Page 40 of Lovely Deceit

Leo starts to open his mouth, but Eden shuts him up. “What are you doing, Mr. Barclay? You don’t want to be here, and we don’t want you here. Whatever is going on with me is none of your concern anymore.”

“Eden—”

She shakes her head, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t want to hear it. This was just a Knights grouping. You don’t owe me anything, and by your actions, you certainly don’t care. Leave.”

I practically grind my teeth down to the roots. Briefly, I think about pulling a Leo and throwing her over my shoulder, carrying her upstairs, and depositing her on the bed where I can make her listen with my tongue.

She’s trying to act strong, but I see the hurt in her gaze. We’d all led her to believe we were on her side, then we didn’t do anything when she actually needed us.

“You know Leo was there, too.” The statement is beneath me, but I hate that he’s allowed in her inner circle and I’m not.

“Yeah, and he’s also on my shit list,” she fires back.

Leo’s fists clench. He didn’t like hearing those words just as much as I hated hearing what she said to me.

I stand, and Eden visibly takes a step back, her face as hard as ever. “Fine,” I tell her. “I’ll see you at my punishment.” I walk toward the door and pull it open. Pausing, I say over my shoulder. “Since you two are supposed to be taking care of her, I’d assume you’ve realized she needs her painkillers for that foot. You do have painkillers for her, don’t you?”

Then, I shut the door. On the other side, I hear Oliver exclaiming to Eden that she should have told him she was in pain. She sighs. “It’s not like I haven’t had other things to worry about.”

I walk away more confused than when I arrived. Maybe putting space between us wasn’t the best idea. I don’t give a shit about the complaint, but what the hell did they mean she got slapped and is getting married?

I thought I was helping her, but now I’m not so sure.

20

Oliver

Imake Eden sit in the small living room, and then grab her pain relievers from the kitchen bar. She’s taken too much on herself again. Quite frankly, I don’t give a fuck about her father. The thought of her marrying someone else kills me.

My hands shake as I deposit the pill into my palm. Peering up, I’m surprised to find Leo Jarvis at the sink, filling a cup with water. Even more surprising is when he hands it to me like he meant to get it for Eden all along.

“Just like Barclay to come waltzing in here, wanting to know what’s going on,” he whispers, turning his gaze on Eden.

I don’t know if he thinks we’re co-conspirators in this situation, but we’re far from it. He’s getting entirely too comfortable here, almost as if he thinks she has forgiven him for everything that transpired at the edge of the river. “Sounds like someone else I know.” I leave him in the kitchen, hurrying over to Eden, who is struggling to get the boot off. “What are you doing?”

“I’m sick of wearing this thing.”

I place my hands on hers to stay her movements. She looks up at me, and in her blue eyes I see all the worry from today hanging there like a weeping willow, drawing her eyelids closed. “Here.” I hand her the pill and the water, and then bring the coffee table closer to prop her booted foot on. “You haven’t been elevating it properly. Or staying off it. Or basically anything the doctor told you to do.”

“Anything else you want to chastise me about, Number Five?”

“Plenty,” I tell her honestly. “What good would it do, though?” I ask, mostly to myself.

“I feel like I don’t have a choice. And just because I’m agreeing to it now doesn’t mean I’ll have to go through with it. Delilah was technically engaged to Keegan for a long time without any talk of an actual wedding. I can hold them off,” she says confidently.

“Until what?” I ask, begging her with my eyes but not daring to say the words. The only thing that stopped Keegan and Delilah from getting married was her death. I refuse to let that ever be an option.

Nothing good has come from us being back here.

“He didn’t want to marry me either,” Eden whispers. “Maybe he’ll be the one to stand up to his father and tell him no.” She peers away, her face scrunching up. “Maybe what he told us was true. That he actually did love Dee by the time she drowned.”

Leo sits in the chair on the opposite side of the room as I loosen the straps on her boot. I take the glass of water from her and place it on the coffee table before sitting next to her. Leo just stares. I watch him, trying to glean any pieces of information from the Knights’ black sheep. Surprisingly, he was as pissed off as I was when Eden told us she had to marry Keegan—or at least make it look like she would.

Eden shifts next to me, pulling out her phone.

“What are you doing now?” Leo asks gruffly.

She peers up at him without responding, then brings the phone to her ear. Leo huffs, looking like a big, sullen baby. I’m trying to play it cool but honestly, I’m also wondering what the hell she’s doing.

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