Neveah (Society Girls #2) Read online

  My friends all go into the cafeteria ahead of me. I have a voicemail from Dylan and I want to listen to it alone, so I wave them all off. I practically jump up and down when I hear that not only did he get an earlier flight, but he’s also here at C&C. His agent wanted to meet Matt, so they’re lunching in the cafeteria, too. I grab my prayer rug so I can do my midday prayer after lunch and walk briskly to where everyone is waiting.

  I’m smiling as I walk into the large room and spot them at one of the center tables. My friends and Matt’s are all around them, and I grab a burger before making my way to the chair I see Dylan’s holding for me. It’s not obvious that it’s saved, but he threw his jacket and baseball cap on it, and I know if I ask to sit there, he’ll move his stuff for me.

  “Hi,” I say as I walk up.

  “Hey. Neveah, right?” he asks and I nod. “Did you want to sit here?”

  “Hell no,” the guy I don’t recognize at the table yells as he jumps from his chair. This must be his agent, Eric. “I’m not eating with a terrorist bitch!”

  Chairs hit the floor as men and women get to their feet around me. Everyone except for Dylan is standing up. “He didn’t mean it,” he tells me before turning to Eric. “Tell them.”

  “I meant it. What’s she even doing here? Was she searched when she came in the building? She could have a gun rolled up in that rug she’s carrying. Who carries something like that around for the hell of it?”

  “I’m carrying it because I pray after lunch,” I say in a calm voice, even though I want to cry. Not because he’s saying these things to me—I’m used to that—but because Dylan isn’t defending me.

  “Praying for the next Jihad by your people?”

  “My people are peaceful. We are not ISIL, ISIS, or whatever other acronym you wish to use. The Qur’an does not teach what they do. They use religion as a shield for their evil when that same religion would condemn their actions.”

  “Sorry if I don’t believe you. Why don’t you just show me what’s really in there?” he asks, but really it’s a demand.

  He reaches for the strap of my carrier, but Matt knocks his hand away. “Lay one fucking finger on her and you won’t walk out of here alive.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “He’s not,” Reina adds, putting her arm around me.

  Eric looks around at all the angry faces and then he looks down at Dylan, who hasn’t moved since this began. He’s pushing his food around his plate like nothing’s wrong. Like I haven’t just been insulted. Me, his girlfriend…his love…the woman he said he’d defend. I believed all the lies he fed me, but now I know the truth.

  “Let’s go, man,” Eric tells him, and he nods.

  “I’ll call you latter, El,” he tells his sister, still ignoring me.

  “Your friend has to leave, but you don’t Dyl,” she says.

  “It’s better if we both go.”

  “Alright, but definitely call me later.”

  “I will.”

  They both walk out without a backward glance. As soon as they clear the door, I run the other way. There are study and quiet rooms on one side of the cafeteria, and I push inside of one of the empty ones. I fall to the ground and let myself cry.

  “Nev,” Faith yells as she runs in with Reina and Ainsley on her heels. It’s a small room, so I guess they’re my designated comfort squad. “It’s okay. He’s just an asshole. I’m sorry you had to hear that, but it won’t be the last time.”

  “I don’t care about him, or what he said. I’ve heard it all before, and you’re right—I’ll hear it all again many more times throughout my life.”

  “Are you embarrassed? You shouldn’t be,” Reina says. “He was the one who looked bad.”

  “No. I’m not embarrassed. I have my own reasons for crying.”

  “One reason. You have one very good reason. Or very bad as the case may be,” Ainsley says.

  “You know what’s wrong?” Reina asks her. “How?”

  “I’m right here,” I remind them, but they’re all looking at Ainsley now.

  “She’s had some unusual activity on her cell phone. More calls and texts in the last week than she had in the first few months here. The activity was flagged, and I looked at it.”

  “You looked at my texts?” I ask in horror.

