House of Scarlett Read online

Page 24


  I’m not sure why she wants Bump to come in, and I don’t want him being exploited in any way, but I nod. “I’ll see what I can do, Ms. Fosse. Nice event you got here. I hope you pry open all their wallets and get the money you need.”

  Her smile widens. “Me too. And you should all get those wallets out and take a look at the silent auction items. I expect bids from everyone.”

  She sweeps away, welcoming another group, and Harlow grabs Scarlett by the hand.

  “Come on, you have to see this necklace. I swear to God, it looks like it belonged to royalty. I didn’t get a chance to bid yet, but it’s going to go nuts.”

  Scarlett looks to me.

  “Go. I’ll get us some drinks.”

  “I’ll come with you, man,” Harlow’s husband says.

  “Oh shit, I didn’t even introduce you two yet.” Harlow waves a hand between me and her man. “Jimmy, this is Gabriel Legend. Legend, this is Jimmy.”

  “Thanks, babe,” Jimmy says with a kiss to her cheek before we shake hands and Harlow drags Scarlett away. “I knew who you were without the intro. You’re as much of a legend as your name suggests.”

  I shrug. “Not much these days.”

  Jimmy and I move toward the bar, dodging men in tuxes and women dressed to impress.

  “Yeah, that was some shit. Your club getting shot up when it opened. I’m glad to hear you got some new action coming in the door, though. Should be a real help to getting you back to where you need to be. Where you belong.”

  I stare at the man as we reach the bar. “What are you talking about?”

  “Your fight night. I heard Legend got approved as a venue.”

  I try to smooth my features, but I assume my surprise is all over my face. “How do you know that?”

  “I hear all sorts of shit first. Perk of being a sports agent. This city is a hell of a lot smaller than you think, and word in my circle is that your club is about to be the next big thing in MMA venues.”

  I breathe a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s damn good to know, especially since I haven’t heard anything. I was starting to think I was going to have to put together my own fight card to make it happen.”

  Jimmy shrugs. “Doesn’t sound like that’ll be necessary.”

  “Well, fuck. Thank God. I’ll drink to that.” I turn to the bartender. “Three fingers of Seven Sinners. Make that two of them. The lady likes her whiskey.”

  Sixty-One

  Scarlett

  When we stop in front of the necklace that Harlow is dying to own, what feels like all the blood in my face drains away.

  Because I’ve seen that starburst diamond necklace before . . . on my mother’s neck in all her wedding photos. It was missing from jewelry I inherited, and when I asked my father about it, he said it was lost long ago.

  “Isn’t it just gorgeous? I mean, damn.”

  I shove forward, not caring that I jump the crowd of people trying to get a look at the piece that’s encased in glass. In tiny letters, the placard beneath it gives all the details about the necklace, and then the most damning thing I’ve ever seen in print.

  * * *

  Donated by Lawrence Priest, Priest Pharmaceuticals.

  * * *

  Oh. My. Fucking. God.

  My father had the necklace all along, and he lied to me about it? Why?

  I grit my teeth together to stop from turning around to find something metal to smash the glass case and take my property back.

  How the hell could he do this?

  I’m brought back to the here and now when someone jostles me to reach for the pen attached to write a new bid.

  “This will look perfect on me. I have to have it.”

  Lucy Byers. Are you fucking kidding me, universe? How is this right? I pray for a smidge of understanding but come up dry.

  “Is something wrong, Scarlett?” Harlow asks, and my name comes out louder than she anticipates, because the crowd around Lucy has gone silent.

  Lucy spins around, and I want to smack that perfect pout off her plastic face.

  “Oh, Scarlett. Is that your mom’s necklace? How charitable of your father to donate it to a good cause.”

  Harlow sucks in a breath. “Oh my God. Nooo.”

  Lucy tilts her head to the side. “Oh no. You didn’t know he was donating it? That’s just terrible.” The way she says the word, dredged in mean-spirited humor, slices at me.

