The Grand Pact (The Grand Men #1)(103)

“So, I left, went to New York, started at Almendo, and spoke to Elliot every day. We grew into something else entirely. I’m sorry I never told you more, but at the time, it felt like something special that I didn’t want to share.” I drop my head and bite my lip. “If I’m honest, it was nice to not tell anyone. It felt… I don’t know… different.”

Scarlet’s voice breaks the unnecessary silence that falls over them all. I need them to talk back. I can’t tell them this and have them judge me. Not them. “Different because of New York, or different with Ell?”

My eyes flick between them all, filling with tears and blurring my vision. “Elliot,” I mutter, swallowing around the lump in my throat. “He was so sweet with me. He was there every night, knowing I’d need someone.”

“Did anything happen?” Megan asks.

“It got pretty deep on the phone, and we FaceTimed a lot.” I give them a look that they quickly make sense of. “Then things went to shit fast. He got a little distant, and I know he was worried I wasn’t living the ‘New York dream’ like he thought I should be. He thought it was his fault. I got angry at him when he told me he wouldn’t be calling me anymore.”

“This was after you’d done all the FaceTiming and stuff,” Scarlet asks.

I nod. “Yeah.”

“Well, I get your annoyance. No one deserves to be made to feel a certain way and then have that cut off.”

A tear slips down my cheek, and I wipe it away as I reach out to grasp her hand. She knows firsthand how that feels. When Lance first got arrested, Scarlet spiralled fast. To see someone as strong and resilient as her crumble was the hardest thing to witness.

She might not talk about him, but I know she misses him.

“I felt alone, and I called into work sick for a couple days in a row. It’s probably the worst I’d been in a long time, and for some reason, I didn’t want to call home and tell you all I was struggling. It made me feel weak as if I was failing for needing the support.”

“That’s ridiculous, Luce,” Nina mutters, emotion making her voice rasp. “We were so proud of you, and because you didn’t call, I thought you were doing great. I felt like I should limit how much I called so that I didn’t mess with your headspace.”

I frown and look at my lap. “I was doing fine—amazing even, until Elliot put a stop to us. But I guess he felt how you did, and that’s why he did it. I know he never meant to hurt me at the time. He was trying to do the right thing.”

“He doesn’t give the sweet side often. He probably felt a little out of his depths himself,” Megan says, her eyes staring at the table, clearly thinking out loud.

Although, I don’t think Elliot was ever out of his depth. I think he knew exactly what he was doing and exactly what he wanted.

I just couldn’t hold on to him.

“Maxwell ended up outside of my apartment one evening. Polly and Alec, friends of ours, were moving into the apartment below Ralph’s house.”

Nina’s eyes home in on me as if she knows this half of the story will be new to her.

“I didn’t feel like I had anyone else at the time.” I wince as I say it. “I know how stupid that was.”

“Hmmm,” Megan groans, while Nina looks across at me with glassy eyes.

“I felt a level of safety around Max. He’s an ex–Navy SEAL, knows the city, and was kind to me when I arrived. It felt like fate when he turned up on my doorstep.”

I flinch as someone tuts from the poolside.

“Fate,” he bites out.

We all turn to find Elliot just a couple of feet away. He’s in a pair of black shorts and a cap flipped backwards.

My heart aches.

He’s so fucking beautiful it actually makes my soul hurt.

“How perfect that you could finally find that one. Your soul mate, is it?” he challenges me with his stare, his anger rolling off him in waves.

With slow strides, he pulls up a chair and spins it, straddling the leather as he looks around at the girls.

“Elliot—”

“Shh.”

Nina starts, but he cuts her off.

“She’s telling her love story; we all want to hear it.” His eyes come back to me. “Tell us.”

“Can we talk?” my voice is small, and I clear it, hating the way I sound. “Alone.”

“No,” he replies, giving me a sideways glance before looking out to the sea. “No, we cannot.”

I keep my eyes on him for a solid five seconds before I drop my gaze. “Right.” Being so close to him, so close I could reach out and touch him, run my fingers through his hair and pull his head into my neck. I frown as tears threaten again. “I’m gonna go take a walk,” I stumble to my feet, and Nina stands.

I rush off towards my bedroom.





“What am I going to do? When Maxwell comes back, and Elliot’s here.” I hold my hands on my head, pacing the length of Megan and Scarlet’s room.

He hates me.

“Calm down,” Nina tells me. “It’s going to be okay.”

“This won’t end well,” I tell them, dropping my hands to my lap as I fall back to sit on the bed.

“Tell us everything that happened with Elliot. Then we can figure out what he’s playing at,” Megan snaps. “I didn’t like his tone. Asshole.”