Page 102 of The Love Destroyers

“I won’t hit him,” I promise, even though the words burn. “But I’m going to enjoy watching him suffer.”

“Oh, we all will.” She grins. “I think that’s the only reason Ellie’s fans like having him on her livestreams.”

“Pleased to meet you,”Jeffrey says, holding his hand out to me from his chair. We found him and Ellie in one of the Grove Park’s many restaurants, next to a buffet that could probably feed an army. Nicole introduced herself as the “contest supervisor” and me as Ellie’s assistant. He didn’t even bother to get up.

Revulsion grips me around the neck. This insignificant, self-important asshole tried to ruin Emma. Even though violence doesn’t do it for me, I won’t lie—I want to grab a cast iron from the buffet and beat this asshole with it.

In the state of mind I’m in, I shouldn’t be here.

When I don’t take his hand, he lifts his eyebrows and asks tersely, “Something wrong?”

“I don’t like the smell of eggs.”

His gaze lowers to my T-shirt, his lips flattening. “Professional.”

“Thank you.”

“Oooh, I love it,” Ellie says with a snort-laugh. “How funny.” Then she wags a finger at me. “But you’ve been holding out on me, Mister! I must have sent you five texts last night—”

Five hundred.

“And you only responded once. I was starting to worry something was wrong with my phone.”

“I was probably still at the hospital,” I say flatly. “Or asleep. They told me I should try to get plenty of rest.”

“Oh, I understand. I need my beauty rest too. But I’m so glad you’re here, and you get to meet Jeffrey! He came last night. Now, I know we weren’t that impressed with him yesterday…” She gives him a dark look. “But he’s apologized for the stupid things he said, and I believe in second chances.”

Jeffrey still has his hand held out. He’s scrutinizing me now, his expression unimpressed.

Nicole shoots me a glare, and I finally take the asshole’s hand. He immediately attempts to squeeze my bones—amusing, because there’s not much strength behind it.

So Jeffrey dislikes me. That’s a pleasant surprise.

He saw her posts and the recording of the livestream, no doubt, and now he sees me as a threat to his goal of winning her over. Getting hercollectibles. Maybe he’s also suspicious after what happened in Ellie’s room last night, a thought that doesn’t sit at all well.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” I tell him, squeezing back enough to show him what he’s dealing with.

I’ll give him this—he doesn’t flinch.

“And I’ve heard nothing aboutyou,” he replies with a polite smile.

“Jeffrey,” Ellie says, reaching over to shove his shoulder. Turning to me, she rolls her eyes. “He’s so rude. Isn’t herude? Besides, it’s not true. You were all I could talk about last night. I mean…the numbers I drew on those posts were incredible. None of my silver daddy posts have performed like that.”

My lips twitch into a grin. “The performance was lacking, huh?”

I don’t look at him while I drop that little chestnut. Let him choke on it.

“Oh, you’re funny,” she says, giving me her bestEllie the social media stargrin. “I’ll betyouwouldn’t break someone’s favorite speaker and not even apologize for it.”

“I told you I’d get you a new one,” Jeffrey grumbles. “It was malfunctioning. I was worried someone was using it to spy on you.”

Ignoring him, she tells me, “Are you going to go on camera again, Mr. Dig Bick? All of my Reeders are thirsty for you. They weredyingto know about the handsome man who caught me.”

Fantastic. The possibility of my sister and Declan hearing about this just got a lot higher. Okay, fine, Rosie probably tuned into the livestream and is biding her time. Declan is going to find out when someone inevitably tells him. Probably Rosie.

“Oh, they all know it’s staged nonsense with an employee,” Jeffrey says gruffly, pushing back in his chair. His face is craggy and sulky. “Well, shall we get this over with?”

Ellie gives him a murderous look and spears her fork into a pile of eggs on her plate.

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