"Thank you," she murmured in the quiet, genteel way she'd been raised to speak. God, how she despised it. Especially now, when everything in her wanted to scream and shout and bring the roof crashing down with the force of her fury. But she had appearances to keep up, so she continued on as if nothing was different. "You look handsome as well."
The corners of his lips turned down in a slight frown, a look she was all too familiar with, as he tugged at the sleeve of his jacket. Her heart pounded against her ribs and she focused on taking another deep breath.He can't hurt you here.She repeated the sentence over and over in her mind like a mantra until she felt her nerves begin to settle.
Branson continued on, oblivious to her internal turmoil. "The cut is wrong. But it's too late to change it now." Giving the sleeve one last tug, he lifted his head to view the crowd, smoothing the lines of his face into the pleasant politician's smile he'd perfected over the years. The smile she'd taught him, when she'd been nothing more than his public relations person, helping him work his way to the governor's mansion. "I trust everything is in place for tonight?"
Still holding her own perfect, fake smile in place, Evelyn nodded. "Everything is just as it should be, my love." It was a wonder she didn't choke on the words. Not that it was a lie. Everything was, indeed, as it should be. But she hadn't felt anything like love for the man beside her in a very long time. If she ever really had, at all. She'd seen the love between her sisters and their men, and it was nothing like the gentle affection she'd had for Branson in the beginning. And it was certainly nothing like the burning hatred she felt for him now.
Branson pressed his hand to the small of her back, deliberately digging the heel of his hand into a spot he knew would hurt her, and it took every ounce of training she'd had not to scream at the shooting pain. She'd provoked him last night. For the first time in their three years together, she'd deliberately pushed all of his buttons. It was a wonder he hadn't broken anything, but she had a plan, and she'd needed him to hurt her. The flash of pain she felt now was a small price to pay, in the grand scheme of things.
And because she had a plan, she smiled. She laughed at dull, boring jokes. She made small talk and asked about families she couldn't care less about. For two hours, she was the perfect partner to the perfect politician.
At a quarter to seven, the dainty watch on her wrist buzzed. As casually as she could with her heart in her throat, Evelyn tilted her wrist to view the display.Yes or No?If she chose yes, the plan would be set in motion, and her entire world would change. If she chose no, the people waiting in the wings would quietly back away and slip outside.
For just a moment, she considered pressing "no.” So much was at stake; not just her life, but the lives of the people she'd come to consider her family. But then the light caught the dainty bracelet encircling her wrist—her Christmas gift from Teagan—white gold, with a simple three-leaf clover, and the letter "E" on the second petal. Teagan had gotten the idea from the blankets they each had from their birth mother, with that same clover on each blanket. No matter what she chose, her sisters would be there with her, beside her, supporting her.
Taking another of those deep breaths her meditation teacher was so fond of, she tapped the big green check mark.Yes.
Across the room, a woman emerged from a door marked Private, wearing a cheap knock off of the dress Evelyn wore under her cape. Her hair was cut in the same sleek bob style, with the side swept bangs and the perfect pale highlights. Evelyn scanned the room and found a second woman on the opposite side, in the same knock off dress, with the same exact hair.
If they'd stood side by side, most people in the room wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Unless they noticed the scar on Rowena's top lip. Or Teagan's flat, cop eyes, which were probably even now scanning the area in search of anything amiss with their plan.
At strategic places around the room, three men were stationed. All three were owners of S.E.A.L., the security firm that provided Branson's personal security. But they weren't here for Branson. They were here for her. And her sisters, though the men didn't know it yet. As far as the men knew, her sisters were tucked away in the surveillance van, safe from any potential fallout. Evelyn's tummy did a flip at the thought of how they were going to react when they learned about the real plan. She wasn't afraid of them, but she also hated seeing her sisters in trouble, especially because of her.
