“No, she hates red velvet; she says all the food colouring makes it taste weird.” Nissa folded her arms and glared at them both like they had just admitted to kicking puppies for fun. “Her favourite is strawberry shortcake with whipped cream or Thorn’sReforma Torta.”
“Nissa’s right.” Tommy groaned. He’d known that, so why had he thought it was the other way around? “She hates red velvet. She never even took a slice.” He remembered how her eyebrows had gone up when he handed her a plate, and she’d set it back on the table, mumbling about not being hungry.
“And why would you have it at a club?” Nissa continued, still angry on Evie’s behalf, and Tommy couldn’t blame her; they had really messed up. “She hates clubs. I told you that weeks ago.”
Tommy could see that Alex was starting to look guilty and defensive. “She doesn’t hate clubs!” Alex responded hotly, his cheeks reddening. “She comes with me all the time!”
“She comes because you act like a child when she tells you no,” Nissa told him sharply, and Tommy sighed, reaching for her hand before she completely went off on him.
“Nissa, enough. We fucked up. We get it.” He said, trying to calm her down before she put Alex on his ass.
“No.” She snatched her hand away from him. Tommy could feel his temper building as she continued to berate them.“And whose brilliant idea was it to invite a bunch of people she doesn’t know?”
“I like showing her off!” Alex snapped back. “Besides, I’m trying to show people she’s not the terrible person they think she is because of her father!”
“Oh, bullshit.” Nissa scoffed. “It’s been years since that went down. The only people who still believe that are conspiracy theorists who think she’s part of some massive plot to steal Sloane Technologies.”
“Actually, we still get quite a bit of hate mail for her,” Tommy muttered. “Especially since that TV movie based on it came out last year and changed it just enough that I couldn’t block its release.” It hadn’t been for lack of trying; he’d exhausted every legal route he could, delaying it for years quietly.
Nissa rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t change the fact that they’re all crazy, and most people at Sloane Tech, Sloane Security, and Protective Services don’t believe it anymore.”
“And just because you like showing her off doesn’t mean she likes being paraded around like a show dog,” Paula added, surprising Tommy with her defence of Evie.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Tommy said quickly, seeing that Alex’s face was now bright red and not wanting there to be a fight when they were all drunk. “If you saw her leave, why didn’t you come tell us?” He looked at both women expectantly.
“We didn’t see anything.” Paula shrugged. “We were dancing.”
“Thorn told Cole about Evie confronting him, Lana overheard and told me,” Nissa explained.
“And she ended up getting an Uber with Aaron back to the Tower,” Paula smirked smugly. “He texted and asked Nissaand me to watch and see when you’d both notice she was gone. Apparently, she bet him five hundred dollars that neither one of you would until you were getting ready to leave.”
A slight frown crossed her face. “You don’t think she’ll actually make him pay, do you?”
Nissa shook her head. “Nah, she won’t hold him to it.” She turned her attention back to them, and Tommy could see his dismay mirrored in Alex’s expression. “We weren’t allowed to interfere, just watch.”
“Good.” Paula looked relieved, then turned to Tommy and Alex. “According to Aaron, she’s incredibly hurt and angry with the two of you, and for a good reason. I’d let her cool down for a few days before you try to talk to her.”
Chapter Forty-Seven: Retreat
Nissa
Nissa lay on the couch in the TV room the next morning, listening with growing irritation as Tommy, Alex, and Thorn argued about why Evie wasn’t responding to any of them. Alex was blaming Thorn for Evie’s increasingly short temper and bad moods over the last few months. Thorn was trying to defend himself while also admitting he had messed up and that he owed Evie an explanation and an apology.
After the third time Alex tried to blame it all on Thorn, he snapped and told Alex that his thoughtlessness in planning her birthday party proved how little he actually knew about Evie, and to shut up, because that party was clearly for him, not her. Dead silence followed that outburst, and Nissa smirked. When Thorn got angry, he was absolutely terrifying, and she wouldn’t have been surprised if Alex pissed himself a little when the huge man yelled at him.
Tommy, ever the voice of reason, said they were all at fault, then cursed as HELIX informed him, for the third time, that he had failed to override her protocols and that she would not allow him to enter Evie’s apartment.
This had been going on all morning, and just as she was about to get up and tell them they were all at fault and to give the poor girl some space to breathe, HELIX spoke up again.
“Evie isn’t home anyway. She left this morning, and she just informed me she has arrived safely at her destination. Shewill be back Wednesday night and doesn’t wish to be bothered in the meantime.”
The kitchen went completely silent, but Nissa narrowed her eyes. Aaron had also left this morning for Colombia with a return scheduled for Wednesday. But Evie wouldn’t have gone with him, would she? It was precisely the kind of impulsive thing Aaron would have done without considering how that would affect anyone else, namely, his wife and Alex. She hoped Evie had better sense than to take him up on the offer if that was the case, and instead went somewhere else.
Getting up, she walked to the bathroom and locked herself in. “HELIX,” she murmured. “I don’t want to know where she is or who she’s with,” she began, knowing the AI probably wouldn’t tell her anyway, but wanting to keep her distance from a potential shitshow if she was right. “But if Evie left the Tower with a certain contractor this morning, delete the security footage.”
“While Mr. Denton did make that offer to her in the elevator when they got home, and Evie did agree at first, she realized the optics wouldn’t look good while she was packing and instead had me book her a stay at a yoga and meditation retreat a few hours away,” the AI responded quickly to her concerns.
“Oh, thank god,” Nissa sighed in relief and splashed some water on her face. Paula and Alex would have both lost their minds if Evie and Aaron had gone away together, no matter how innocent it would have been, at least on Evie’s part. She’d noticed the way Aaron’s eyes tended to linger on Evie’s ass as she walked away from him. Not that she thought he would actually cheat on Paula, but still…
