Heartless - Jade West Page 0,66

and Duncan in to oversee your position. They can report back to me.”

“Is that a threat?” I pushed. “Seamus and Duncan have no place at Morelli Holdings. They’re weasels with no spine. Pointless and pathetic. And McTiernans at that, not even Morellis.”

“They are blood relations with an interest in family business,” he countered, and I didn’t bother pushing it further. Not today.

I could imagine their faces, smug and cunning as they danced around my father like baying hyenas after another man’s bones. They sure as fuck weren’t having mine.

“I’ll be back at Morelli Holdings tomorrow,” I assured him and got to my feet.

I didn’t hang around to see my mother appear back in the room, just made my exit with the napkin still wrapped tight around my bleeding hand. It was true, I would be back at Morelli Holdings tomorrow, and Seamus and Duncan could get fucked. They weren’t having anything to do with the power in my world.

I wished my palm was spitting in pain, just to keep my oath in my mind, but my promise was already lost to me as I left the mansion.

It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered, and I knew it. I knew it right there and then.

There was only one thing on my mind.

Elaine fucking Constantine.

Her tracker was useless to me now that her clutch was useless to her.

I had only one thing left to use. Her diary.

I called it up on my cell before I’d even left the grounds.

24

Elaine

I don’t know how I made it through the night, shaking and crying, knowing my heart was lost to the monster.

I don’t know how the fuck I got ready for family time on Sunday. I don’t know how I managed to style my hair with trembling fingers and get myself prepared for the façade.

I was trying to avoid my mother on our family manor front lawn, but I knew it would be pointless. There was no way she’d leave me alone through the afternoon.

I weaved my way through my cousins, making nothing but small talk, battling the chaos of fears in my head. It didn’t work. I was shaking like a leaf in the bathroom as I splashed cold water on my face, determined for once in my life to avoid the drinks on the lawn. No champagne for me. No champagne. No champagne. No champagne.

I couldn’t risk it, not even a glass. I couldn’t risk the loosening of my tongue to anyone in the world.

Harriet was trying to take hold of me and guide me to the edges of the garden party whenever she got the chance, but I didn’t let her. I couldn’t stand a string of her questions, not that day, not with Stephen Cannon’s blood still fresh in my mind and on my hands to match.

Not with my ass still burning sore from Lucian Morelli’s dick, and my heart still burning sore from his touch.

I felt an instinctive shudder as I reached for a token cupcake from the buffet. I knew it. I felt it. I sensed in one single flutter that it was Uncle Lionel stepping up behind me and pressing tight.

I hated his body. I’d always hated his body.

I hated him with every part of my soul.

“Your mother is after you,” he whispered, and his voice had that sheen of venom and filth I’d come to know so well.

I couldn’t hold back my tongue. “Yeah, well maybe I don’t want to speak with her.”

His fingers jabbed my ribs before clasping my arm. “If you have any sense in that ditzy skull of yours, you’ll go and speak with your mother. She’s losing her patience with you.”

I turned to face him, hating his breath in my face. My eyes must have been bristling with hate, and my heart was overflowing to match. It would have been my greatest pleasure to take a knife from the buffet table and stab him deep in his stomach, just like I’d seen Lucian do to Stephen. It would have sent my soul soaring to the sky to watch his pain.

He wasted no time before speaking again.

“She knows you’ve been socialising with druggie downtown losers again, Elaine. She knows you’re fresh from another round of bail outs.” He tutted. “Cheapening the family name. Silly little girl you are. Such a silly little girl. If you have any sense, you’ll take her offer when you hear it.”

“Offer?” I asked, with no idea what he was talking about.

“Yes,” he said. “An offer. She has an offer for you.