An instant later, she abandoned her newfound friend and returned to the booth. Holding out her hand, she revealed the square-cut emerald earring resting in her palm.
“Not bad. Gem’s a little on the small side.”
“Thanks for your stingy approval. And size doesn’t always matter, you know.”
He pasted on a cocky smile. “Wouldn’t know, since that’s never been an issue for me.”
Her eyes rolled toward the ceiling. “Regardless, not like I’m keeping it anyway. It’s going right back on Juliette’s ear in a moment.”
“You spoke to her precisely two minutes, and you got her name and her jewelry.”
She flipped her hair with a sassy flick of her hand. “Because I’m that good, baby. Stamp that on my plaque.” Giving him a finger gun, she pivoted and retraced her path to the bar. After pausing beside Juliette and discreetly replacing the earring, Avi ventured to the blond businessman.
Jerrick fully expected her to begin instantly chatting up the guy, but instead she unclipped her cloak and draped it on the neighboring stool. The man’s eyes threatened to bug out of his skull as he gaped at Avi’s sexy getup.
“That little minx.” Jerrick didn’t know whether to applaud her or cry foul over her devious maneuvering. That damn dress and sexier-than-hell shoes gave her an unfair advantage that they hadn’t agreed upon.
He swiftly came to a third possibility as the male mark at the bar continued to eye-fuck Avi—embedding the asshole’s teeth in the wormholed countertop. With no warning, the man snagged Avi by the arm and dragged her onto his lap.
A menacing growl charging from his lungs, Jerrick shoved up from his seat and stalked to the bar. Avi saw him coming, and her eyes widened. With a calmness that belied his murderous thoughts, he plucked her off the creep’s lap and planted her on her feet before he turned back to the guy and crunched a fist into his nose.
Blood spraying from his nostrils, the man howled and clamped a hand over his face. “You goddamn son of a bitch! You broke my nose.”
“Consider yourself lucky that’s all I did.” He tossed Avi’s cloak over his shoulder and hauled her away from the idiot.
A bristling force of hostile energy stepped in his path, blocking him. Slamming short, he accepted Leena’s fulminous glare, weary tension falling over him like a horsehair blanket that refused to be shrugged off. After fifteen years of absence, he’d been treated to a double whammy of his deceitful ex.
Yeah, the sisters of fate were surely laughing their fucking asses off.
“I can’t believe the nerve of you.” Fury sizzled from every one of Leena’s pores.
Her animosity wasn’t unexpected, given her reaction at their reunion the other day, but the last thing he wanted was her creating a scene in front of all these people. He’d done enough damage by clocking the asshole who’d manhandled Avi. Not that he wouldn’t do it again in a heartbeat. “Whatever new grievances you’d care to air with me can be done another time and place.”
“Like hell. You think you can parade my baby sis around looking like a whore while you do your dirty work?”
Bloody fuck. She thought he was using Avi as the shell in a confidence trick?
A sputtering sound came from Avi. Wisely intuiting that potential fireworks were about to erupt, he grabbed Leena by the elbow, and still keeping a firm hold on Avi, steered both sisters toward the rear exit. The three of them stumbled out into the deserted alley, disturbing the feral cats scrounging for scraps near the garbage bins. Ignoring the stench of kitchen grease and various other putrid scents he didn’t care to pinpoint, Jerrick set about putting Leena squarely in her place. “If you dare refer to your sister as a whore in my presence again, so help me gods, I will tan your backside.”
“Lay a hand on me and I’ll kill you.”
The baleful vehemence oozing from Leena took him aback. She was the one who cheated on him behind his back as well as a host of other sins. Why the devil was she acting like the wronged party? Damn woman was out of her mind.
Leena shifted her focus to Avi. “How could you let him reduce you to this? You look like a tramp.”
He growled low in his throat, but Avi held him off with a raised finger and a glare directed at her sister. “First of all, you’re talking out of your ass. You have no idea what’s going on here.”
“I know what he is, so that gives me a better than good inkling, baby sis.”
“Secondly,” Avi continued as if she hadn’t heard Leena’s harsh rebuttal. “My wardrobe choices are of no consequence to you. I’d appreciate it if you’d refrain from the derogatory terms. It’s extremely petty and judgmental of you.”
Surprisingly, Leena’s cheeks flushed pink. “Fine, I’ll reserve my opinion on your fashion statement for now. But I still don’t like any of this.” Her gaze hardened again as it landed on him. “He’ll hurt you, Avi. Pull you down into the seedy squalor of his existence and turn your soul black, just like his. I don’t want to see that happen to you.”
Leena’s pronouncement sat like a bitter pill in the back of his throat. Despite the distaste of them, her words were no different than the ones he’d given to himself time after time. Even she knew the consequences of what a life with him would bring.
Hell, maybe that’s why she’d betrayed him all those years ago. Better that than commit herself to the some wretched fate with him.
The vise increased its pressure on his chest. The darkness of his emotions had nothing to do with Leena. He held no love for her anymore, so no point berating himself over the past where she was concerned. But when he thought of Avi, the weight of his regret threatened to crush him.
Transferring his focus to her, he caught the state of her shivering. Impossible to tell if she was suffering from the chill in the air or the dismal fallout from Leena’s assessment. Tugging the cloak from his shoulder, he wrapped the garment around Avi and tried to pretend that the visual daggers Leena speared him with didn’t bug him. “If you’re finished browbeating your sister, I’d like to put a rest to this unpleasant encounter before the ticket cops squeeze a week’s wages from my wallet for double-parking.”
“What do you care?” Leena’s expression turned several shades meaner. “Not like you know the meaning of an honest week’s wage.”
“Leena, stop it.” There was no missing the distress in Avi’s tone. More concerned for her than any trivial insults Leena hurled at him, he tucked Avi under his right arm and herded her toward the alley exit.
“Mark my words, baby sis. He’ll only bring you down. Get out while you still can.”
The taunting echo of Leena’s shout tailed them like a mocking specter. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t tune them out, nor the muffled sob Avi valiantly worked at hiding from him.
The drive back to her apartment was tense and miserable. She didn’t need to look at Jerrick to know how heavily the scene back in the alleyway of Lillyfields weighed on him. Damn Leena for being such a raging bitch at times.
“Jer, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
She made a vague gesture with her hand. “Everything. But mostly for being related to Leena. She had no right to say those horrible things.”
“Even if they’re true?”
She gaped at him. “How can you suggest such a thing? Your soul is far from being black.”
“Maybe, but it’s also not pure as driven snow.”
“Whose is? No one I know.”
“Would you stop making excuses for me?”
The whip crack of his heated retort startled her. Uncertain where his anger was coming from and how to treat it, she huddled deeper into her cloak. “I’m not.”
“Yes, you are, Avi. I wish to hell you’d open your eyes and see the glaring truth standing right in front of you. I’m the last individual you should have anything to do with. I’ll only bring you down. Leena’s right in that respect.”