A silent signal from Branson's campaign manager let them know it was time for them to take the stage. Linking her arm with Branson's, Evelyn followed him up to the podium, where he was to give his big inaugural speech. But before he spoke, she'd been asked to introduce him, as though everyone in the audience hadn't seen his face plastered on every TV screen from Maine to California over the last few months.
Still, it gave her an opportunity she otherwise would have missed. So she shook hands with the party leaders and stepped up to the microphone.
She'd learned from her mother how to silence a crowd. Not with raised voices or harsh demands, but with steady, dignified quiet. It didn't take long for the crowd to settle, and with one final, fake smile, she scanned the crowd, her gaze landing on her smiling parents. There was a tiny pang of guilt for the pain she was about to cause them. But it couldn't be helped. Not if she wanted to be free.
"Thank you for coming out tonight. Branson and I can't tell you how much this means to us." Gesturing behind her, she waited for Branson to smile and wave and for the applause and cheers to die down again. "All my life, I've waited for a moment like this. A moment where I could stand beside a powerful man and watch as the rest of the world discovers what I already know about him. And tonight, Branson Montgomery…" Evelyn turned to face him, giving the crowd her back, and reached for the simple silk tie at her neck. She met his eyes, and the smile she gave him wasn't the least bit fake or forced. It was fierce and proud as she tugged the tie loose and let the cape fall from her shoulders. "… the world will know what I've known all along."
The room exploded with gasps and shouts of outrage and disbelief. All around her, cameras flashed and people rushed the stage to get a better look. And through it all, she never broke eye contact with her personal nightmare, never let the warrior's smile leave her face.
She knew what the crowd was seeing; she'd chosen the glittering sapphire dress with its daring, backless silhouette for the sole purpose of exposing the mottled bruising she'd been hiding nearly every day for three years. Bruising made worse by the beating he'd given her last night when she'd deliberately pushed all his buttons. And she'd been right; the pain was such a small price to pay for this very moment, for the shock on his face as he realized what she'd done.
"You fucking bitch." Branson's face had turned an alarming shade of red.Good, she thought. Maybe he'd drop dead in the middle of all this chaos and she'd be free of him forever.
But no such luck. He was on her in three steps, too quickly for her sisters or the men to reach her. It was like watching a movie as he raised his hand and brought it swinging down to connect with her cheek. The sound of flesh meeting flesh was nearly drowned out by the commotion surrounding them, but the backhanded slap hadn't gone unnoticed.
Or un-filmed, she was sure. Someone, somewhere in all of this, was recording every second of Branson Montgomery's downfall. Evelyn silently vowed to pay a thousand dollars to the first person who posted the video online.
His hand circled her throat, cutting off her air supply, and the first licks of fear raced up her spine. Evil, hate-filled eyes met hers. He was going to kill her, in front of thousands of people, and nobody was going to stop him.
Just as her vision began to blacken around the edges, the fingers around her throat released. Someone grabbed her and dragged her off the podium, pushing through the screaming mob of the rich and famous.Jason.The security firm's tech wunderkind was the one hauling her toward the back exit they'd identified weeks ago as their escape route.
Not a single soul tried to stop them, and moments later, they burst through the door together. But Jason didn't stop moving until they reached the van and he'd jerked open the doors to shove her inside. He climbed in behind her and slammed the doors shut before picking up a headset and barking into the mic.
"I've got her. Where the hell is everybody?"
Ro's husband, Octavius, was the first to respond. "Headed for the exit."
"Not yet!" Jason snapped the order out, and Evie could just imagine the looks on Luca and O's faces. "Do you see Ro and Teagan anywhere?"
"What?" Luca's voice came through the headset loud and clear. "The girls aren't in the van?"
Jason growled into the headset, "Nobody's in the fucking van! We need to find them, now!"
When Jason looked over at her, his normally cool gray eyes were filled with anger. Anger she would have shrunken away from, before tonight. But she still had a little bit of that courage she'd borrowed from her sisters, so she tilted her chin up and met his fiery gaze with an ice cold one of her own.