“He was two years ahead of us in school.”
“You are making that up.”
Eli laughs. “I’m not. You really don’t remember Aaron Kingsley? He started going by Ace after he graduated.”
A vague memory starts filtering back to me—a tall, skinny guy with blue eyes and blonde hair, like Christian’s, but he was less outgoing, less confident.
“What about him?”
“He’s back in the city.”
The way he says it makes the hair on the back of my neck prick up, but I can’t put my finger on why.
“And there’s some speculation that—”
“Eli!” Jess calls over to me. “Tell Alec about that thing we used to do in school.”
Eli winks at me. “You sure he’s ready for that?”
I turn toward Jess, ready to play my part in the story, but my mind has Ace Kingsley in its claws, and it won’t let go.
Rumors swirl around me, but I can’t get at them.
Not yet.
Chapter Four
Ace
By Monday evening, I’m regretting my insistence on solitude—and I still can’t make a single damn decision about what I want to do.
With myself. With my life.
I’ve dismissed the butler who has been assigned to wait on the occupants of this room, but the man can’t stay away—he delivers every single room service tray I order and asks if there’s anything else I need. Never once do I catch him rolling his eyes.
I would be if I was faced with someone this pathetic.
I’ve spent time in every room of the penthouse, wasting time either staring out at the skyline or watching shitty action movies on every TV I can find.
My patience with myself is starting to wear thin.
The extra day I’ve so generously granted myself crawls by.
I can’t stay here forever.
The elevator door opens to reveal Noah. He enters, his hands in his pockets.
“How’re you doing, boss?”
“Fucking great, as you can see.” I’m picking at the remains of a perfectly done steak that was delivered under a gleaming silver cloche. “How’s the penthouse?”
“The sidewalk in front of it is pretty crowded.”
“Jesus. Is it that big of a thing?”
Noah cuts his eyes to the side. It is that big of a thing, what happened with Elisa, but if everyone would just shut the fuck up about it, then….
I let out a heavy sigh.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“Back tomorrow, then?”
I nod to him and cut another piece off the steak.
“This whole thing is—” I’m interrupted by the soft sound of the elevator door closing behind Noah. “Of course.”
I drop the fork down onto the plate with a clatter and lean back on the couch, grab the remote, start flicking through the available movies. I’ve seen everything I ever wanted to see, and then some.
I can’t stay in here for fucking ever, although part of me is perfectly willing to just sink into this unbelievably opulent sofa and never emerge in public again.
You’re being a pussy.
The voice in my head isn’t wrong, but my chest clenches anyway. Elisa never would have let me wallow in here like some kind of guilty recluse. She would have dragged me out, probably to somewhere like Central Park, by the middle of Saturday morning.
But she’s never going to do that. She’s dead.
The thought is still so sharp, so harsh, that it’s hard for me to breathe.
My phone buzzes on the cushion next to me and I snatch it up, all the tension going out of my shoulders. A distraction. Any distraction.
The text message reads, Ace Kingsley???
I don’t recognize the number. I pause with my thumbs over the keyboard on the screen. I should just ignore it. It’s probably someone from the press. But I’m so damn bored, so damn frustrated with feeling like this, that I type out a reply and hit send before I can change my mind.
Yeah. Who’s this?
Elijah Pierce.
Who could forget Eli Pierce? He and his brother Christian threw the best parties at boarding school. How the hell did he get my number?
I remember you. Are you in the city?
I’m always in the city. Come out with us on Friday.
He hasn’t changed much.
I start to toss the phone back to the cushion, to ignore Eli Pierce and his pushy invitation, but I don’t.
What’s the worst that can happen if I go out?
Another text comes in.
We go to a club called The Purple Swan. Heard of it?
Elisa and I were going to get a membership to the Swan when we came back to the city one day, but we never got the chance.
Yeah. Who’s we?
You remember Jess Reeves? Carolyn Banks?
Dark hair, both of them, and they were always in orbit around the Pierce boys. Married now, I think. Safe. Out of the picture.