Chapter 7

Ellie

Dandelion decided that he would sleep in until the moment someone came to get him for breakfast. He bolted out the door, leaving me alone with my unwelcomed bodyguard. Every time I saw him already awake in the morning when I got out of bed, it made my skin crawl. He already had on a suit, standing by the door and staring into space. I liked it better when I woke up to him drawing.

I ignored Mordechai when I went to go shower and get dressed. Funny, because even though I ignored him—I didn’t even look his way—his face burned in my mind. This man intruding on my space. Standing in my room. He wouldn’t look at me for even a second. I clenched my jaw so hard that it gave me a headache.

I sat on my floor, a book in my hands as I tried very hard not to look up at Mordechai. If he didn’t want to give me attention, fine. He had a job to do. It didn’t matter that I didn’t want him here and he did nothing to try and make this less uncomfortable for us both. I would not throw my book at his head.

With a huff, I slammed my book down. “You can’t just stand there for hours on end and not say a word!”

Mordechai looked up at me, disinterested. “We don’t need to talk.”

“I think we do! We’re stuck spending all of our time together.”

“And you think that means we need to be best friends? Would you like me to paint your nails? We’re already having sleepovers. What else is there?”

My eyes narrowed at him. “Braiding hair.”

He gave me that smirk that had me wanting to kick him. “Well, feel free to braid my hair, Miss Locke. I can’t stop you.”

Huffing, I stood up and approached the man. I poked him in the chest with my book, and he only stared down at the corner touching him. “You are just making this so much worse.”

“I think you’re the one to blame for that.”

I gasped. “Excuse me?”

He cleared his throat, then leaned in. “You’re making things worse. Leave it alone. Accept that I’m here, because I’m not leaving. And accept that maybe I just don’t find you as interesting as you think you are.”

I should have been way more pissed off about that. Instead of a ball of hate growing in me, thrill shot through my body. No one talked to me like that. Not a single fucking person I didn’t share blood with had the guts to look me in the eyes and tell me to sit down and shut up.

Naturally, I couldn’t listen to him. I had to make it worse. I had to flip the switch again.

“I own you,” I whispered. “I can make you do whatever I want.”

He cocked an eyebrow and I could swear to the gods I got tingly. “You think that?”

I nodded, putting my hands behind my back. “I can pull all your strings.”

“You proud of that? It make you feel good to stand above the peasants? I wonder why your friend doesn’t call you more.”

Instantly, ice got poured all over the fire growing in my abdomen. “Do you think I live to spit on the people under my balcony?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Is that why you hate me?”

“I never said I hated you.”

“You don’t need to say it. I’m not stupid. I can tell when someone doesn’t want to be around me. I can tell when my fucking father told my friend to call me because I mentioned it to him. I know when I turn in a paper only to get a hundred on it that I didn’t earn that hundred. I know what I am.”

He looked me dead in the eyes again. “Then why are you still talking to me?”

Because you have to talk to me.

Because you’re mean to me.

“Because I’m bored.”

He clicked his tongue, ripping his gaze away from me. “You should get better hobbies then.”

“I think I need a better bodyguard.” I ripped my door open and started down the hall.

“There’s no one better, sweetheart!” Mordechai shouted down to me. I kept walking; a grin on my face because it would only be seconds before he remembered that he had to follow me, even at home. When I heard his footsteps, I decided to go to the library on the other wing of the house so I could hear him following me for longer.

When I got there, I opened both doors and marched into the room no one went in but me. I heard the doors close behind me, making my heart race a little. I pretended I didn’t know Mordechai would be only steps behind, going about my business. I picked out two books, went to the seat at the window, put my bare feet up, and sat back.

“You happy with that?” he asked me.

I pulled the flask from one of the books I had grabbed. “Happy now, yeah.”

“It’s seven in the morning.”

“Then I’m running behind.” I tipped the flask to my lips, not even wincing as the liquid burned my throat.

With a good five hours to kill, I plotted out my day after I’d get back from lunch. Something to annoy Mordechai, surely. He looked like he might have enjoyed it at least a little. At least he bothered glowering at me every few minutes. It felt like a win.

It took me about a half hour before the silence drilled into my head without mercy. I could spend hours and hours by myself in the quiet, but something about having someone in the room and unwilling to speak with me felt like a woodpecker on my brain. I couldn’t say anything to Mordechai that wouldn’t make me come off like a spoiled brat, naturally. I’d be the first person to admit I’d been spoiled all my life. I couldn’t help that.

