Page 77 of Inside the Maelstrom: Part Two
Sampson had never questioned why we always hung out at Otto’s house, because he’d just assumed my home life was like his, cold and detached.
“She told me she didn’t want Sampson at the house anymore, and that she had no time for teenage boys, which I took to mean you as well. ‘The less I see him, the better it will be for us both’—that’s what she said. I remember thinking that she was a raging bitch and I’d happily keep you both out of her hair, but in reality, she was protecting you the only way she knew how. I didn’t work out what she was trying to tell me until it was too late.”
I stared out the front window, wondering if I actually knew my mother at all. “She could have taken me and run, to my grandparents, to another country, to anywhere else. She was the one with the money. But she never did. We stayed, and he tormented us both because she was weak.”
Evan shrugged. “Maybe. But you can’t judge an enemy until you’ve walked in his boots.”
We were silent for the rest of the journey.
By the time we made it to the bookstore, Viva and Otto were already there. Both of them had that goofy just-been-fucked look about them. I should know; I’d personally put that look on their faces many times before.
Viva was grinning wildly, and she kissed each of us as we stopped in front of The Lead Balloon. It had a little hanging sign that was made of tin and, you guessed it, shaped like a steampunk hot air balloon.
She pushed the key in the lock, and turned it slowly. When she opened the door, it creaked with disuse, but above all that, was the sound of a brass bell tinkling.
I watched Aviva fall in love.
It wasn’t a big bookstore, but it was sweet. Lots of little nooks and comfy armchairs. A fireplace sat unused in the back of the space. The counter was made entirely of books, stacked on top of each other and glued together, with a comic book resin counter.
Even I could admit it was kind of cool.
“What do you think?” Otto whispered.
She spun in a circle, her hair and skirt flying out from her body. “I think I’m home.”
Yeah. I was pretty sure we all were.
Chapter38
Aviva
It finally felt over enough that we could make plans about what to do with our future. Go back to New York or stay in San Francisco?
We’d decided on New York, though I wanted to travel back and forth for a while until we got the bookstore up and running again. I wanted to run it myself sometimes too, to sit behind that counter and greet people who were wildly coming in, looking for Verne books with mysterious inscriptions. It gave me a purpose, a direction in life, now that I was rich as hell and didn’t really need to work.
That was the most confronting thing, and if I was honest, I’d kind of buried my head in the sand about it.
Mitch had given me access to all the trust funds, and I had a meeting with the CEO of Solink—the company that Willhem had owned the majority shares in—later in the month, which I was kind of freaking out about. But Sampson would be with me, and he was shrewd as hell. He’d been navigating these corporate waters for years. He’d know what to do and what to say. They’d hired me a team of accountants and business managers too, the ones they themselves used and trusted.
Then I did… nothing. Having money didn’t come naturally to me. I wasn’t out buying Birkin bags and eating caviar.
No, life went on with blissful normality. We flew back to New York after a couple of days in San Fran. We did normal sightseeing things. We ate out every night. There weren’t any bombshells or accidental fortunes or clues to be chased. The guys sometimes looked at me like they were holding their breath, waiting for the moment I would realize that they were insanely boring without a mystery or drama surrounding us. But I’d been introverted my whole life. Books and coffee. That was all I needed.
Oh, and the absolute gluttonous amount of hot sex. Honestly, I was lucky that I had money now, because I was probably going to need a vagina replacement in ten years’ time.
Joking. I knew that wasn’t how vaginas worked.
“What are you thinking about, Chaos?”
“Vaginas.” I grinned at Evan’s raised eyebrow.
“Should we be worried about you adding women to your harem? I mean, not going to lie, I’d probably be okay with it.”
I smacked his chest, and then climbed into his lap. He wrapped strong arms around me, pressing his face into my cleavage. Well, what there was of it.
We were propped up against the headboard of his bed in the Central Park apartment. Everyone else was out doing things, so we’d taken advantage of the empty apartment to fuck on just about every surface Evan could think to carry me to.
Sampson was going to be pissed we did it on his desk. I smiled at the thought. I liked pissing off Sampson sometimes. Liked to see him fiery and all grumbly.
