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“It’s just past bullshit, some of which you know.”
“I don’t know,” Joy squeaked.
“Joy,” Ma warned.
I took a deep breath. Did it really matter if Joy knew?I mean it was so fucking long ago, no one gave a shit, at least, no one should give a shit. I especially shouldn’t.
“We had a summer, and…that’s when he found out about my mother and Nash. He didn’t take it well. Hates me for it.”
Joy’s eyes went wide. “When was this?”
“Ten years ago.”
“And he’s still pissed withyou?” Maverick remarked. “His father was the one stepping out on his marriage, not Maria and definitely not you. Why does he blame you?”
“Can we drop this?” I muttered.
“No,” Maverick retorted. “I need to know how fucked up the situation is so I can decide if I’m kidnapping your ass and keeping you on Kincaid land or leavin’ you at Wilder to kick his city ass.”
“Mav.” I looked at him and let him see my pain. I didn’t want to talk about Duke. I didn’t want to rip open the old wounds that were already itching.
He shook his head sadly. “I’ll kill that son of a bitch for hurting you.”
“He wasn’t the only one, and the others are already dead,” I reminded him bleakly.
Joy put her hand on mine. “I can’t even imagine how awful this is for you. I can’t fix a damn thing for you, Elena, but I can get you drunk.”
I laughed. “I’m drivin’. But I appreciate the thought.”
CHAPTER 6
duke
The steak was perfect. The wine was over-fucking-priced. The company was powerful. And Fiona was charming the pants off everyone, even the women. There was something about my girlfriend. Men wanted her, and women wanted to be her. She didn’t threaten. She cajoled, especially when she was dealing with people who she perceived as being above her from a social and wealth perspective. Equals were treated with some condescension while people she believed were beneath her were…well beneath her.
I hired her as Vice President of Development at Ironwood Development Group because she had a reputation for closing deals and getting people to sign contracts. She had a law degree from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford. She was smart, good-looking, and dynamite in bed. The fact that she even managed to get along with my mother was a big fat bonus.
But now that I was back in Colorado, within breathing distance of Elena, what I felt for Fiona paled in comparison. How could what I felt a decade ago, when I was basically a kid, still be the most powerful emotion I’d ever had for another person?
I’d fallen in love with Elena that summer and never fell out. Even now, even though I hated her guts, hated her mother, hated my father—hated the fucking ranch, I still wanted Elena.
If she walked up to me right now and held her hand out and said, “Mi cielo, be mine,” I’d follow her out like a lost puppy. Good thing she didn’t know the power she had over me because I didn’t trust her not to abuse it. Hell, I trusted hertoabuse it.
“Senator Jessup, you’re lyin’,” Fiona flirted as the senator told a story about some backroom deal in Austin while he looked at my girlfriend’s tits. I didn’t mind. She flaunted themtodistract men. And then I thought, if this were Elena, I would have loosened some of the senator’s teeth.
She now wore chambray shirts and jeans with cowboy boots. Her hair was in a braid. The Stetson was not from some fancy store. It was part of her work uniform. She wouldn’t unbutton her shirt so Jessup could look at her tits.
And, yet, you called her a whore and are dating Fiona.
The senator’s wife, Celeste, wasn’t paying attention to her husband. She was drowning in diamonds, which I thought was her first priority. Fiona had oohed andaahed about her bracelet, and Celeste had looked at me and said, “I think your girlfriend is telling you what she wants as a present, Duke.”
Fiona flushed, and I kissed her temple. “My girl gets whatever she wants.” I knew how to play the game as well. People expected to see a happy couple, someone they could gossip about and be jealous of.
Celeste laughed at something Kazimir Chase said. Kaz was a wealthy investor and dealmaker who always seemed to be involved in the country's most significant land development deals.
Celeste, I noticed,was the senator’s Fiona, and I felt disillusioned at what my life had become. How come all of this seemed normal in Dallas, and now, with one whiff of the Colorado air, I was thinking of these social settings as Nash would?
Fucked up shit with fucked up people to make an extra dime that I don’t need.