be paid?” She paused. “You dealt cocaine to pay off a debt?”

“No,” he replied. “I was caught with the cocaine to pay off a debt.”

Eva rubbed her forehead in annoyance. “I’m completely confused.”

Carter exhaled and fingered the top of the cigarette box in his jeans pocket, needing the nicotine in his blood. He sighed and leaned his elbows on his knees, detailing the story of Max and Lizzie, from the moment Max pushed him out of the way of a bullet, to the day Lizzie left.

Eva waved her hand dismissively. “And you’re telling me this because …”

Christ, she was a tough one to crack. “Because sometimes things aren’t always what they appear to be.”