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The work took me most of the afternoon. We were doing case studies on light, and I was editing my photos to play up the variations and depth.
I finally checked my phone for the time, realizing numbly that I hadn’t stopped to eat or drink anything in four hours.
I threw my phone on the chair and stood, stretching this way and that and trying to get the blood back into my cramped muscles. I needed to eat something before the game tonight. It was a Hellions game, and it wouldn’t do for Asher’s new girlfriend not to show.
I was just ordering something to eat for dinner when Selena came in. She was grinning ear to ear.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “First of all, you want pizza or Chinese takeout? Second…where have you been? You look awfully chipper for someone who was just in a study session.” Maybe I could get lost in someone else’s gossip and forget about my own pathetic situation for a while.
“Chinese. We can’t eat pizza before the game. All eyes will be on us,” Selena pointed out. Then she took off her scarf and revealed a long line of red, violent-looking love bites along her neck.
“Right, you can’t eat pizza before the game, but you can have a neck like that? What happened? I’m pretty sure those weren’t there a few hours ago.”
“You mean, who happened?” She smiled wickedly at me and went to peer in the mirror. “Man, these are worse that I thought they’d be. Oh well, that’s what concealer is for, right?”
I finished typing in our usual order from the local Chinese takeout place and set my phone down, coming up behind Selena to do a better inspection of her neck. It was a mess.
“So, who’s the savage? Fess up.”
She bit her lips and turned to me. “Promise not to be mad?”
“Who?” I repeated, unable to make any promises until I knew who it was. It better not be Asher.
Selena had the grace to appear bashful for a moment. “Trent.”
Relief hit me like a ten-ton truck. “Trent Fitzgerald?” My relief was quickly followed by worry.
“Yeah. I ran into him at the coffee place, and he invited me back to his place, we hung out…one thing led to another. You’re not mad, right? I know you don’t like him.”
“Mad! Not at all, I couldn’t be happier for you. Thank you for giving that psycho another target to focus on.” I snorted.
“He’s not a psycho…well, he’s certainly wilder in bed than I’d thought he’d be, given how uptight his family is and his position, you know?”
“His position?”
“He’ll lead H.H Group one day, probably.” Selena sank down onto her bed, her hand lingering over her neck. “Plus, he has that super VIP club near Bar Harbor. He’s an emerging man of business.” She batted her eyes at me in an exaggerated way, making me laugh.
“Okay, so he’ll have brunch at the country club and reminisce with his old buddies once a month. It hardly makes him a VIP, does it? Neither does some mystery club near the border.”
Selena raised an eyebrow at me. “Don’t you know the illustrious background of Invictus H.H Group? They might be small here in Maine, but they are part of a huge organization.”
“I don’t actually know. I know next to nothing about it. It’s just an investment club, right? Like, old rich men meeting up to talk about making money?” I wondered. Though, according to Cole, the investment club wasn’t the most interesting thing the Fitzgeralds were into. What did Duncan and Trent have to do with an MC, anyway?
Selena laughed and shook her head. “Invictus H.H Group here sucks, but its parent organization is about far more than just investments. It’s a way of life. The right kind of families, the right behavior, mutually assured destruction if the secrets were to leak.”
“You make it sound like a cult or something.”
“In Hade Harbor, it’s not that serious, but the parent organization? That’s the real deal. I’ve heard that more than half of the big players in New York are members. The Big Apple is where it’s at for real secret society vibes, if that’s your thing. I heard Duncan is a member, but that’s just speculation because the member list is hush-hush. Top secret.”
“Wow, I’m so intrigued — not.” I checked my smartwatch for a notification from the take-out place.
“You’re really not mad about Trent, right?” Selena asked.
I shook my head immediately. “Not at all. I’m happy if you’re happy, just take it slow, you know.”
“I will. I’ll slowly check out how rich he is, how cool his VIP club is, and how much stuff he buys me to thank me for being so good in bed,” she grinned wickedly, tugging a chuckle from me.
“I’m going to shower before the game,” Selena announced. “Save me some spring rolls.” She got up and headed out of the room with her towel.
