“He didn’t want me anymore. I wonder if he thinks I’m dirty, Grace.” She’d never said it out loud. “He wouldn’t touch me for the longest time and then it was different. I hated how different it was, like I wasn’t the woman he’d married anymore but he was too honorable to leave. So I divorced him, but we fell into this stupid contract and we haven’t been able to move on. Just when I thought I could, Michael Evans pops back up.”
“He was always going to come back.” Serena sat back, her face thoughtful. “That’s what Jake and Adam said.”
“I don’t think so. I know Alex has it in his head that Michael Evans is out there plotting against him, but I disagree. Evans was satisfied with the revenge he had against Alex.”
“But Alex isn’t satisfied that the threat is gone.” Grace took a sip of her wine. “He can’t be until Evans is in jail or dead. Eve, you think this is about revenge, but I think you’re wrong. You’re too close to the situation. You both made mistakes, but the first one is not talking about this. I know it’s hard, but you’ve both tried to find ways around the situation. You didn’t divorce Alex because you’re not in love with him.”
Eve let her eyes close, unwilling to look at them while she admitted her sins. “No. I did it because I needed him to notice me again.” A hand slipped over hers. She looked down. Grace. The words seemed to come more easily now. “I wanted him to fight me, but he didn’t. He told me if that was what I needed, then he understood.”
“Dumbass,” Serena said under her breath.
They’d both been stupid. “But I don’t know that I’m willing to jump back into this with him. I think we might have made too many mistakes. It might be best to just let each other go and start over again.”
“You can’t until you sort some things out,” Avery argued. “And I don’t know how you do that from here when he’s in Florida.”
“I’ve tried to make him stay.” It was the first time she’d asked for anything in years, but she had to acknowledge that it might be too late.
“Oh.” A little gasp came out of Serena’s mouth. “Oh. Now I don’t hate that idea at all.”
Grace leaned forward. “She just got a plot idea. When she says she doesn’t hate something, it’s usually really good.”
Serena got very animated as she talked about her writing, her hands fluttering as she spoke. “Look, sometimes when you’re writing, a good plot is right in front of you, but it’s in these weird little pieces. So, Alex needs backup, but he’s afraid to take Eve. We all hate Amanda, and let’s face facts, I don’t care that she’s a cop, she’s a ho-bag and she’ll throw him under a bus if some hottie comes walking by. Our men are involved in this potentially dangerous operation and wouldn’t we feel safer if there was a sister on the inside? There’s one solution to this problem. You have to kill Amanda and take her place.”
“I’m not killing Amanda.” But the rest of the idea had a tantalizing efficiency to it. She should be the one watching over Alex. He’d said no when she’d run the idea by him initially, but did that mean she had to obey him? He wasn’t thinking. She was the only one who could really do this. She had the training to handle it. She knew Michael Evans better than anyone did. She’d practically written the book on the bastard.
Serena leaned forward, a beseeching look on her face. “Oh, I wish you would. I caught her trying to get Jake to help her with suspension play. She shook her thong right in his face and then I overheard her talking about how sad it was that he was saddled with someone like me. Of course, I then wrote her into my next book and brutally murdered her there, but this would be like research for me. We would all help you bury the body.”
Eve felt a smile slide across her face as she looked at the women around her. They would. They would be right there with shovels and flashlights and alibis, and a nice bottle of wine for afterward because they were a sisterhood. They might not share blood, but they shared a life.
“No bloody death, Serena, but she’s definitely not going to Florida. I already asked Alex if I could come and he said no, but he’s wrong about this. I need to make sure I’m the one he introduces as his sub. Did Adam do her cover?”
“Oh, yes. He booked the tickets and everything, but none of this works unless we spring it on Alex when he can’t back out,” Serena mused. “We need Sean in on it, too. He knows where the meet site is.”
Grace gave the room a peaceful smile. “I think Sean is going to have to leave a little later than planned because Carys has some sort of emergency. Just a couple of hours. Long enough that he has to meet Alex at the club and take Alex’s sub with him. Yes, I think that can be arranged. Sean can’t stand Amanda, and he’s got the very same fears the rest of us have. She won’t watch his back. She’ll be too busy trying to get into his pants. He’ll hop on board.”