  “You know what, Lucy?” I ask with my chin held high, even though I’m crumbling inside.

  “What?”

  “You’re a mean-spirited bitch, and I don’t care if I have to spend every penny I have. That necklace will never be yours.”

  Her mouth drops open in shock before her eyes narrow. “You fucking cunt. Watch me. I’ll bankrupt you if I have to.”

  “Ladies, ladies. Please, I didn’t make a donation to cause arguments.”

  My father’s voice crawls up my spine like a spider dragging its web behind it.

  Slowly, I turn to face him. “How could you?”

  He shrugs. “I didn’t think you’d care. You got everything else of hers. What does one little necklace matter anymore, Scarlett? She’s dead, and she’s not coming back. Besides, I think it’s poetic justice to have the proceeds go to Meryl’s charity. Bury the hatchet between them and all, posthumously.”

  Skeletal fingers of pain wrap around my heart and squeeze. He did this on purpose. As a way to try to hurt my mother after her death. What the hell is wrong with him?

  I have no answers to that question. All I know is that I have to get away from him. Now.

  “Excuse me. I need to find my date.”

  I turn around and stride blindly in the opposite direction, not caring where I go, as long as it’s anywhere but here.

  Harlow’s heels click behind me as she rushes to catch up. “The bar. They’re by the bar.” She threads her arm through my elbow. “This way, hon. They’re right over here.”

  I can barely see through the unshed tears in my eyes, reeling like I’m experiencing loss and grief all over again.

  Except this time, it’s caused by the death of a dream.

  My father will never be the man I want him to be. He has never been capable of being that man. I was crazy to hold out hope this long. Why didn’t I see it before?

  Gabriel’s easy expression vanishes the second he catches sight of me and Harlow. He swings his head from side to side as if looking for a threat. But there’s no one for him to protect me from, because it’s my own fault that I’m devastated.

  “What the fuck happened? Are you okay?” he asks quietly, pulling me into his side.

  “Lawrence happened. He donated Lourdes’s necklace that was supposed to be Scarlett’s,” Harlow says, filling him in.

  “Fuck.” Gabriel squeezes me closer to his side. “I’m so sorry, ladybug.”

  “We’ll buy it then,” Jimmy says, holding out his hand to Harlow. “Come on. You’re going to put your bid down, and we’ll get it for her.”

  I shake my head in Gabriel’s arms. “Let it go. Lucy Byers said she’d bankrupt me to keep it out of my hands.”

  “Who the fuck is Lucy Byers?” Gabriel asks, his tone sharp enough to kill.

  “A pretentious bitch who doesn’t know the meaning of the word no,” Harlow says.

  “And one I kicked out of Curated this week for being horrendous,” I add, dipping my head. “She was saying stupid things . . .”

  Gabriel’s finger lands under my chin and lifts it until I meet his serious blue gaze. “About me.”

  I nod. “And Chadwick. And my store.”

  “Fuck that bitch,” Gabriel growls. “She’s not getting her hands on your mom’s necklace. I don’t give a fuck if we have to steal it and pay Meryl off.”

  “Let me and Harlow worry about the necklace,” Jimmy adds in a low voice. “I’ve got dirt on Lucy’s husband too, if we need it.”

  I haven’t spent much time around Harlow’s husband before, but I’m liking him mo
re and more with each passing second.

  “It’s okay. It’s just a necklace.” I suck in a deep breath, trying desperately to find some calm. “It’s fine. Just . . . let her have it.” Even as I say the words, a tiny piece of my soul withers.

  “Not a chance,” Harlow says with a militant expression on her face. “We’ll be back, Scarlett. You two . . . go find our seats for dinner.”

  As Harlow and Jimmy walk away, Gabriel squeezes me against his side again. “I’m so fucking sorry, ladybug. I don’t know the whole story here, but your father is definitely a prize asshole for donating something that was your mom’s without offering it to you first.”