  “Not all of them. I know who you were conversing with and talking to, and yeah, I know the gist of the messages, but I didn’t pry more than I had to. We have to make sure no one is going behind our backs trying to expose or sabotage us.”

  “Can someone please just say what’s going on?” Faith asks.

  Ainsley looks at me with apologetic eyes before she tells them all what she knows. “She’s been dating Dylan.”

  “Dating? Ellie’s brother? He doesn’t date,” Faith says.

  “He pretended to date me. He told me he was my boyfriend and that he’d stand up for me. Obviously he was lying.”

  “Matt is going to kill him,” Reina says.

  “He better hope Matt gets to him first,” Faith replies.

  “No…I…I don’t want them all to know how stupid I was. I don’t want them to know I was with him. Please.”

  Reina nods. “Okay. We won’t say anything. I trust you to handle the situation as you see fit.”

  “Damn it! I wanted to cut him,” Faith says.

  “At least he helped me with the guns. That was real.”

  “I only read a few texts, but they seemed real, too,” Ainsley tells me.

  I shake my head and wipe my tears away. “If they were real, he wouldn’t have just sat there. I can defend myself, but it would’ve been nice if he’d had my back like the rest of you did.”

  “I’m sorry, Nev. Everyone in this room, as well as our friends out there, knows what it’s like when the man you love does something to break your heart. You don’t want to tell them, and we’ll respect that, but you can count on any one of us for anything you need. I hope you know that.”

  “Even Ellie?”

  “Ellie loves Dylan, but she’d kick his ass if she knew what was going on,” Ainsley says.

  “He loves her. I know he didn’t fake that. The way he talked about his family to me…it was real.”

  “That family is close, and I can guarantee you that even without knowing what’s been going on with you and Dylan, Ellie is not going to go easy on him,” Reina says.

  “I just want to forget Dylan Gallagher even exists. I know that’s not possible, but at least now that he’s done with me, I won’t have to see him very often.”

  “Nope. We’ve hardly seen him since he joined the NBA, so you shouldn’t have a problem with that,” Reina tells me.

  “And he’ll get to live longer,” Faith adds, before they all hug me.

  “I guess I should go back out there.”

  Reina nods, and Faith opens the door. I spend the next ten minutes telling everyone I’m okay. Matt, Aiden, and Nate are ready to draw blood, but I talk them down. The hardest part is when Ellie keeps trying to tell me that her brother’s a good guy. He’s not, though. I was just a notch on his bed. I was afraid I would be that, but I let myself fall in love with him. This is what I get for not trusting my instincts. I’ll do my best to never make that mistake again.

  * * *

  Dylan

  “Pick up the phone, pick up the phone,” I chant over and over again, hoping Nev will somehow hear me, and more importantly, heed my call.

  I know better than that, though. I’ve been calling and texting her non-stop since I got rid of Eric. I can’t believe he did that to her. Scratch that—I can totally believe it. I should’ve never agreed to take him there. I just thought he’d be on perfect behavior since he was hoping to get a deal with Matt. He had no way of knowing Nev is like family to Matt, but he still should’ve kept his mouth shut.

  I wanted to shut his mouth. Hell, I wanted to make it so he’d never speak again. I couldn’t do it without risking his retaliation, though, and as much as I lov
e Nev, my family has to come first. My parents have always believed in me, even when I was in my darkest hour. Especially when I was living through that. I owe them everything, even if it means I’ll lose the only woman I’ve ever been in love with.

  My phone rings in my hand, and I answer it without even checking the display. “Hello.”

  “Hi, asshole,” my sister says. Shit, I wasn’t ready for her yet.

  “Don’t hold back.”

  “I never have, and I never will.”

  “Is Neveah okay?”

  “Um, no. How would she be okay after that? She says it happens all the time, but she looks like someone kicked her puppy. Or her goldfish died. Or the boy she likes checked ‘no’ on the note from her friend.”

  “I get it,” I say, cutting her off because she’s getting too close to the truth.