What could I do then? Apologize for having money? Say sorry because he had to take a job to get by? I’d already made it clear that I didn’t think he should have been forced to follow me. What more could I do?

“Oh my god!” I yelled, slamming my book closed. Mordechai barely looked over at me. Like he heard a car honking and wanted to know why. “You can’t just exist in my space and hate me! I can’t deal with it.”

Calmly, he said, “I already told you I don’t hate you.”

“You obviously do! Why are you just standing there all calm and collected? Is it to make me crazy? You did it, congratulations.”

“I’m not doing anything, Miss Locke. Only protecting you.” He adjusted his tie, and I didn’t miss the smirk he had on his face.

This man must have been a master at getting people worked up. He knew how to do it. Or, I reacted badly to when someone didn’t respond to me. I didn’t even know anymore. I’d been in plenty of rooms where other people talked and they ignored me except for a quick hello. This felt different. A normal person might have tried to make peace. I hadn’t been raised like that.

I got up and headed back to my room. Mordechai followed, not bothering to ask questions. I probably couldn’t do anything that would make him want to ask me questions. I should have accepted that it would be better that way. We could pretend the other one didn’t exist until this whole thing ended, then he could get back to his life and I could get back to… nothing, really. I had nothing waiting for me. In all honesty I would probably live in this house until my father introduced me to a boy he liked. Six months after that, I would probably be engaged. My life had a blueprint I hadn’t been shown.

Dandelion watched me pull my boots on, staring until I stopped to pet him. When I did, he dropped to the ground so I could rub his belly. I gave him a good thirty seconds before I had to go back to lacing my boots. Then he went over to Mordechai for attention.

Good luck with that.

The second Dandelion looked up at him, Mordechai pet him behind the ears. Oh, so he could give attention to the dog but not me. I supposed Dandelion made for better company.

“We’re leaving,” I said on my way out the door. Headed toward the garage, Mordechai actually made an effort to catch up with me. He stayed right at my side, looking forward.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“Lunch.”

We got into the car after I gave instructions to Mr. White. He raised the privacy cover without me even asking him to. Had we really been that bad the last time? I heard music playing from the front of the car, making me believe we might have been.

My phone beeped when I got a text from Jordan letting me know she’d be ten minutes late. Her baby threw up on her and I got the misfortune of seeing a picture of her ruined skirt.

“Jordan Copole again?” Mordechai asked. “You’re really playing with fire here.”

“Am I? I’m just meeting with a friend.”

“A friend that happens to be the oldest daughter of a family I know for a fact is a rival to yours.”

I snorted. “No family is a rival to ours. They’d have to be a threat first.”

Mordechai kept his expression blank. “Not taking threats seriously doesn’t mean you don’t have any.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, because I’m sitting here for a reason.”

Fuckin’… “Fine,” I huffed. “Jordan isn’t a threat. Her family wants to climb, sure, but she’s perfectly nice.” And happened to have information I wanted.

I’d spent an hour and a half sitting through a million stories about her toddler, pretending not to be unacceptably jealous of her as I laid the groundwork to poke and prod around for what I wanted to know. That poor woman was so desperate to talk to an adult that she would probably tell me what I wanted to know.

“Doesn’t matter how nice you think she is,” Mordechai said. “I’m sure she thinks you’re nice too.”

“And?”

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “You know.”

I should have kicked him in the foot. “One of these days, I’m going to smother you in your sleep.”

“Please do.”

We arrived at the bistro rather quickly, getting seated without having to wait. I asked for a seat outside so I could watch the leaves falling. The wind did a number on them, pushing orange waves down the streets and twisting them through the air.

“How long are we going to be here this time?” Mordechai asked. “Your father wants you home when he has to leave for a meeting.”

He hadn’t bothered to tell me about that. “We’re just eating. Shouldn’t take too long. Nor will it take long in a few days when we do this again.”

Mordechai studied me. I saw the wheels turning in his head and I would have loved to know what he might have been thinking. And when he looked at me, he seemed to have always be calculating.

“What in the hell are you up to?” he asked me.

I smiled at him. “Why would you think I’m up to anything other than having a nice lunch with a kind woman and my mean spirited body guard?”

“Because you look like you’re scheming.”

“Thank you, but I would never. Why would I scheme if I’m just a spoiled brat, right? I could just ask for what I wanted.”

He stared me down again, not saying anything more. I would have been happy to pull him apart and put him back together again after examining all the pieces that made him work. I could put a magnifying glass up to my eyes and try to decipher all the parts in my hands.

