Page 107 of Prey Tell
Still, I can’t help but feel like the best thing that ever happened to me just walked out of the door.
Maybe for good, apparently, if my brother had anything to do with it.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
THE DRAGON
Chase
I’m already nursing my second scotch when Miles bumps my elbow with his. We’re 35,000 feet in the air, on our way to New York City, and we’ve been airborne for less than thirty minutes. I snap out of my daze and sit up, glancing over at him in the first-class seat next to me. Our father has a private jet, but the bastard next to me refuses to use it—citing environmental reasons.
At this point, I give zero fucks about how we get there.
“Are you going to mope all week?” Miles asks.
“Probably,” I tell him, my voice flat.
“Goody. I love it when you’re all melancholy and self-flagellating.”
“Fuck off,” I growl, indicating to the flight attendant that I’d like another. It’s not like we have anywhere to be. I’m stuck here for five and a half more hours. I’ll be sober by the time we land.
“Ah, so we’re drinking ourselves into a stupor before noon, are we?”
“I thought I told you to fuck off.”
“Very Charles Ravage of you, now that I think of it.”
I close my eyes and set my glass down.Fuck.I know he’s goading me, but still… it hits too close to home.
“I think it’s very telling that I’ve never seen you this wrecked over a woman,” Miles says, sipping his water.
“Yes, well, the other women weren’t Juliet Parker. Also, yes, I’m a fucking idiot, but I almost feel worse about Jackson.”
Miles is quiet as he flicks mindlessly through a fiction book he grabbed at the airport. I know him well enough to know that he’s about to offer me very wise, older brother advice.
“What did Jackson say about it, exactly? He hasn’t mentioned anything to me.”
Of course, Jackson insisted on moving out, but I knew he made pennies at his job, and I couldn’t ask him to move in with Juliet, either. We were wrong to keep our relationship from him, so I had Miles reach out to him and offer him a temporary room at the castle. It was the least I could do, since he refused my money when I offered to get him a suite at the Four Seasons.
“We had a good lunch, actually. One of the best we’d ever had. He… told me something, and it finally felt like I was seeing mytruebest friend, you know? Juliet and I had made tentative plans to tell him about our relationship together. Nothing set in stone, but I never would’ve told him without her. He pulled it out of me. One minute, we were talking about him, and the next, I was saying her name, and I guess he put two and two together. I couldn’t lie to him. I’d never lie to him. And then he said he suspected when she got the black roses with the Diana dress, because obviously he’s seen those fucking roses all around my apartment,” I sigh, rubbing my face.
“Hold up, theDianadress? Mom’s dress? I thought it looked familiar on Friday night.”
I wince. “Yep.”
Miles lets out a loud breath. “Fuck. You really are a goner. Please tell me you didn’t defile Mom’s favorite dress?”
My lips twitch. “Don’t worry. I’m having it professionally cleaned.”
Miles sighs. “Naturally. So then what?”
The attendant brings a new scotch, but I push my drink away. His comment about our father had the impact he was hoping for.
“He berated me. For several minutes. Said I’d never be good enough for her and to stay away from her. I apologized, but it was too late. He hates me, and I lost my best friend.”
Miles reaches over for my glass, taking a swig. I arch a brow as I continue. “I had a whole fucking thing set up for Juliet in the garden. We were supposed to meet at her house. I was anxious as fuck about everything with Jackson. She didn’t show when we were supposed to meet, and then I remembered her saying something about working on her dissertation, so I drove to her office and saw her cuddled up with her ex.”
Miles snorts. “Cuddled up?”
