AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lips curling inward, Monique decided to ignore that.Fancy her calling me “dear.”Monique was an easy, what, seven yearsolder than Eve? Masters. Mistresses. They were all the same when they got patronizing.
“What I’m trying to say is…” Eve leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees as her blue eyes sparkled in mischief like Helen’s. “She told me of this concoction of yours. Quite the… well, that is one way to get Jacqueline Love out of your life. Short of hiring a hitman.”
“I doubt you came out all this way to talk to me about that.”
“Not really. Not the event itself.” Eve was interrupted by the opening door. Yvette sauntered in, her bored face bringing Monique down even more.Would you work, already? Clean the dining room. Make sure the guests in the other room had enough to drink. Walk around in something sexy. Yvette didn’t have to take on a client in order to be useful around there. Sure, her patron was paying to take her out later that weekend, but…
“Get Miss Warner another drink, would you please?”
Yvette shot her a look over Eve’s head. “Of course, ma’am.” Sarcasm dripped from her lips like honey. Was someone having her monthly visit, or was she being a brat?I can never tell with her.Women like Grace were open about how irritable they got while PMSing. Other ladies like June could be like that all the time. Yvette continued to be an enigma to the Manoir.
“You must be one of her ladies.” Eve flashed Yvette a smile. “You’re very beautiful.”
Yvette turned, her eyes widening the moment she saw Eve. “Uh… yes. Ma’am.”
“Please. Call me Eve.” She waited to receive a refilled highball before continuing. “My sister didn’t tell me that such beautiful women work here. I mean, I expected it, but…”
The Warner game was afoot. Eve was one silver and diamond encrusted collar away from trying to one-up her sister.
And Yvette was blubbering like a teen meeting her idol in the most conspicuous place.
“That’ll be all for now, Yvette. Thank you.”
Reluctantly, the woman withdrew from the Receiving Room, her eyes locked on the back of Eve’s head – and Eve could only spare Monique a smile, as if to say,“I know I’m good.”
I’ll be damned.
“Anyway, as I was saying…” Bolstered by her oh so innocent flirtations, Eve draped herself across the couch, her metallic earrings sparkling in sync with the glitter on her eyes. “If you and my brother decide to go through with this, there’s one thing you need to know. And yes, I partly came out all this way to tell you this in person.”
“I appreciate it. What is it?”
“You think you’ve seen every facet of my sister, but you haven’t. You haven’t seen her when she’s angry. She doesn’t get angry often. Our mother says she’s like a rock at the bottom of a river. She’s constantly being beaten up, but she just stands there, waiting for the moment to cut someone’s foot open. She was never the type of woman, even when she was a kid, to go up and slap somebody across the face.”
Monique thought of Etta, who punched Jacqueline in the face. No, Helen was not like Etta in that regard at all.
“She’s… subtler than that. You know those snakes that wait in the grass? That’s Helen. She’ll wait for you to pass by, on high alert. If you pass her, she’ll leave you alone. If you step on her? Hope you’re carrying an antidote. I once pissed my sister off a few years ago, and now I’m careful to not do it again. Not like that.”
“Are you warning me?”
“No. She adores you. I doubt you could do anything to bring that out in your direction.” Eve laughed. “No, the person she’s angry as fuck about right now is Jacqueline Love. Every time her name gets brought up in our house, Helen goes on a tear unlike I’ve ever seen before.”
“I should like to see it.”
“She keeps it far away from you. She’s always concerned with worrying you or triggering you or whatever. Nope, I’m the dumbass who keeps bringing her up. Ha!”
Monique didn’t know what to say.
“Look, what I’m trying to tell you is that Helen is waiting to completely destroy Jacqueline. She’s pissed about what she’s done to our father, and she’s madder than hell about what she’s done to you. Her own father and her almost-might-as-well-be-wife? I don’t know how she hasn’t completely burst yet.”
“Please get to the point.”
Eve sat back as if Monique had bitten her. “My point, dear sister, is that this plan of yours may make Helen completely explode in ways you’ve never seen before. You think you know every side of her, but you don’t. She can get scary when she’s ferociously protecting someone. Except she won’t resort to violence. The things she does… well, you’ll see, I guess.”
“I…”
“She’s subtle in her dominance of the room. You know she’s an ‘alpha’ female. I know she is. Most of the world at large doesn’t. If your plan works? The whole fucking world will know. Especially Jacqueline.”
Monique cleared her throat. “That’s the only language Jacqueline understands.”
