The Lying Season (Seasons #1) - K.A. Linde Page 0,55
been nearly two in the morning, I’d started packing. And I’d kept packing all week in the time I had after I got home from work.
And that was the last of it.
It meant the walls were blank, the side tables and coffee table were free of miscellaneous junk, her set of drawers and half of the tiny closet were empty. I’d had to go get new sheets and a comforter. I’d placed my wood carvings around the room to try to make it look like Claire wasn’t the only one who decorated. But it was still bare.
All that mattered was that it no longer felt like Claire.
After the day I’d had, the confrontation with Lark, and packing, the last thing I wanted to do was go to Camden Percy’s penthouse and play poker. But Court had insisted that I had to show up for their monthly game.
I’d tried to argue that I couldn’t show because I didn’t have the ten-thousand-dollar buy-in. Of course, Court had agreed to spot me the money. Not like I could ever pay him back if I lost it all. Which I thought was unlikely since my brother, Jake, and I had grown up, playing poker. But still…
I ran a hand back through my hair and then hopped into a quick shower. I changed into slacks and a button-up, and then I took the subway into Manhattan. I’d never been to Camden’s place before. He lived on the top floor of Percy Tower, and it was very easy to locate.
It was still disorienting to think that I was even being invited to the top floor of Percy Tower. Me, a nobody who had done construction work for most of my life in rural North Carolina. Even three years at Duke Law hadn’t prepared me for taking an elevator that opened up into someone’s house.
But that was exactly what I did.
And I tried to pick my jaw up off the floor when I entered Camden’s residence. It looked like I’d just entered a palace. Like I was on my way to visit the king. Everything was lavish and lush and extravagant. The living room opened up to a vaulted ceiling, which I had no idea how that was even possible from an architectural standpoint. I’d built a lot of houses in my life, but this was something else entirely.
It had a wraparound staircase that led to a second floor. Paintings taller than my person on the walls. Gilded place settings on a dining room table in its own separate room. And just so much space.
Space was a luxury in New York. To have this much open and emptiness…it was incredible. And terrifying. Because I’d thought Court’s place showed wealth. I hadn’t realized there was a level above. A level for someone who put his mind to running the Percy hotel company, while Court stayed out of the Kensington business affairs. From the looks of this place, Camden Percy could Scrooge McDuck dive-bomb into his money.
“You’re gawking,” a voice said as high heels clicked onto the foyer.
I’d expected Katherine and was surprised to find it was English. “Uh, yeah. How could anyone not gawk at this?”
“You get used to it after a while.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I don’t see how I could ever get used to this.”
“You say that now.”
“So, uh, do you know where this poker game is happening?”
She nodded. “I do in fact.”
Her expression said that she wasn’t prepared to tell me. That she had something else on her mind. It seemed likely that there was only one other thing she would want to discuss. And I doubted it was Court.
“I’m a fixer,” English finally said. “I make problems go away.”
“I understand. You can make me disappear.”
She shook her head. “You misunderstand me. I don’t want to have to fix her. She can’t sustain another heartbreak.”
I tilted my head in confusion. “I don’t think that she’s in any danger of heartbreak.”
“That is yet to be seen.”
“She won’t even talk to me,” I told her. “I tried.”
“Well, we’ll see,” she said and then turned and walked away.
We’ll see? What the hell did that mean? That Lark might talk to me now? Why were women so confusing? Why couldn’t they just say what they meant?
“Are you coming?” English asked.
I breathed out in exasperation but followed her through the enormous penthouse and into a billiards room with a glossy wooden poker table at its center.
“You made it,” Court said, shaking my hand. “Easy enough to find?”