I sipped my drink, staring at the menu so I wouldn’t be bothered by knowing Mordechai didn’t look my way. I should have been pissed about that because it meant he might not have been keeping an eye on me like he should. That didn’t cross my mind for more than half a second.

My foot tapped unmercifully against the ground. I thought I would snap the heel off my boot for how hard I punished the concrete. I could swear to god that he must have been able to feel how hot my body got with the rage of it all. My face must have reddened too.

Jordan finally showed up and the waiter made quick work of our order. We had the food in under fifteen minutes, and I’d gotten all caught up with new pictures of the baby. He looked happy, but Jordan always looked blissful in every picture with him.

“He’s a handful but I don’t know what I would do without him,” she said, taking her phone back so she could eat. “I don’t know what I’ll do with him when he’s a teenager. Probably gonna take after his daddy.”

I kept staring at her lock screen on the table, seeing the baby with his dad. A pit formed in my stomach as I wondered if Jordan’s father picked that man out for her, knowing my fate. My parents got to choose to be together, but I assumed that had something to do with the fact that my father had the power. If he had been a girl, things would have been different.

Instead of getting lost in the worry that I wouldn’t love the man I would marry and be forced to have a child with him, I took a big drink from my glass. Nope, didn’t think for a second that the joy of being a parent would be tarnished by all the things surrounding it. But that wine sure did taste good.

However, Jordan gave me a segue. “Are you concerned about Jamie’s work?”

Jordan laughed lightly, twisting her wineglass on the table. “I don’t know much about his work.”

“But you probably know about as much about his work as I do about my father’s. Enough to know I wouldn’t want my son getting involved in something so dangerous.”

Jordan shrugged. “It is what it is. Jamie doesn’t get himself into any trouble. Admittedly, I’m worried about a day where he might not come home. I’ve thought of leaving. But then I think about how we have everything we need here. I don’t think I can walk away.”

“I’m sure you heard about Harrison.”

I could have sworn I caught Mordechai look at me from the corner of my eye. He said nothing.

“I did,” Jordan said. “Do you know what happened to him?”

“Daddy said he must have pissed someone off. He won’t really talk to me about it. I think he wants to protect me.”

“My dad is the same. But, uh, you didn’t hear this from me.” She looked around, then leaned forward. Stopping, she eyed Mordechai. “Can we talk in front of him?” she whispered.

I smiled, reaching out for Mordechai’s hand. I laced my fingers with his, ignoring the fact that I had already denied we were a thing. I thought his hand would feel rough against mine, or I thought he would pull away. And while his hand was a little rough, I barely noticed it. I mostly found myself caught off guard by how the size of this hands, and now they felt warm against mine. I didn’t realize I’d been so cold.

“Oh,” Jordan said. “Okay, well I heard that Jonathan Lewis is upset with your guys. Something about a deal getting interrupted. The word around town is that they wanted revenge.”

“What deal?”

“No idea. Jamie said it was big. Millions of dollars’ worth of product.”

And Jonathan Lewis did killed one of my father’s employees? Seemed like a small act of revenge for something that big.

I took another drink, thinking about the food stain on my boots. I squeezed Mordechai’s hand, knowing I should have let go. Daddy didn’t kill anyone. People died around him, but he had nothing to do with it. I knew that.

“Another!” I called to the waiter, lifting my glass before I put it down again. “So you think it was Lewis?”

“It could have been anyone, but I would say the timing for him is fishy at least.”

At some point in the meal, I lost Mordechai’s hand. He needed to finish eating, and I had to shove enough food into my mouth that I wouldn’t look worried. Thankfully, I looked dead behind the eyes, so no one would notice.

I walked out of the bistro with Mordechai, having gotten more information than I thought I would have so soon. With my sights set on the car that would take me home, I held my head up high.

Mordechai took my arm, pulling me aside. He had my back up against the brick wall of the building, tucked away so no one passing could see. It made my heart race.

“What the fuck was that?” he asked me.

I smiled at him, adjusting my skirt. “Did you like your chicken, Mordechai? It looked a little overdone to me.”

“Ellie,” he growled. Oh.

My smile turned into a grin. “Oh, you’re Ellie-ing me now. Must be serious.”

“What the hell are you doing going around talking to that woman? No wonder your father thinks you’re in danger.”

“I’m not in any danger. It was just lunch with a friend.”

“Ellie.”

I pulled away, starting for the car again. “It was just lunch.”