Thankfully for him, he does contain it rather than try fighting. Straightens his clothes instead, brushes the dirt off them to bring his composure back. Then stares like the shark he is. He’s fucking good at it. I even admire him for that. Annoying, considering I’d like him to lose his cool again. Might give me the opportunity to deliver more of my temper rather than hold it back.
“You really slept with her for payment?” I shrug. What is there to say about that? Not a fucking lot really. Wasn’t long before it was more than that, but yeah, that’s how it started, isn’t it?
Sighing, I look past him towards the lawns and fountains, unsure what the fuck I’ve been doing with her, really. Falling hard for something that wasn’t mine to fall for is probably accurate. “At first, maybe,” I mutter. “Then it changed. She’s a pretty special woman to me. Impressive.” Pretty as fuck, too. Doubt I need to fill him in on that. “If you weren’t such a pretentious dick, maybe it would have been something else, but you are, so it's done now. Just a deal we made. You don't need to prove your disgust. I get it. Either fucking way, she didn't deserve your shit in there. She's been trying to put this fuckup right.”
He stares some more. No words to say about that, apparently. Fine. I don’t know that I’ve got anything else to say either. It was between us – it happened. And as much as I might like it to carry on happening, there isn’t a hope of anything else after this.
“What are you going to do about Stefan?” I ask. Might as well find out. Maybe I can work out how quick I need to get him out of that place then.
He starts walking off towards the house. “I don’t know.”
I frown. “What does that mean?” No response, just him walking through the fucking massive doors like he owns the world around him. “Landon?”
He beckons me with his hand, inviting me back inside the place. Don’t know why. He should be sending me on my way out of here. I follow and look around the empty space, searching for anyone. They’re all gone, though, disappeared into nothing.
He turns left in front of me, aiming for the stairs, then climbs them two at a time until he’s up on the first floor and travelling along the wide, expensive corridors.
We eventually arrive at a door, and he knocks lightly.
No answer.
“Neve?” he calls. Still nothing. Makes him turn the door handle and walk in, his gaze looking around, and then he walks for another door in the room. Again, he knocks. Nothing. Opens the door to a bathroom. She’s not there either.
“Any ideas where she could be?” he asks me.
“How the fuck would I know?”
And why the hell is he even asking?
He walks past me, still part glaring, and a few minutes later, we’re back down the stairs and heading for the main rooms out back. By the time we’ve tried three of them, I’m beginning to question why I’m following him around at all. It’s then that we arrive in some formal room at the far end of the house, all of it dripping with more oil paintings and large, velvet or some shit, sofas. The whole family’s sitting down or milling around, some drinking, some talking.
All of them apart from Neve.
“Where’s Neve?” Landon snaps.
They all look blank, several of them shaking their heads. Seffi walks up to him, still looking upset about everything. “She was a mess. I don’t think she could take you two arguing as well as everything else.”
Landon frowns at Scott as he approaches to pass a full tumbler of drink over.
“She looked like she was heading out into the gardens,” he says. “Probably just needed some air.”
“Ivy? I asked you to make sure she didn't go-”
“She needed space,” Blake cuts in. “And everyone needs to calm the fuck down. No one's getting anywhere until that happens.”
I look around at all the others sitting here, wondering why not one of them went after her or tried to show they gave a shit about her feelings. She explained, made it make sense for them, or at least filled in the blanks, and they’ve left her to go off on her own again?
Makes me walk to a set of large glass doors over on the right of the room, opening them so I can get out there and search for her myself.
“Don’t suppose any of you have considered she might be in trouble,” I mutter, stepping out onto a terrace. Landon comes out and stands next to me, as if he's just worked that out, too, considering his statement about intruders. “He’s probably coming for you. I would be if I was him.” I glance back in the room, looking at them all with their money and privilege. “He’s killed once already trying to get his point across. Knocked the author off, too. Got a feeling he's pretty pissed he’s not getting his own way right now. Think he’s still got the gun.”
I walk down the steps to the lawn, eyes searching the horizon. There’s too much to cover out there. Woodland. Fields. Lawns, hedgerows, ornate buildings and pathways that wind and twist around the place. Can't do it on my own. “Who else is here?” I ask Landon as he comes down the steps.
“No one other than us and some security around the woods and inroads. The house staff have been given some time off.”
Blake comes and stands beside me from somewhere, followed by the rest of them one by one. “We should get looking then. If the security showed an intruder yesterday, we could all be in more trouble than we thought,” he says. “We'll split up. Cover more ground that way.”
I look at Landon. “You got any guns here?”
