Page 67 of Devil's Riches

“It’s packed, too. It’ll take us an hour just to look at everyone.”

“Why don’t I take the left side, and you can take this side?” he asked. “That’ll save us some time.”

I nodded. “Okay. I’ll call you if I see anything.”

He strode away to the left, and I turned and headed to the right. A young man with a glass of whiskey bumped my shoulder as I walked, almost spilling the drink all over my arm. I turned and scowled at him. He gave me an apologetic shrug and disappeared into the crowd.

As I turned my gaze back to the front, I slammed right into a tall man’s chest.

“Shit. Sorry,” I muttered, feeling like a total hypocrite for getting mad at the other guy for bumping into me when I’d just gone and done the exact same thing. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“No, you weren’t,” came the terse response.

I took a step back, and my eyes widened as I realized who I’d bumped into. It was my grandfather. “Oh. Hi, Edward.”

He looked down at me, face impassive. “I’m sorry. Have we met before?”

“It’s me. Alexis.”

“I don’t think I know you,” he replied, averting his eyes from mine. I could see the expression in them that he was trying to hide from me; that familiar mix of unease and bone-deep disgust.

Irritation surged through me in a hot flush. “You’re seriously going to pretend we’ve never met?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

A flinch crossed his face, and he grabbed my arm and leaned down, fingertips digging into my skin. “Stop,” he hissed, so close that I could smell the sugary peppermint on his breath. “We don’t know each other.”

Suddenly Nate was by my side, as if he had a radar for detecting when I was in any sort of trouble. “What the fuck are you doing?” he growled, glaring at my grandfather.

The two men suddenly seemed to realize who they were dealing with in the same split-second.

Edward dropped his arm from mine and took a step back, putting a reasonable amount of distance between us. “Oh. Nate.”

“Mr. Paxton,” Nate replied, raising his brows. “Sorry, I thought you were some random guy trying to grope Alexis.”

“Oh, no. Of course not.” Edward coughed nervously and tilted his chin to one side. “You were supposed to come and see me about that issue of yours, but I never heard from you.”

Nate gave him a tight smile and patted his abdomen. “It’s healed up just fine.”

“Well, you should still come and see me, just in case,” Edward replied, still looking a little shell-shocked to see us standing next to each other. “Anyway, er… how do you two know each other?”

“We’ve been dating for a few months,” Nate said, slinging an arm around me.

Edward’s eyes widened even more. “Oh, I see,” he said. He paused for a second and arranged his face into what I presumed was meant to be a pleasant expression. “I actually met Alexis in a class I was guest-lecturing in at Blackthorne, and—”

Nate cut him off. “You don’t need to lie to me,” he said in a low voice. “I know you’re her grandfather.”

Edward turned to me, face thunderous. “You told him?” he hissed. “I warned you about ever—”

Nate cut him off again. “Calm down. She didn’t tell me anything. I figured it out myself,” he said. “And I haven’t told anyone else.”

“Ah. I see.” Edward looked slightly mollified by the new information, but his eyes were still flickering with animosity.

I folded my arms. “Don’t worry, I have no intention of telling anyone about you,” I said in an acid tone. “It’s like I said at my apartment last time I saw you—I’d rather not have people know I’m related to someone like you. Someone who would abandon their own family.”

He sniffed. “Well, as long as we still have an understanding.”

“We do,” I replied. “What are you doing here, anyway? And where’s your wife? Shouldn’t she be here, following you around and doing whatever you command?”

Edward dropped his gaze. “Deborah is actually quite ill at the moment,” he muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

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