Page 151 of Green Flag
Shit. Everly was right; her dad had framed her ex-boyfriend.
To be fair, I didn’t blame Cris for trying to get rid of him. Though I might have gone for something a little more permanent. Like death.
If only it hadn’t come at the forfeit of her career.
I thanked him and let myself into our room, sitting on the edge of the bed as my thoughts spiralled.
Could I go through with this? Cris was a good guy. Despite all this drug shit. Even thinking of him actually doing it didn’t sit right with me. There had to be more to it.
Was I capable of blackmail? I’d got lost in the excitement of a reason to spend time with Everly… and forgotten exactly what it was we were actually doing.
Threatening to ruin a man’s life.
And that might make me worse than him.
I loved Ciclati; I loved my friends and all the opportunities it had given me, like meeting Everly.
The wrongful death trial was starting soon; couldn’t my family suffice with that? Couldn’t I have this?
Everly crashed into my thoughts, opening the hotel door and spinning to me with a grin. Her face fell when she saw me and she dropped her shopping bags to the floor. She stepped towards me. “What’s wrong?”
I shrugged and looked down at my phone in my hand. “PI called me. Drugs have been on the planes since Pedro was in prison.”
She nodded and breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, yeah. I wasn’t lying.”
But it hadn’t stared me in the face quite like this before.
“What do you think?” she asked, pressing a silk emerald dress up against herself and spinning around in the mirror, pursing her lips as if she thought she might look anything but goddess-like.
Which meant she needed to go to the opticians.
How she couldn’t see what was right in front of her baffled me.
“You are breathtaking,” I said, momentarily forgetting everything else in the world with the lack of oxygen in my brain.
She laughed, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. “You’re silly.”
“I’m 100% serious, Everly.”
She shook her head again and stripped to put it on. Right in front of me.
Because she knew what that would do.
I turned away and started steaming my shirt for our formal dinner that Nix had booked us.
I wasn’t planning on drinking tonight. I wanted to be completely sober for whatever would happen between us because we needed a sober conversation before we shared a bed again.
My maximum would be one glass of champagne to see the new year in.
It took her less than ten seconds to slip into the dress and she cleared her throat to get my attention. “Zip me up?” she asked, slipping on her heels.
My fingers brushed her back as I pulled the zip up, the sound hopefully foreshadowing how I would also pull on the zip in a few hours.
“What do you think now?”
I didn’t say anything; I just looked her over. She was everything to me. Her hair looked silky smooth and her cute little smile made my knees weak. “There’s, er, one little thing.”
She blinked. She knew she was beautiful. I loved that she wasn’t shy or scared to show it, either.
