Damaged (Boys of Winter #2) - Sheridan Anne Page 0,12
inside before remembering who the fuck I am and raising my chin. The boys would be seriously pissed if they caught me walking in here already looking like I’d lost. I’ve suffered through too much to give in like that. No, I’m going to walk in here with my head held high, put these old fuckers in their place, and make sure I can walk straight back out of here with my freedom intact—well, as much freedom as being Andrew Ravenwood’s long lost daughter allows.
I make my way around the right-hand side of the table with Tobias following behind me until he reaches his spot and takes his seat. I continue, knowing I can mostly trust this side and raise my gaze at the other eight men who take up the seats across the table.
Their glares all hit me like a freight train, but I keep my composure, only faltering a step when I find Carver’s dark, stormy eyes staring back at me.
I suck in a sharp, surprised breath.
Fuck me.
He takes his father’s seat, and while technically it makes sense for him to be here, I hadn’t expected it, which is my own stupidity. Of course he was going to be here. I should have been more prepared.
He watches me closely, following each step I take until I hit the top of the table.
My heart thunders in my chest as I look around the table. This is so much harder than I thought it was going to be. I know I told Tobias that I was ready, but nothing in the world can prepare someone for this.
This meeting will determine my fate, it will determine if I spend the rest of my life rotting in some shitty cell or if I will get the chance to fly. All my life, I’ve been the one in charge, I’ve made the rules, and lived by my own free will. I did what I wanted, when I wanted, and now, my future rests in the hands of these sixteen strange men who don’t know a damn thing about me—half of them who have already gone to extreme lengths to try and have me killed.
The odds aren’t even close to being in my favor.
I slowly drop to my seat, keeping the mask of confidence stretched across my face despite knowing that Carver can see straight through it.
My ass hits the chair, and as I look out at the sixteen men before me, I let out a silent, shaky breath.
It’s showtime.
CHAPTER 4
“Alright,” I say, addressing the room. “Let’s not pretend that we’re here for a good time. Let’s say what needs to be said and get this over and done with so I can go home.”
Carver scoffs from across the table, along with a few other men sitting beside him. “You’ve got a lot of confidence for a little girl who just murdered a man in the middle of a ballroom with hundreds of eyes watching you.”
I raise my brow, more than ready to throw myself across this table and wrap my hands around his throat in the same way he’d done to me, but hey, if he wants to be petty, then damn it, I can be petty too. “You didn’t think I was so much of a little girl when your hands were all over my body. So, what’s it going to be, Carver?” I demand, purring his name, more than happy to call him out in front of these old assholes. “Am I a little girl or just a bitch who your father shouldn’t have messed with?”
Carver’s eyes harden, his jaw clenching as his hand curls into a ball on the table. “Watch your mouth, Elodie,” he spits, using my real name as an insult just because he knows how much I hate it. “You don’t get to speak of my father.”
“That’s the exact reason we’re here though, right?” I question, my voice strained with fury as I fight to remain in my seat. “Royston Carver had no issues speaking ill of my father last night. So, how is that fair? One rule for him and another for me because I’m a woman? Fuck you.”
“Now, now,” Earnest Brooks speaks up from beside me as the room turns into chaos, one side yelling at the other. “Let’s not allow this to get out of hand.”
Carver scoffs, ignoring Earnest’s pleas. “Oh, you’re going to play the woman card now? Like you give a shit about that.”