Page 48 of Jealous God
I flicked my eyes from the glass to him and shrugged. “Don’t much care what they think.” I motioned for one of the hotel bar waitresses. I wanted a refill. Maybe several refills.
“He’s cut off,” Erik snapped when she approached. Dragging a stool to face me, he waited until I lifted my head to him. “Tell me what’s going on with you, Jax. I expect this kind of diva shit from Dion, but not you. Do I need to get Elodie here to talk some sense into you?”
The sound of her name caused my jaw to tighten. I might not have cared about anything right then, but I did care about one thing. Never setting eyes on her again. I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t really need to. Whatever Erik saw on my face caused him to frown. “Something happened between you two?”
Again, I didn’t answer him. Searching the empty bar for another waitress, I came up empty. I needed a drink. I needed the whole damn bottle and then more before I could even come close to processing what the hell had just happened.
“Tate?”
Tate shuffled awkwardly. He was a good guy, but at that moment, I kind of hated him. “It’s—”
Clearing my throat, I brought Erik’s attention back to me. “You want to know what’s wrong with me, Erik? Then it’s her. I want her gone.”
“You guys had a fight, huh? A bad one?” Erik’s fatherly tone grated on me. I didn’t care if it was his job to defuse the situation. This wasn’t one of those instances that he could sweep under the rug.
This time, the show would not go fucking on.
“The kind that resulted in him and Legacy going at each other.”
I sneered up at Tate. He was such a fucking goody two shoes. “You’ve probably been there as well. I saw you sniffing the fuck around.”
Tate’s usually open and honest face shut down. I had known the guy for a long time, but I had never seen that look on his face before. I realised I was close to getting punched by a second person that night. But I grinned drunkenly at him, egging him on.
“Wait, what the hell is going on?”
I couldn’t blame Erik for his confusion.
“I thought you and Eli were good. I thought…we all thought that you—”
“You thought wrong.”
“He caught her with Legacy, outside her room. It looked intimate,” Tate added softly.
“I want her gone, Erik. Now.”
“You saw her with Legacy, and you think—”
Turning, I screamed up into his face. “I want her gone, Erik. Are you listening to me? Fucking fire her ass.”
“She’s under contract, and—”
“I don’t care, either those two go or I do. I mean it.” Was I being childish? Yes. But I couldn’t bring myself to care. If she was around, then I wouldn’t be able to perform. I would think of nothing but her and what a fool she had made of me.
“You need to let her explain.”
What was it with everyone telling me to allow her the opportunity to talk her way out of it? This wasn’t some suspicion. I had seen her with my own two eyes. Elodie was a slag. Pure and simple. Usually that would have been fine, but...
I shook my head. “Fire her.”
“You don’t need to fire me, Erik.” Elodie's soft voice spoke from behind my shoulder.
With difficulty, I straightened, twisting my body to look at her.
She had changed from the dress she had been in earlier. Jeans and a baggy tee replaced it. It looked like a man’s t-shirt. Had she come down here in his shirt? Had she done it just to hurt me? To rub my face in it? And there he was, hovering at her shoulder like a bodyguard. Not touching her, but there. And there was a closeness between them that had nothing to do with physical distance between them. The way they stood there felt like they had done this a million times before. Their relationship wasn’t casual or new. Not like ours had been. No, theirs was cemented.
“You don’t need to do this, Eli, just—”
Legacy opened his mouth like he was going to say something, and I had the overwhelming urge to smash my fist into his teeth, but it was Elodie that cut him off.
