Priceless

The thing is that she’s determined to dislike me, or avoid me, and neither of those things are going to work. For the time being, I need to be in close proximity to her, so if that means rigging up a ridiculous lawsuit that I’ll lose, so be it. It’s not like I care about the money that Rebecca’s going to charge. She’s got a cat she has to support anyway.

“You’re right and Trudy was right. That day I was pretending to be some granola hipster in an effort to do my sister a solid. Wouldn’t you do anything for your brother?”

Maple’s certainty starts to crack. She understands sibling love. I can work with that. I press my small advantage. “My sister—”

“Don’t say another word,” Gavin thunders. He has suddenly discovered I am about two inches from his sister’s face. I throw Rebecca a disappointed look. She shrugs sheepishly as if to say she kept him occupied for as long as possible. He grabs Maple’s arm and tugs her to her feet.

“Let’s go, Maple. They have a shit lawsuit and they know it. I have no idea why they’re pursuing this asinine thing but we’ll get it thrown out.” He whips his briefcase off the table and hauls Maple toward the door.

I squeeze my jaw tight so I don’t yell at him. Maple clearly loves her brother and since I want to get into her good graces, insulting her brother isn’t going to help my cause.

With an exaggerated sigh and a flick of my cuffs, I drawl lazily, “It doesn’t matter how many times you win in court, Gavin. I’ve got deep pockets and Rebecca is very good at coming up with creative arguments. You might as well give in now and save yourself a thousand headaches. I can keep you all in court for years.”

Maple throws her hands up in the air. “What is it that you want from me?”

“Everything,” I reply. “But for now I’ll settle for one necklace made while I watch.”

Chapter 8

Maple

What an arrogant jerk, I think to myself as we walk out of his boardroom. I can feel his eyes burning a hole in my back. I’m grateful that Gavin broke up our conversation when he did. Two seconds more and I would have given in to him. Those green eyes had put me under a spell, no matter how hard I tried to resist. He must have seen how close I am to my brother, so he used the whole sibling thing to try to get me to cave. What I don’t understand is why he is going through all of this trouble. I mean, could someone be that full of themselves that they couldn’t go on living because they didn’t get their way? It’s completely mind boggling which is becoming a problem within itself. It’s all I think about. I’m getting nothing done.

“They’ll never win,” Gavin reassures me as he hits the button for the elevator. I know he’s right. This lawsuit is ridiculous.

“But he’s right, isn’t he?” I step onto the elevator with Gavin. I look up to see Major watching us, his eyes locked on mine as the door slides closed. My heart gives a funny pang as he leaves my line of sight and the elevator descends.

“Yeah.” He lets out a long sigh, the one he usually gives when he knows he’s going in for a long battle. “His lawyer Rebecca is no joke.”

“I kinda liked her,” I admit. She was sharp and I’d caught on to her steering Gavin’s attention toward her in order to allow Major to slide in to try and sweettalk me. It was all sneaky and underhanded but I give her credit for being good at what she does.

“Of course you did.” Gavin lets out a chuckle. “You cannot be her friend,” he throws in there.

“I kept picturing the Trinity piece that I made last month on her wrist.” Not all of my jewelry is custom made for specific people. Sometimes I get inspired to craft something so I do it on a whim. I usually name the piece and put it away for safekeeping. I always know who it belongs to the moment I meet the person. The Trinity bracelet is meant to be Rebecca’s. The heavy metals wind together to become one but each of them represent three very distinct things.

“Maple,” Gavin groans, tilting his head back to look at the elevator ceiling.

“What? I can’t help it!” I defend. “Why does she have to work for such a jerk?”

“’Cause that asshole might be just that, an asshole, but he has money. I bet he throws it around at some big charities. He’s a respected asshole, which makes him even more dangerous.”

I scrunch my nose, not sure how to process all of this.

“To be honest I don’t think people are used to him being an asshole because they don’t tell him no, ever. So he doesn’t have to pull that card out,” my brother says as if I’ve done something to bring this out of Major Bennington.