Chapter Eleven - Part One

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CHAPTER ELEVEN

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“The Leadership, I’m not worried about.” I told Adelle, the next evening, over dinner at the Maison. There was no leftover jetlag from my trip to New York, but I was still suffering from the nostalgia of it. I missed the colorful people, the crowded streets, and wall-to-wall traffic. But then again, I had also missed my best friend’s biting sarcasm even more.

“That I can handle.” I said, around a bite of my spaghetti. “It’s getting involved with Tidus and letting him take over my own plan that’s the intimidating part.”

“Then why do it?” Addy asked, taking a healthy sip of her Merlot. “Why not just tell Tidus to suck it? You can take care of Charles without his help.”

“True.” I agreed. “But Tidus has the Council on his side, and that can be used to my advantage – I can’t just ignore that.”

“So you really believe everything he told you about Sully and Caspian?”

I nodded.

“I do. And finding out about the Glamour and his blood – those can be good things too Addy. I’m sure of it –”

A buzzing sound interrupted the conversation and I pulled my phone out of my purse, unlocking the screen to show a message from Claire. A handy little phone app allowed me to divert messages from a track phone I had, and re-route them to my personal cell. This way, I could keep in contact with those I didn’t know or trust, without giving away too much of my personal information.

“It’s Claire.” I said aloud, reading the message. “She wants to meet Saturday night at one. Well. There goes just relaxing this weekend.”

“I had almost forgotten about her.” Addy said eagerly. “Can I tag along? Pwease?”

“Of course.” I said, sending Claire a quick reply. “Addy, you know I could never break into Jeremy Franks’ office to look at confidential information that could get me thrown into jail without you. Never.”

“Mmm. And cheers to that, babe.” said Addy with a grin, as we clinked our glasses in a toast.

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We were just finishing our meals, and enjoying the last sips of our wine, when a familiar, but unfriendly figure decided to approach our table. Normally, I would have been glad to entertain more company, but hers was not a conversation that I had been looking forward to. I had been wondering how long it would take her to approach me.

Eve Arling stood above us in a short, but innocent-looking, yellow sundress that showed off her tanned legs. Her striking blonde hair was pulled back in a bouncy, curled ponytail, with her lips blotted in heavy pink. She was smiling, but her brown eyes had an animalistic quality to them as she stared down at us. She reminded me of hunted animals. The ones who were cornered, had given up, and were wild with their last-ditch (often bloody) attempt at freedom.

“Hello, bitches.” she said, widening her smirk. “Am I interrupting?”

“Um, always?” Adelle replied with a scowl. “What the hell do you want?”

“As much as I enjoy mincing words with my favorite slut, I’m not here for you Adelle.” And Eve turned her focus to me, dropping the smile and the pretenses now. “I want a parley with Leader Noble. Alone.”

Addy rolled her eyes and gave a high sigh to the ceiling.

“Guess I’ll just go pay the tab then.” Adelle said with a loud, embarrassing groan, and throwing her napkin on the table. “It’s not like she won’t tell me later on anyway.” she said nastily to Eve as she passed the other girl in exiting the table.

“Silly ho.” Eve muttered clearly as she took Addy’s empty seat at the table.

“I heard that!” came Adelle’s immediate, embarrassing retort from across the restaurant. Meanwhile, I ducked my head and pretended to be absorbed in the menu while fellow patrons clucked their tongues and shook their heads at the mouthy red-head and her indecent girlfriends.

“It’s such a shame that stupidity isn’t painful…” Eve said, rolling her eyes one last time. “Look, you’re a Leader, and I can appreciate that. Hell, I can respect it, but I’m still here to set the record straight about a few things…” Eve’s tone had turned from playful to icy, and I knew then that I had had every reason to want to avoid this conversation.

“Sweetheart, you’ve been in this town for a whole two seconds, and already you’ve steamrolled your way just short of the very height of the Leadership pyramid. Not to mention that you also happened to steal my boyfriend in the process, along with any happy chances I had at making a name for myself in this miserable town.”

Her bitterness was so clearly jaded, that it was familiar. And there was such a lonely, sad, quality about her eyes that for a moment I wondered if I wasn’t mistaking her anger for despondency. But the quick manner in which she plucked the menu from my hands and vaguely tossed it aside, told me otherwise.

