Page 104 of The Cinderella Secret
“But if anyone can manage it, I’m sure it will be you,” he said, still smiling. He held the door open for her and she saw the cab waiting for her.
“You are annoying,” she said, going for a direct assault.
“Yes, my cousins tell me that often,” he agreed amiably. “But I think they secretly enjoy it.”
“They probably only enjoy it when it’s pointed at someone other than them.”
Jackson laughed. “That may be true. But I won’t bug you again. It’s just my job to look out for them.”
She glared at him but was once again struck by his tone. He was attempting to walk the very difficult line between giving her the third degree and letting his cousin get rolled by someone he wasn’t sure he could trust. She had a sudden flashback to the moment she’d first met her cousin Rushi’s fiancé and his nervous face and nerd’s misunderstanding of fashion. She had not been nearly as delicate as Jackson was being.
“It’s difficult,” she said, her hand on the cab door. “It’s hard for them to trust you when you’ve missed their entire childhood and all the trust that goes with that. They stick together and you’re on the outside. They don’t mean to, but they do. But it’s hard to trust them too. Particularly, when an entire lifetime of experience says not to trust anyone but yourself.”
For a moment Jackson’s expression was bleak, then he smiled. “We’re all getting better,” he said. “Slower than I’d like, but we’re getting there.”
Ella nodded. She remembered that feeling of impatience. The summer before Rushi’s wedding had been hard and culminated in a vase-smashing fight and night of binge drinking that had solved more than any of the previous years of careful behavior ever had. “You’re right—you’ll get there. But it’s not them you have to worry about,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Look at me,” said Ella. “We have learned to trust each other—it’s not my cousins that are the problem.”
“It’s your uncle.”
“Yes. I’m fighting on two fronts because he can’t let go of the past.”
Jackson nodded, but didn’t look concerned. “Eleanor is happy,” he said. “I don’t think we have to worry.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said with a shrug. Then smiled at him and reached out and touched his arm. “Aiden really is what I want. There isn’t anyone else like him and I’m not leaving a second time. It was the right decision back then, but not this time.”
Jackson’s face softened and he smiled at her in a way that reminded her strongly of Aiden. “Then he’s lucky.”
“We’ll see,” said Ella. “If we can’t sort this out then it’s going to get ugly.”
“Nah,” said Jackson reassuringly. “We got this.”
Ella opened the cab door and prepared to enter. “Are all the Deveraux so cocky?”
“Um…” Jackson appeared to think it over. “Yes.”
Ella laughed and got in the cab. “See you soon,” she said, and he nodded and shut the door for her, sending her off with a wave.
36
Aiden – Hanson’s Furniture
Aiden stood next Detective Nowitsky in the defunct furniture store a few blocks from the old DevEntier building and tried to pretend he wasn’t nervous. He timed himself between sips of coffee to make sure he wasn’t drinking too fast. He could do this. Everything was fine. Totally, absolutely, fucking fine. It was no big deal that the girl who was possibly the love of his life and the cousin who had almost single-handedly managed to turn his family into an actual family were walking into a room full of armed thugs. Totally normal. Totes norms. He was sooo chill.
It had been one minute and fifteen seconds. He was allowed another sip of coffee.
Jackson had not wanted to wear a wire. Ella had been fine with it. Aiden thought Jackson objected on philosophical grounds. The look he gave Aiden while they were taping it on was one of a man making a great sacrifice for King and Country. Which made Aiden feel a tiny bit smug. After four years he shouldn’t really need proof of Jackson’s loyalties, but it still felt good. Except that now Jackson and Ella were inside the old DevEntier building on the edge of Brooklyn and all Aiden could think was: what if that tiny little microphone and recording device was what got Jackson or Ella killed? He tried to dismiss the thought. Charlie was autocratic, narcissistic and a total asshole, but he wasn’t crazy enough to think that he could get away with killing or hurting either Ella or Jackson. Right?
“So,” said Detective Nowitsky, who seemed like he probably hadProperty of NYPDstamped on his ass, “Jackson says you do corporate law.”
“Generally,” said Aiden. “But I have been known to dabble in criminal law.”
“Hm,” said the detective. “My kid’s at Brown. She’s thinking about law. Not really sure. She was thinking about applying for an internship at your grandmother’s office over the summer. Jackson said she could do that.”
Aiden tried to wrap his head around this statement. He had not previously suspected that Jackson said anything to cops beyondfuck off, you pig. It was an entirely new side of his cousin.
