twenty-four
Cole
“Nope.”Finnraiseshisvoice, irate. “This is the worst idea you’ve ever had.”
“We need to do this.”
“Bull—fucking—shit we do.”
“She’s part of this whether you like it or not.” Eli curves a pointed eyebrow in my direction. “Eitherof you.”
I bite my tongue, tasting blood.
He was right, we had to. Didn’t mean I had to like it though.
By doing this, I would be a hypocrite. A full-on large-headed bigot. I could admit that because it wasn’t going to change what was about to happen.
“There has to be another way.”
“There isn’t,” I grit out.
Eli catches my gaze in the mirror from the back seat and I sneer. He was a dick for calling me out when we already both knew how I voted.
Just yesterday, I’d told Rory to stay away from me. Yet here I was, about to force her in because we had no other choice. We needed answers and there was only one way to get them.
Bulldozing over people was usually my preferred method, but Eli always got so soft when it came to her. He was stern in trying his method first.
My fingers tap along the SUV’s interior. This vehicle better equipped for the task. It had more room and after yesterday I needed as much space as I could feasibly get from her.
Rory was beginning to make me second-guess her motives. The more I was around her the more I became conflicted. Something I never did.
She wasn’t how I remember. This girl couldn’t seem to care less about money, cars, or the perks associated with her last name. In fact, the angriest I’d seen her was when I paid a waitress to take down that ‘help wanted’ sign at some run-down diner.
Finn, letting it slip that she’d mentioned it at dinner and Abram’s reluctance to allow it. It didn’t make sense. Why would Rory want a job?
She basically had everything but her independence. I now regulate that.
“Did she respond?” My tone coming off more agitated than it needed to be. I was tense. What could I say? Rory put me on edge.
Another reason I shouldn’t be near her. No one else has ever gotten under my skin like she manages to do on the regular. Stuck there like a rash that wouldn’t go away.
“Not yet,” Eli says, not lifting his head from his phone.
The corner of my mouth lifts. Princess always did like to do things at her pace.
“We could put the car in drive and come back to this idea another time,” Finn suggests from the front seat. Calling the spot like a toddler as soon as we left my house.
“Too late, she already responded.”
“What did she say?” More eager to hear her answer than I should. Her quick-witted sharpness I was starting to find amusing.
No one challenged me. Anyone else too afraid, so it made it that much more gratifying when she’d lose.
Eli’s thick blond brows furrow. Fingers flying across the keys, deep in concentration as he types his response.
I hesitate. Debating on asking again what she said but decide against it. That would make it seem like I cared about her opinion. I didn’t. Like when she came back, Rory would continue to not have a choice in the matter.
The phone vibrates and Eli sags into his seat after reading it. “She’s not coming down,” he says, blowing out air.