Hawk & the Lady - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,9

should always have known that if he’d let anything happen with Bert it was because there was something else going on. Something real.

Chaos – like the rest of the team – had always been a love ‘em and leave ‘em type. In hindsight, the two of us had been pretty shitty to girls in our teens and early twenties. We’d grown out of what had bordered on cruelty, but it hadn’t changed our habits.

But with my little sister?

The secret mushy part of myself I tried to keep locked away in a deep, dark basement of my soul sometimes made me think that he’d only ever been that way because he was waiting for Bert. That he was incapable of real feelings for anyone else because he’d always been meant for her, and her for him.

“Oh, fuck that,” I muttered and grabbed Chaos’ whiskey to down it in one shot.

“What was that?” he asked with a smirk.

I shook my head. “Nothing. How’s the nerd?”

Chaos nodded vaguely. “As expected.”

“Did he ask how long he has to be here?” I snorted.

“Not in so many words, but the gist.”

“Why don’t you get him to dance with Bert. He likes Bert.”

“I offered,” my sister said with a shrug.

Chaos dipped his nose to her neck and she wrinkled her nose with a giggle. I kept my face as neutral as possible.

“He wasn’t interested?” I asked.

“He said he’d used up his socialisation credits and even I was too much for him now.”

I nodded, smiling. “Sounds about right. Why don’t you let him go home?” I asked Chaos.

“I would have, but then Mr Nelson got his hands on him and I managed to slip away.”

“You left Nico alone with Mr Nelson after eleven?” I clarified.

Chaos and I exchanged a knowing shit-eating grin. Mr Nelson was a good bloke and a talker at any time of the day but, by ten thirty at a party, he was a motor mouth. It didn’t much matter who he was talking to, he’d find a topic of conversation and run away with it. I gave Nico about another ten minutes before he literally tried ripping his own ears off to avoid it.

“This is bad?” Bert asked, looking between us. She could totally tell by the looks we gave each other. “Guys! Bloody…” She huffed and gave us her most disapproving look. “Someone has to save him!”

My laughter erupted and she glared at me.

“Not funny, Patrick!” she chastised. She looked between us again and hiked up her skirts. “You two. Seriously.” She shook her head and started walking away.

Chaos looked at me. “I know. I know. I’m going.”

He jogged lazily after her and caught up to her quickly. He grabbed her hand, spun her around and dipped her into a deep, lingering kiss right in the middle of everyone.

“Blergh,” I gagged, but couldn’t help but smile.

As weird as I found it – as completely insane as the whole thing seemed – there was something undeniable about what Chaos had found with Bert. It was the kind of something that had me rethinking my words to him when we’d fought about Bert.

“Don’t make this about how I’m going to die alone because I’m equally undeserving of love.”

At the time, I’d meant those words with more power than even I’d realised. I still knew them to be irrevocably true. I’d buried a lot of dubious shit in my life, and done even more. But watching my brother-in-arms be worth it after being completely convinced none of us were…?

I was starting to think I was less okay with being underserving than I’d thought I was.

And that left a weird feeling in my gut I didn’t really want to deal with.

3

Leah

I’d spent the next couple of weeks flip-flopping between looking forward to having Edward take me to the gala ball and finding myself half-way through messaging him to cancel. But I wasn’t going to cancel, not when it would get Priscilla off my back for at least a night and, honestly, she was my mother and there was at least a part of me who did want to please her.

So, I was in fact dressed and primped and coifed to the nines a full three minutes before Edward rang my doorbell.

The Tremaine Gala was one of the biggest, flashiest, most important nights in the year’s calendar. Everyone who was everyone would be there. The women would all be wearing new, expensive gowns, and have spent the afternoon in the salon. The men would be strutting around in