A few people standing next to him chuckle uncomfortably at his reply.
“It was very nice of you to stop by,” my mother tells him, confident that she’s made her point, made him look like a fool, and is just waiting until he scurries back out the door with his tail between her legs.
“Oh, I’m not leaving,” he informs her, pulling a huge wad of cash out of his wallet and tossing it on the table in front of him. “A thousand, you said? How about I give you six? A donation, of course.”
The woman from the charity gasps loudly when she sees the money, quickly picking it up and sticking it into the lockbox next to her and ripping off six tickets to hand to Eli.
He takes them from her hand and gives her a wink, sticking the tickets and his wallet back into the inside pocket of his coat, his eyes moving over my mother and latching on to mine. My heart stutters in my chest and I feel my palms start to sweat as he keeps his eyes locked on mine and walks past us, finally turning away as he enters the ballroom.
Landry steps away from Meredith and me and goes to my mother’s side. I watch as the two of them share a quick, whispered conversation before my mother quickly resumes greeting people as they enter, pretending like nothing happened, but I know it won’t be that easy.
“Jesus Christ, what the fuck just happened?” Meredith whispers in my ear.
I can’t speak as I turn away from my mother and Landry and watch Eli disappear into a crowd of people, his eyes staying glued to mine as he goes, the fire and determination I see in them burning a hole straight through me, making goose bumps break out on my skin and butterflies swarm in my stomach. I stand rooted in place, watching him shake more hands and smile at strangers until the feel of my mother’s hand clamping down around my elbow and her nails digging into my skin pull my eyes away from him and I feel like I can finally breathe again.
Oh, no. This won’t be easy at all. This will definitely cost me.
Chapter 8
Eli
Well, that went well. Very inconspicuous,” Daniel sighs, flagging down the bartender in the corner of the giant ballroom and ordering a scotch and soda. “Tell me again why you wanted to come to this thing? And felt the need to ruffle Georgia Eubanks’s feathers five seconds after you walked through the door?”
I feel like an asshole telling Daniel earlier that I wanted to tag along to this thing because it was time I get out of the house and start socializing, and there was no better way to do that then attending a charity function to support my brothers in arms. Daniel’s snort at my explanation proved he wasn’t buying the bullshit I tried selling, but he kept his mouth shut and let me do my thing.
“I’d appreciate it if you tone down the stink eye you keep shooting in her direction, considering her right-hand man and our future senator, Landry McAllister, sends clients my way.”
This news comes as a shock, but I don’t let it show as I continue to take casual sips of my bourbon on the rocks. I know Daniel represents half of the people in attendance tonight, but I had no idea the man standing possessively next to Shelby a few minutes ago helped Daniel with clients. After what Daniel’s done for my sister, taking care of her and giving her the love she so badly needed when I was gone, I feel guilty for the thoughts swirling through my brain, wondering if because of his association with Landry that he’s privy to any illegal activity Georgia has been conducting behind the scenes. There’s no way that woman had the power to send an entire unit out on deployment a year before they were due without throwing money around or having some sort of allegiance with the wrong people. I don’t want to involve my family in this mess, any more than they already are, but Daniel could be my ticket to finding out the truth.
My thoughts are put on hold when the woman in question steps up to the mic on the portable stage in the front of the room. I throw back the rest of my bourbon in one swallow as all two hundred people in attendance listen with rapt attention, hanging on her every word as she drones on and on about how special and important our military is to this country. When she finishes, the room erupts in a chorus of clapping, whistling and cheering while she goes on to introduce the band that will be playing music until it’s time for dinner, inviting everyone to have some fun out on the dance floor.
Setting my empty glass on the bar next to me, I see a flash of green out of the corner of my eye and my head turns to see Shelby walk gracefully into the room, shaking hands and talking to people as she moves, one of her long gorgeous legs sliding out between the material of her dress as she goes. She’s every bit the professional ass kisser, just like her mother, smiling politely and laughing at whatever bullshit these rich assholes are saying to her. Part of me wants to hate this woman I see before me, behaving nothing like the firecracker I knew six years ago. The one who refused to follow in her mother’s footsteps, the one who hated every part of this life and wanted nothing to do with it, and the one who worked her ass off night and day to get as far away from this place as possible. In the time I spent with her, I saw another side of her, one that made me regret ever thinking of her as a spoiled princess, unable to make a decision for herself to save her life. She had hopes and dreams and a fire inside her that burned brighter than anything I’d ever witnessed and it was the hottest fucking thing I’d ever seen.
She quickly made me feel like an ass for what I did to her the night of her high school graduation. I’d spent the next four years while she was away at college, dreaming of that damn kiss she gave me in the stables, her small body pressed against mine, her fingers clutching the hair at the back of my head and her tongue tentatively pushing past my lips until I lost myself in her. Four years of jerking off to thoughts of that kiss and four years of remembering the hurt in her eyes when I called her a princess, pushed her away, and accused her of slumming it with the help for a cheap thrill. She came back to town a different person, a grown woman with attitude and determination, and I’m not gonna lie, the way she tried to ignore me that first week was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.