  I shake my head. “I don’t even know why he would. He doesn’t have a charitable bone in his entire body. It has to be for show. Maybe trying to buy some goodwill for something. I don’t know, but I really don’t want to be here anymore. Maybe we should just go?”

  Gabriel squeezes my hand. “We’re not letting some asshole and a worthless twat run us out of here. You’re stronger than that. Get me?”

  I don’t know if I am, but with Gabriel holding my hand, I straighten my shoulders and pretend that I don’t have a single care in the entire world. “Damn right, I get you.”

  Sixty-Two

  Legend

  Of all the times not to have enough cash on hand to do what I need to do . . . Fuck. It kills me that Harlow and her husband are over there bidding on something for my woman, but I’ll owe them a huge debt of gratitude if they can manage to snag it from beneath that rich bitch’s nose.

  “That’s Lucy,” Harlow whispers to me as a black-haired woman sits at a table next to ours after the waitstaff start moving through the room with salads. “Just in case you need to know who to kill.”

  Harlow’s humorless suggestion knocks an idea loose in my head halfway through dinner. It’s not a good one. Scarlett would fucking kill me for even thinking about it. But . . . if it works and no one ever finds out, what’s the harm?

  I wait for my chance while trying to pay attention to the conversations happening around the table. Scarlett’s not too talkative, so no one really notices when I’m not either.

  When Lucy gets up and makes her way across the ballroom in the direction of the restroom, I seize the opportunity.

  “I’ll be right back,” I tell Scarlett as I rise and excuse myself from the table.

  Before she can ask where I’m going, I’m moving on the same path Lucy Byers took.

  Outside the ballroom doors, there are several people talking on cell phones and socializing in the lobby area. I scan around for Lucy, but she’s not there.

  Fuck.

  I spot the bathrooms and slip around the corner to wait. It only takes a few minutes before the black-haired woman emerges.

  I charge forward, like I’m heading back to the ballroom, and deliberately knock into her side. “Oh shit. I’m so sorry, ma’am. I wasn’t watching where I was going. Forgive me for plowing you over.”

  Her expression is pinched and bitchy until she gets a look at my face. Then it’s a completely different story, just like I was banking on. From the unconcealed hunger in her gaze, Lucy Byers is one of those rich bitches who gets a charge from walking on the wild side with a man they consider dangerous. Her words confirm it.

  “Oh no, no need to apologize. I wasn’t paying attention either. If I had been, then how could I have possibly missed seeing the infamous Gabriel Legend?”

  I flash her a smile that takes every bit of my energy to make it seem real. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Miss . . .”

  “I would never be at your disadvantage, Mr. Legend.” She holds out her hand. “I’m Lucy, and I’ve been meaning to get out to your club to meet you.”

  “I don’t spend much time on the floor, Lucy. So it’d be a long shot. Better we’re meeting here where no one will think twice about you talking to a guy in a suit.”

  Her gaze drops to my toes and drags up my body, and I feel fucking disgusting letting her look. This is for Scarlett, I remind myself.

  “This is a little too public for what I have in mind, Mr. Legend.”

  “Damn, you’re direct.”

  She flashes me another smile that makes my skin crawl. “I know what I want, and what I want is you. I can give you things that Scarlett doesn’t even know exist. She’s a Goody Two-shoes. Everyone knows it.”

  “Then what are you?”

  Lucy plumps her lips into a pout and leans forward until I’m enveloped by a cloud of her sickly sweet perfume. It reminds me of the time a working girl in Biloxi told me I could make a fortune standing on the corner with her, and I ran the other way as fast as humanly fucking possible. I was fourteen.

  “I’ll be whatever you want me to be. Scarlett never has to know.”

  With everything in me screaming in protest, I wink at her. “I like the sound of that, but you gotta do something for me.”

  “I’ll do anything for you.”

  She brushes her tits up against my chest, and I fight the urge to gag as I take her hand and lift it to my mouth like I’m going to press a kiss to the back of it, but I can’t make myself do it. Instead, I lower it carefully as I speak.