  “I know you have no obligation to Nev, but it would’ve been nice if you’d stood with us and at least called out that bastard you brought into my workplace.”

  “It’s complicated. I would’ve done more than just stand up if I could’ve.” I don’t add that I actually do have a reason for standing up for her. She’s my girlfriend, or at least she was. I’m pretty sure she’s cursing my very existence right now.

  “There’s always the choice to do the right thing, Dyl Pickle. You just have to take it.”

  “Sometimes the stakes are just too high, Ellie Bear.”

  “We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one.”

  “And all the other stuff we’ve fought about over the years.”

  “I’ve got your back no matter what. You know that, right?”

  “Yeah, sis, I know. I love you.”

  “Love you, too. But, um…maybe you should stay away for a little while. Aiden is really close with Nev, and he’s pissed right now.”

  I knew that. Aiden and Nate are Matt’s best friends, and therefore close to Nev and her family, too. “Sure. Talk to you soon.”

  We hang up, and I set the phone down on the counter. I want to throw it across the room. I want to smash everything I own to pieces, but that won’t bring her back. I don’t think anything will bring her back and she doesn’t even know what I was hiding from her yet. Who I’ve been hiding. I used to think we’d get past that, but now I’m just as sure that we won’t. It’s over. Time to roll the credits and walk away. Too bad I’ve never been good at doing what I should.

  Chapter 10

  Neveah

  Ellie’s been avoiding me for the past two days. I know she feels bad about Eric, even if she doesn’t know about Dylan. I’m surprised when I see her walking straight towards me as I enter the Foundation lobby.

  “Hi, Nev. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “Sure,” I tell her, lifting my messenger bag higher on my arm.

  “My birthday’s this weekend, and although I wasn’t planning on doing anything for it,” she says, stopping to take a deep breath, “my brother has decided that I should have a party at his place—my friends only, I swear—and I would love it if you’d come.”

  That bastard. I’m not answering his booty calls, so he’s playing dirty. “I’ll be there. Just let me know the date and time,” I tell her before I can stop myself. I can ignore him. Or at least I can try.

  “You’ll need his address, too, but I’ll send you everything. Thanks, Nev. You don’t know him, but I swear if you did, you’d love him. He’s not the guy who sat silently by while his asshole agent said those things to you. He doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. I hope you can get to know him, and then you’ll see.”

  “I don’t think so, but I’ll come to your party. I like you, Ellie.”

  “I like you too, Nev. I promise it won’t be weird. He’ll behave—well as much as my brother can behave. At least with it being just my friends, he won’t have anyone to act like a dog around.”

  “Is there some rule about him dating your friends?”

  “An unwritten one because he refuses to settle down, and I don’t want him sleeping his way through my friends.”

  I look over at Alex Corrigan, our receptionist, and so much more. At my raised eyebrow, Ellie smirks. “It was only three for Miles. But he’s too crazy about Alex for it to matter to her.”

  “What if your brother fell for one of us?”

  “Don’t hold your breath. Like I said, he’s not ready for a committed relationship. I’ve got to go, but I’ll text you later,” she says as she heads out the door.

  If only I’d talked to her first. Although I hate to admit it, my time with Dylan wasn’t bad. He helped me find the courage to face my fears, and for that I’ll always be grateful. And fine, he made me feel like the sexiest woman in the world when he made love to me for two days straight. Too bad sex doesn’t equal love.

  * * *

  Dylan

  “What do you mean, ‘it’s over’?” Sadiq asks me as I pace around the pool house.

  “Eric said some stuff to Nev when we were at the Corrigan building a few days ago.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Racist things.”

  “And you punched him?”

  “No,” I say quietly. “I didn’t do anything.”