“What is that you want, Eve?” I asked with patience. “An apology? Because I am, after all, woman enough to give you one –”

True – I had taken the less abrasive, more submissive, and seemingly-weak road above the high one. But as Lucas and Addy had been quick to remind me, the Leadership was all about ass-kissing and good politics. Without the quick containment between us of the fire that was Ethan, I would burn any bridges to her and her close associates to the ground. And unfortunately, I didn’t have that many bridges to begin with. So for now, the high road would remain far in the distance for me.

“Save it.” she snapped. “I know how this game works – I wrote the goddamn book on it, dearie. But I will admit, you happen to be playing it quite well for a novice…”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I replied in polite puzzlement.

“Really? So it never crossed your mind that if you obtained Ethan you could worm your way up the next rung on the Leadership ladder? Because I’ll let you in on a little secret… That was my plan too. I put up with all of his cheating, his lies, and the humiliations of having every other woman in this town screwing him, because one day it would pay off. The Leadership was supposed to be my ticket to freedom, Naomi, and you took that away from me when you sunk your claws into Ethan –”

“First of all, I didn’t steal Ethan away from you.” I said, leaning in slightly to make sure she heard every word. “He came to me willingly, Eve. But as I recall it, you broke up with him, remember? And not that it’s any of your business, but Ethan and I are not, repeat not, a couple. It’s strictly professional between us.”

Eve gave a sudden, wild peal of laughter.

“A blood bond is never just ‘professional’. Any fool could tell you that. The connection that a Leadership member shares with their Champion is a bond that goes above all others. You can feel him right now, can’t you?”

My face grew warm beneath the malice of her knowing expression.

“Eve, why are you here? What do you want?”

“Justice. Reparations. An apology. Ethan’s head on a stick…”

I said nothing, merely looked at her with eyebrows raised.

“Ethan wants to pretend like we never happened. He acts like this is all no big deal, as if he didn’t really just pull the rug out from beneath my entire life. So I want… vengeance.”

“Vengeance?” I considered this. Already her intentions had a stench about them to suggest that her motives were foul. Trouble, she was.

“All right, Eve, I’ll bite. What part would I play in any of this?”

“Fire him.” Eve hissed. “Get him dismissed from the Leadership.”

Her smugness bordered psychotic as she looked at me from round, glittering eyes. She had become the product of her own bitterness, and for this, I pitied her.

“Oh Eve, surely you can do better than that?” I said with a grin of amusement. “If you’re such the plotter, then you’d know that’s amateur. You know for a fact that I don’t have the power to fire Ethan, or else he never would have made it this far on the Leadership – trust me.”

“Well, at least I tried.” the girl replied with a shrug, but not looking disappointed at all.

“What else have you got?”

Eve leaned forward in a conspirator’s fashion, looking around the table in a paranoid and obvious way.

“I’ve seen Hunters. Here, in town. Ethan’s good-for-nothing sperm donor let it slip that the Elder left on a business trip to meet some of them. But a few tailed him back to town, it seems, and they’ve got rooms in the hotel, right upstairs …” she said, looking significantly up at the ceiling and biting her lip. And unable to help myself, I let my gaze follow hers upwards.

“Eve,” I said, lowering my voice now too. “Are you sure that Charles was meeting with Hunters on that business trip?”

Diane had said Charles had probably left in order to visit Hasting’s Pack Elder. Not Hunters…

“Do you not recall the part where I’d said that I’d seen them? Couldn’t have been anyone else – three of them were walking around outside the hotel with those giant bows strapped to their backs. Not very inconspicuous if you ask me…”

“Hunters.” I repeated to myself, blankly, wondering what reason Charles could have to meet with Hunters behind the Leadership’s back.

“Eve,” I said, effecting a warning tone. “I hope you’re not suggesting I turn Ethan over to the Hunters, are you? Because that’s just sick.”

“Are you joking?” she replied with a scoff. “If I wanted Ethan dead, I would have killed him myself. No, I’ve got something bigger planned for Doe Eyes.”

“Such as?”

“Why, I’ll get him through his little heart of course.”

“Excuse me?”

“His father – he idolizes him; worships the ground that he walks. Ever since Ethan was a kid, he’s wanted to be just like his dad. But Mathew was only ever interested in bringing home women. Father-son activities were never really his style…”