  “Good. Then you’ll let that necklace of Scarlett’s mom’s go, or you and I will never see each other again.”

  Her eyes narrow. “Are you serious? That’s your price?”

  I nod slowly, waiting for this to blow up in my face. But it doesn’t.

  “Fine. I won’t bid on it again, but I want your promise that you’re going to make me scream your name next time we’re together.”

  “Oh, you’ll be screaming.”

  Triumph lights up her blue eyes. “Just wait, Legend. You’ve never had a snatch as tight and tasty as mine. You’ll never go back to that uppity snob once you’ve had me.”

  I drop her hand. “We’ll see about that.”

  Sixty-Three

  Legend

  “I can’t believe she stopped bidding on it,” Scarlett says, glancing down at the starburst pendant resting between her perfect tits.

  Tits that I don’t deserve to be staring at after what I did, even if it was for good reason.

  The whole fucking night was a disaster. All I want is to get back to the club, pick up Roux and Bump, get the fuck out of the city, and stay there.

  I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do about Lucy Byers, but one thing is for sure—my dick is going nowhere near her. Ever. I need a shower after touching her.

  “You’re sure you don’t mind staying at my place tonight?” I ask Scarlett to change the subject.

  She shakes her head. “Not at all. I like your place.”

  “Good deal. I’ll be quick getting Roux and Bump. Won’t take long at all.”

  “I’ll come in with you. Maybe if I post that we’re here, more people from the gala will come out because it’s still early, they’re dressed up, and why go home yet?”

  I can think of one bitch who would show up for sure, which makes it a damn good thing we’re not staying. But I don’t tell Scarlett that, and I fucking hate that I’m keeping another secret.

  I’ll give it a few days and then tell her what happened. She’ll understand. She has to.

  Hal parks in front of the club, and I open the door myself. More cameras flash as Scarlett climbs out with me. It’s not quite the same as the entrance to the gala, but this type of publicity will be damn good for Legend, just like Scarlett said.

  I give the doormen a nod before heading up the stairs. Once we’re inside, I catch sight of Q and Zoe by the bar. Scarlett and I head that way.

  “Everything good?” I ask them.

  “Busy night. We’ve blown through way more liquor than I thought we would. We’re going to have to start ordering more,” Zoe says, beaming.

  “Good news. Any trouble?”

  Q shakes his head. “Everything’s been pretty damn smooth. Except for one thing.”

  “What?”

  Q looks at Sca
rlett. “Your stepsister tried to get in with a fake ID. I escorted her to the curb.”

  “Shit,” Scarlett whispers, and it’s barely audible over the bass. “I’m sorry. She mentioned yesterday that she didn’t want to wait to see the place until she was twenty-one. I told her we’d figure something out. I didn’t expect her to take matters into her own hands, but then again, I guess I’m not too surprised. Flynn is—”

  “A reckless hellion,” Q says, and there’s something in his tone that I can’t interpret. I make a mental note to worry about it later.

  “We gotta get Bump and Roux. They in my office?”

  Zoe points that way. “Should be. I haven’t checked on him in a couple hours, but last I saw, Bump was watching Property Brothers on HGTV again, and he told me you need to buy him a house.”

  “Fucking hell. That kid.” I shake my head. “I’ll nip that in the bud quick.”

  “I love that show. He has good taste. I’ll go up with you,” Scarlett says as she threads her fingers through mine. There’s something about holding her hand that always grounds me.

  I lead her to a door that’s barely visible from the other side of the room. It opens into one of the hidden corridors that line this building from its days as a Masonic temple.

  “Am I carrying you up?” I ask her when we stop in front of a staircase.

  “Not necessary,” she replies with a wink, and proceeds to show me how quickly she can make it up the stairs, despite her heels.

  “Impressive skills. What else can you do in those heels?”

  She turns around at the top and flashes me a grin. “Just wait. I’ll show you.”

  I meet her at the top and press a kiss to her temple. “I’d like them digging into my back, if I’m being honest.”

  “We can make that happen.”