  His fist flies out so fast that I don’t even see the hit coming. My head snaps back, and I stumble a little before righting myself. I reach out to wipe the blood from my lip and nod at him. We both know I deserved it, and I’ll take as many hits as he needs to give me without complaint. My vow was only about bringing Nev to him, and not protecting her, but I went beyond my vow. Hell, I told him I was partially breaking my vow last week, and now I’m telling him I let her be insulted. A few punches are the least I deserve.

  “I am ashamed to have ever called you my friend, Dylan Gallagher. I gave you my daughter and you let your friend degrade her.”

  “He’s not my friend,” I say, tearing up because Sadiq is my friend, and knowing he’s ashamed of me hurts. A lot.

  “Why? Why would you do this? You told me you love her.”

  “I do love her. I-I have my reasons for staying silent, and your disappointment is killing me almost as much as her silence. I wish I could’ve done something, but I couldn’t.”

  “Couldn’t? Did this man threaten you in some way?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “So he did. And you chose to protect yourself over Neveah.”

  “No. I chose to protect my parents…my mother…and that is all I will say. I’m truly sorry that you’re ashamed of me, but I can’t go back in time and change things. They are what they are.”

  “You’re not going to fight for my daughter?”

  “If I thought it would work, I would. I would hire a skywriter to proclaim my love, make a grand public gesture, shower her with hundreds of flowers every day. I’d do it all if I thought it would matter, but it won’t. This isn’t a movie, or a novel. I can’t charm my way out of this.”

  “I didn’t ask you about charming her, I asked you about fighting for her.”

  “I’m throwing my sister a birthday party here tomorrow. Only for her and her friends. I’m hoping Nev comes.”

  “She’ll be here.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Even as a little girl, my daughter was never one to back down from a boy. I doubt she’s started now.”

  “She hasn’t,” I say, remembering how she didn’t put up with Eric’s shit.

  “Then you must fight, and if you really love her, you’ll make sure to win.”

  I want to. God, do I want to win her back. It won’t be easy, and Sadiq being alive is still going to be a problem for us, but I have to try. I can’t live my life knowing I didn’t at least try.

  * * *

  Neveah

  I called up from the gate, even though I know the code. Dylan buzzed me in without a word, letting me know how today is going to go. That’s fine…game on.

  I’m dressed for revenge in a purple bandage dress with thin straps and a crisscross h
em that lands closer to the tops of my thighs than the bottom. My hair is loose and wavy, just the way Dylan told me he liked it, and I’ve got shiny lipstick on that I hope makes him think of how it would look all over his cock. I want him to want me…and then realize he can’t ever have me again. Petty, I know, but it’s all I’ve got right now.

  I smile as I walk into the backyard, greeting my friends with hugs and kisses. Ellie calls me over to where she’s sitting with Aiden, Matt, and Reina. Dylan is standing next to her chair, staring me down as I walk over. I see Reina tense, and I throw her what I hope is a reassuring look. I’m here to show him what he’s missing, not to call him out.

  “Nev, I wanted to formally introduce you to my brother, Dylan. I know you two got off on the wrong foot the other day. I’m hoping you can both get past that and maybe even be friends.”

  “No,” I say before I can stop myself. Maybe I’m not as in control as I thought I was.

  “Excuse me?” Ellie asks.

  “I think Nev needs an apology from Dylan,” Reina says, realizing that this is going south, fast.

  “She didn’t even give him a chance to apologize,” Ellie argues.

  “What do you have to apologize to me for, Dylan?”

  “He doesn’t have to apologize for anything, actually,” Ellie tells me, still trying to defend her brother. “It’s not like he’s your boyfriend or something.”

  “Isn’t it?” I ask, and then it all comes tumbling out. “Didn’t you ask me to be your girlfriend Dylan? You know, before you went down on me on your basketball court, or ate sushi off my naked body in your kitchen? Oh yeah, and before you told me you loved me several times a day? Are you going to apologize to me for any of that, or just for the fact that you told me you’d always have my back and defend me if you ever witnessed someone treating me badly because of my religion?”