Not for Sale by Eden Rayna

Author:Eden Rayna [Rayna, Eden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance, international romance, steamy romance, enemies to lovers, romance series, women's fiction
Publisher: Eden Rayna
Published: 2021-06-17T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Owen

What did Pops do? Fifteen visits to Iris? No wonder she tried to run me off the street. No wonder Princess hates me. The things Iris must have told her granddaughter about our company. About the way we conduct business. That’s not what Black Ladder stands for. It’s not what Pops stands for.

I clench my fists, warning myself to not show how that wrecks me. How devastating it is to have spent a lifetime building a name in the community only to have it wiped out in a matter of months because of a fucking brain disease.

“You won’t answer me, will you?” Izzy says, pulling my blurred vision into focus.

I stare at her blankly for a moment, remembering what her question was.

What is this between us?

I don’t fucking know what this is. Pops got in my head.

The lassie comes with the house.

It was nothing more than the ramblings of a demented old man, but I can’t get the words to stop looping in my mind.

She loses patience waiting for my answer and power walks away in silence with me trailing behind her. When we get to her house, she stops on the sidewalk, staring at the shell of her home. The corners of the bright orange tarp covering the roof hole flap in the wind. Her eyes swell with tears again. She tries her best to hide it, but the sharp pain shows in more than the shimmer in her eyes. She bites the inside of her lip to stop it from trembling. Arms that were already wrapped around her body cinch a little tighter.

“Why did we come here?” I ask.

She spins around quickly to face me in anger, then her jaw falls slack. She looks back to the house, shoulders slumped, mouth gaping.

She walked to the wrong home.

From between clenched teeth, she grits out, “Fuck!”

Princess puts her back to me, refusing to admit she’s more drunk than she lets on. Refusing to show that she does need help tonight.

I appreciate the feeling. The feeling of making yourself look so strong that there’s no one to turn to without feeling shame.

How do I explain to her that Pops isn’t well? That it wasn’t the real him who visited Iris all those times? That I had no idea what was happening with my business when all these months I’ve been spewing the strength of my work ethic at her?

Princess digs through her purse and grabs her phone. She taps on the Uber app and starts ordering a ride.

“No,” I say. Probably a little too harshly, judging by her jump.

She glares at me, but says nothing before returning to her task. I check my tone before trying again.

“You’re not getting a ride with a stranger.”

She dismisses my concern without a second thought. “You know there are several very successful companies based solely on strangers driving other strangers around. Millions, probably billions of people do it every day in cities all around the world.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Best reason to have someone else drive.”

She’s infuriating. I twist the device out of her hand and shove it in my back pocket.

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