Drake stifled the urge to look at his watch again, knowing that Silas and Hatcher would pick up on the fact that he wasn’t focused on what he should be focused on, which was the current handling of an issue that needed to be acted upon quickly. And Maddox, damn the man’s hide, who perpetually lurked in the shadows, a mere raised voice away, would know exactly where Drake’s mind was and it wasn’t on one Eddie Ryker. For that matter, JusticeandThane were currently sitting on Drake’s sofa for reasons unknown to Drake, leaning back as if they had nothing better to do than be on permanent break. He’d address their purpose for being here as soon as he dealt with the most pressing issue.
“So what do you want done, Drake?” Silas asked in his quiet, unruffled tone.
Silas was an enigma, one that Drake would never admit to not having ever figured out. He knew enough about the man he considered one of his most trusted and valued partners to not worry that his loyalty would ever lie elsewhere, and he knew, only from what he’d been able to dig up as public record, that Silas’s childhood had been the worst kind of hell, but he didn’t know muchelse.
If it were anyone but Silas, that wouldn’t sit well with Drake at all. Hedidn’t hire men who wore shadows like others wore clothing. But in Silas he saw a kindred soul, and he also saw a man who placed great value on a man’s word, particularly his own. In all the years they’d worked together, he’d never known Silas to break his word once given. Regardless of circumstance. And Drake would know otherwise. He made it his business to know everything about the men he trusted. Except, he thought ruefully, he’d made an exception with Silas since no one knew anything about the man other than what he chose for them to know.
Drake glanced at Hatcher, whose expression was bland and unruffled, though his fists were clenched at his sides, a sure sign of his irritation. Drake frowned at the tell. Men who broadcast their mood, thoughts or intentions were the ones most likely to get themselves killed.
“You will handle this, Silas,” Drake said, making a sudden reverse decision when before he’d fully intended to give the assignment to Hatcher. Though he had implicit trust in Silas when it came to taking care of problems that arose, this task was beneath his abilities. Any of his men could do what needed to be done, and though he suffered no conscience over using any of the men he partnered with and had made very wealthy men, he had to admit that every once in a while he grew concerned with the considerable burden that Silas, for the most part, bore alone as Drake’s clean-up-and-take-out-the-trash man. Silas was too valuable, too integral to Drake’s many less-than-aboveboard assignments.
If Silas knew that it had even crossed Drake’s mind to shield his muscleman, it would be a betrayal; Silas placed much emphasis on loyalty and carrying out any task Drake put to him, regardless of how dirty his hands got in the process. But then the entire reason Drake chose Silas for that particular role was that he could simply turn it off, do the job impersonally and without emotion or suffering a fit of conscience, two things Drake demanded of all his men, but especially Silas.
Silas wouldn’t question Drake’s decision or his motives, but if he had, he would have simply been honest about the fact that of all his men,Hatcher had been with him the shortest period of time, which meant he still had to prove his mettle not only with Drake but with his partners and brothers.
He shot Hatcher another quick glance, satisfied that at least he showed no outward reaction to Drake’s decision. But then he could hardly blame the man for his anger toward Eddie when Drake wanted nothing more than to hunt the little bastard down and kill him himself.
But this wasn’t about Eddie, directly. Eddie had already received a message very loud and clear, courtesy of Silas, Jax and Justice, to give Evangeline Hawthorn a wide berth in the future. One he was still no doubt recovering from.Excepthe’d shown up in Steven Cavendar’s nightclub the night before. And not only had he been allowed entrance, but he’d also availed himself of his VIP status and all the perks that accompanied VIP treatment.
Drake had done his homework on Eddie and had only grown more disgusted, if such a thing were possible. He didn’t have money, or a job for that matter, or the ambition to do anything more than to live off his parents’ largesse and toss around money without a second thought in his bid to impress women and men alike. He wanted something he had no hope of ever receiving. Respect. He was a parasitic leech and there was no doubt in Eddie’s mind that once he’d set his sights on Evangeline, it was a fait accompli and she’d fall into his lap like a ripe plum just ready to be bitten into.
