Page 21 of The Hardest Hit

“Ah, Mr. Deveraux,” said Theo, coming into the hall. “I believe the chauffeur has just pulled up with your car.”

“Thanks, Theo,” said Evan, straightening his coat. There probably wasn’t anything in the files anyway.

But as he went out front to collect his car, he was surprised to see Jackson pull up behind the driver’s seat instead of Eleanor’s chauffeur.

“Hop in,” said Jackson with a grin. “I want to take your car for a spin. I’ll drive you home and then get an Uber.”

“Can’t you just take your own car?” asked Evan, confused.

“No, I know how my car drives. And Aiden will get all peeved if I steal someone else’s car.”

“So steal Aiden’s car,” said Evan, climbing into the passenger side.

Jackson laughed. “I would but that thing’s a piece of shit. I hate vintage. Give me a modern motor any day of the week.”

“And legroom,” said Evan, sliding the seat back and stretching out. “I don’t know why he’s obsessed with owning an old Aston Martin. The new ones are perfectly nice.”

“James Bond,” said Jackson, peeling out of the drive.

Evan stole a glance at Jackson’s profile as he drove. Jackson was fiercely protective of the Deveraux family, something that confused Evan, although he appreciated it. Jackson hadn’t liked what Fetish did to or for Evan and he had voiced that opinion strenuously. Evan had been shocked that Jackson knew about Fetish, but he suspected that everyone would be shocked at all the things Jackson knew.

“Pretty sure that traffic cam just flashy thinged you,” said Evan as they slid through an intersection.

Jackson chuckled wickedly. “You have no idea how much I allocate monthly for speeding tickets.”

“I probably don’t want to know,” said Evan.

“Hey, speaking of not wanting to know,” said Jackson, and then he paused as he was forced to downshift and negotiate around a double-parked cab. The speed picked up again and Evan glanced over at Jackson, now dreading whatever his cousin had clearly wanted to talk to him about. “Maybe you’ve been avoiding. Or maybe not. I don’t know, but I think I should talk to you about Dominique.”

“What about Dominique?” asked Evan, a cold lump forming in the pit of the stomach.

“She’s freaking out that she screwed you over.”

“What?” demanded Evan. There was no way in which he could make that sentence make sense.

“She’s really worried that she helped bully you into doing this Absolex thing.”

“What? No. I didn’t… No one… I wanted to.” He shook his head, still confused.

“She’s kind of spazzing. She feels like this last couple of years you two have worked hard to be honest with each other and she feels like because Eleanor talked to her first that she went behind your back.”

Evan let out a half-laugh in surprise. Dominique was worried that she had damaged their honesty. The irony of that burned with a fine guilt. When had she ever been anything but honest with him? He was the one who was hiding everything.

“It’s fine. Grandma is Grandma. There’s nothing Nika can do about that.”

Jackson glanced over at him before turning back to the road. Evan was relieved to see that they were approaching his building. This conversation was making him sweat. Jackson pulled into the parking garage and punched in the access code as if Evan had already told it to him.

“Seriously,” said Evan, “tell Nika not to worry. I’m not worried about the Absolex situation.”

“Yeah, OK. It’s just…”

“Just what?” asked Evan as Jackson parked.

“You’ve been kind of AWOL lately,” Jackson said, shutting off the engine. “Is everything OK?”

Evan looked at his cousin in frustration.

“Keys,” he demanded, holding out his hand. Jackson handed the fob over without protest and Evan got out of the car, surprised to find his hand shaking in suppressed anger.