Page 42 of Gambit
Snapping the glove compartment open, I use the remote to unlock the gates and take a sick sort of satisfaction in shutting them immediately behind me so Oliver can’t pull in.
I’m a bitch, I know. But all of me says that Dad wouldn’t appreciate an audience to this, no matter who they are.
I step out and wave smugly to the guys, and wait until I see Felix arrive. He parks up and gets out on the other side of the gates, which I open a crack for him to enter before closing them again.
James and Oliver snicker and wave, settling down for the long haul.
I hope they brought snacks. But doubtful. They were right behind me the entire way here.
“Hey,” I murmur to Felix.
“Hey,” he mutters back nervously.
“You ready for this?”
“Yes.”
There is no hesitation, which is good.
I push through the front door, each step echoing through the halls of my childhood home. It’s time Damon Hughes accepts the man who’s more than just another player in our twisted game—he’s family.
“Wait here,” I murmur as I see the door to my dad’s office ajar.
Sticking my head around, I don’t see him, so I turn and make a motion to Felix to stay put as I head up the stairs.
“Dad?” I call out as I hit the hallway and cross over to his room.
“Eliza?” he calls back and swiftly opens his bedroom door, glaring at me accusingly as he stands there in a towel, clearly having come from the shower.
“Uhm,” I mutter. “It’s late. Why aren’t you up yet?”
“I’m up,” he states. “What are you doing here?” He stands with his hand on the edge of the door, keeping it closed enough to see me, but not for me to see in.
Oh my God! Does he have a woman in there?
My cheeks heat up at the thought, and my stomach churns. I have never, not once, seen my dad with a woman apart from mymum. This is weird. But he’s an adult. I’m an adult. We can be adult about this. Can’t we?
“Felix is here,” I blurt out in a rush. “Can you come down so we can sort this out?”
“Sort what out?” he asks darkly.
“This family stuff. It needs to be, you know, sorted.”
He growls at me, but I stand my ground. “Fine,” he snarls eventually when I don’t move. “Five minutes.”
He slams the door in my face, and I take a step back, wondering if the woman will stay or will she slip out while we’re talking.
But I shove all that aside for now. We’re about to shake the foundation of the Hughes empire, and there’s no telling how it’ll go down. I’m assuming Dad and Felix have met before, seeing as Dad knows who he is.
“Five minutes,” I say to Felix when I rejoin him in the Entrance Hall. “Have you met before?”
“If you could call it that. I might have been a bit aggressive in my accusations about who he was to me, and he might have had security remove me from his presence.”
I snort. “Vince?”
“Built like a brick shithouse with eyes that can haunt your ass for days?”
“That’s him.”