He’d certainly picked the wrong woman when he chose Evangeline and was barking up the wrong tree entirely. Evangeline wanted, needed, craved a forceful, dominant man, and he doubted she’d even realized it yet. Eddie, even if he had been satisfactory in bed, would have failed her on every other level that it was possible to fail a woman. He was weak, spineless and unapologetic about his lifestyle and what his parents’ fortune gave him by proxy. As an only child, he’d been shamelessly spoiled, and he knew nothing about the real world or where Drake andhis men and Evangeline had come from, what they had made themselves into. He was a whiny petulant prick who expected nothing more than to crook his finger at a woman and have her clinging to him like a lifeline.
Until Evangeline. And she had not only stung his pride by making him put on all his charm to seduce her, but she’d made a fool of him and worse, he knew it, though he’d never admit to such a thing. He’d been on a mission to take Evangeline’s virginity and to toss her the day after, never to be thought of again.
“Just how big a lesson did you teach our good friend Eddie?” Drake asked Silas, in a swift shift in thought. “Because I’m thinking if he was out partying at Cavendar’s all night, he didn’t get half of what he deserved.”
His statement ended in a snarl that suddenly had Maddox materializing in the far corner of the room where the nearly hidden doorway stood. He watched the goings-on through narrowed eyes as if deciding whether he needed to intervene.
“I’m surprised he was walking,” Silas said in his characteristic detached, unemotional tone.
Drake scowled. “Are you saying he has magical healing powers, then?”
His sarcasm lay heavy over the now-quiet room.
Hatcher merely shrugged. “A man will do a lot when his pride is involved. After the first several doors were shut in his face, he probably got desperate. And we all know Cavendar is a greedy whore who’d sell his mother for the right price. How Eddie got in and whether he was ambulatory wouldn’t be of consequence to him. Only that he was seen and not shunned. And just as Cavendar can be bought, I doubt the women who Eddie usually keeps company with give a fuck that he looks like he was hit by a semitruck just as long as he keeps them happy. And gives them carte blanche with his parents’ money.”
“Which is precisely why I want you to go have a chat with Cavendar,” Drake said pointedly to Silas.
Silas nodded.
“Report back to me...” Fuck. He almost forgot himself and the fact that he would be with Evangeline for the rest of the day—and night. “I’ll touch base with you tomorrow,” he amended. “I expect the matter to be resolved by then.”
Again Silas only nodded.
“Should have just dumped the asshole in the Hudson,” Maddox said darkly, speaking up for the first time.
A gasp from the elevator made all four men swivel in that direction. Evangeline stood next to Jax, who was shaking his head as if to say they were all stupid fucks for forgetting themselves.
Hell. Just how much of their conversation had she heard? But Evangeline never once looked in Drake’s direction. She focused only on Maddox, clear indecision in her eyes, but to Maddox’s credit, he didn’t skip a beat. He strode toward her, took the things she was holding in her hands, and promptly dumped them into Silas’s bewildered arms—something Silas had no liking for because it drew attention to him when he would have silently slipped away, as he did around all newcomers—and then Maddox hugged Evangeline and smacked her noisily on the cheek.
“How’s my favorite kidnappee?” he teased.
Drake had to rein in his temper over Maddox’s spontaneous display of overdone affection. He knew well why he’d done it. If Drake hadn’t allowed himself to be distracted, something he found himself guilty of with increasing frequency ever since Evangeline had walked into his club that first night, then he would have damn well known she and Jax were on their way up in the elevator. Hell, he would have known the moment they hit the entrance to the club.
When Evangeline continued to regard Maddox warily, he sent her a look of indulgence and laughed.
“Don’t go getting all timid on me now, sweetheart. You’ve already shown me your claws. Don’t worry. I didn’t really dump anyone into theHudson. It was merely wishful thinking on my part. One has that kind of reaction when their accountant informs them, after filing an extension and paying estimated taxes due because all my K-1s from my investments don’t come in until well after April fifteenth, that I owe substantially more than he first estimated.”
