Chapter 17
Gemma
Lucky Draw
I wait three days, but the signed divorce papers don’t come.
What I do hear, however, is that Seaside Manor is for sale online.
I’ve never felt so much rage in my entire life. “Damn you, Cassian,
you bastard! I can’t believe you’d do this to me. I gave you three years, and you didn’t even want me. Now you do this?”
I mutter the words to myself so that I can cling to my anger. Anger is better than the other thing I’m feeling, which is the deep desire
to cry.
I call Cassian over a dozen times. The last time I call, a woman
answers.
I know it’s Reyna as soon as I hear her voice.
Since I don’t care to speak to my evil half–sister, I interrupt her greeting and say, “Put Cassian on the phone.”
Luckily, she doesn’t argue, and in the next second, I hear
Cassian’s deep voice. It twists something deep inside me, despite my rage. His voice, like the rest of him, is just so stupidly sexy.
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Lucky Draw
“What do you need, Gemma?” he asks coldly. “Or maybe there’s something you’d like to say?”
Does this arrogant son of a bitch think I’m going to apologize? I haven’t done anything wrong!
I squeeze the phone in my hands, but I have to put the rage away.
I have to get my mother’s home back. For her…and for me.
“What do I have to do to get you to take down the listing for Seaside Manor?” I ask. I’m proud, because my voice only trembles a little, and he’s so callous I don’t think he’ll notice at all.
There’s silence for a moment, then Cassian says, “Come to the Blackwell family dinner tomorrow. Be ready at six.”
“Sweetie…” I hear Reyna call.
Before I can hear what she says next, Cassian hangs up the phone.
I stare at it, my rage mixed with shock and even more rage.
Sweetie? She’d called Cassian sweetie!
I did that one time. Exactly one time. He said he hated it and told me to never call him by that nickname again.
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(Lucky Draw
Of course, I wasn’t his first childhood love. Reyna could get away with things regarding Cassian that I never had.
I sit on the sofa in a daze. Zina stares at me from her usual spot,
curled in a big, overstuffed recliner near one of her windows.
I give her a wry smile. “Looks like I’m not getting divorced quite
yet.”
Zina’s face turns thunderous. “That’s it. We’re hiring someone to
kill him.”
I snort. “Again, do you think any hitman in the world would dare?
Even the fey wouldn’t be crazy enough for that.”
She arches an eyebrow “Try us. You should meet my cousins.”
I roll my eyes.
Zina shifts in her chair so she’s facing me. “Listen, Gemma, even if
you owed Donovan Blackwell, you’ve repaid him by being with his ruthless douche bag of a grandson for three years.”
She takes a breath, then says, “The only thing keeping you from pushing through this divorce with Cassian is you. You keep threatening to take him to court. Take him to court!”
“What are you talking about?” I can’t keep the irritation out of my
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Chapter 17
voice.
Lucky Draw
“I mean you don’t actually want this divorce. You say you do, and you’re annoyed at him, but that thread of hope that’s kept you tied to him all these years is still hanging on strong.”
Her words pierce my chest like blades, and bitterness sweeps in. I grit my teeth, because she’s wrong. Of course, she’s wrong. I do want a divorce.
…Right?
I push my doubts aside and change the subject. “Listen, I’ve crashed here too long. I’m going to find my own place in the next few days, okay?”
The money from the Nautilus job will be enough for a
downpayment on a place, and the Blackwell name can rush any home–buying through, so I shouldn’t have to wait the usual time to close.
Zina narrows her eyes at me. “Why? Isn’t my place good enough for you.”
I scoff. “Zina, you’re a woman in your prime, and I love that for you, but to be honest? I don’t want to have to bear constant witness to your sexual conquests, okay?”
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Chapter 17
Lucky Draw
Zina’s narrow–eyed glare turns into a smirk. “Well, in that case, fine, I guess. I understand how that might make you jealous that you’re missing out.”
I think of Cassian. Of the way he looks at me, of his hands on me,
his voice in my ear, groaning as we wrung pleasure out of each
other.
Since having him, I can’t even look at anyone else. “Sure,” I say,
because I don’t want to have to keep talking about our sex lives.
After that, I focus on my plans. I follow up with Nautilus to make
sure everything there is still working. It is, and they’ve even found the mole and fired him thanks to my tracking programs.
There’s no direct proof he was working for Cassian, but I’d been
good money he was, and I’m proud of myself. I hope my actions
as Moonlight are a pebble in Cassian’s thousand–dollar shoes.
The morning of the dinner, I get up early.
In the past, I’ve always had to so that I can do what I need to face
down Cassian’s aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Manicure. Pedicure. Hair stylist appointment. Dress and makeup. All of it has to be perfectly understated, not too loud, no makeup that actually looks like I’m wearing makeup. The perfect Alpha mafia boss’s wife.
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This year I do what I can afford…but I do it my way.
* Lucky Draw
I finish right at the time I expect a driver to come in a big dark Smokewind Pack SUV to pick me up.
But the car that pulls up isn’t an SUV with a pack driver. It’s a black
sports car.
Cassian is driving. Reyna is in the passenger seat.
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