Mac (Riders of Apollo #8)

Chapter Twelve: Mackenzie Grant

I haven't seen Eva in a week. I would consider it my fault, that my kiss chased her away but she hasn't spoken to anyone which makes me think that she's just been busy. Riley ends up getting so frustrated that she gets Romeo to track her, so he does. He pulls up the footage of Eva waiting outside a restaurant with a few men, laughing and fixing clothes.

I'll admit, it puts me on edge but I make sure I don't show it. I don't want to field anymore unnecessary questions. "Who are they?" Bear asks, he doesn't sound worried or anything, just curious. 

"They are all business moguls, their net worth combined is over seventeen billion. That's not including whatever Evangeline makes. She's got some powerful friends." I watch as she laughs and drinks with her friends. The cameras there don't have audio but you can tell how close the lot of them are just from their body language. 

As Riley is calmed down by the view, Romeo closes the window and we carry on with our basic evening watching Gears's favourite film and complaining all the way through. "I've arrived!" Eva shouts from the front door, looking a little tipsy. Riley hugs her and Eva spins her around with a large smile. "Whatcha watching?" 

"John Wayne." Gears responds and Eva laughs.

"What are you? Ninety?" Gears gasps and spins as best he can with Nova tucked into his side. Eva launches into a peel of giggles and I melt right there. "I'm joking... kinda."

"What did your friends have to say?" Riley asks, turning the volume down on the movie as everyone wants to know how she knows the men she met today.

"Oh you don't wanna know, Luiz was talking about how he slept with a pool boy again and Colson has a live-in sugar baby, living her best life in Beverly Hills. I would love to be that sugar baby." Eva pouts down at Riley who laughs. "Also! Simon, the little bastard, ratted me out to the President so I had to have a meeting with him in Washington which I really didn't want to do."

Surely, she doesn't mean the President of the United States. I'm sure she just knows another person who is the president of a company or something. "You don't mean the President of the United States... right?" Bear finds the brain to ask her and I thank him for it in my head.

"Yes. He's a bit of a dick to be honest, he kept asking me about my properties and if I'm available to do a few jobs for him. Apparently, you're not supposed to say no to world leaders." She actually looks pensive at the idea. 

"You said no to the President of the United States of America?" Riley looks astounded at the idea, Eva just bops her nose with a smile. 

"Yes, I'm much to busy to take on anymore jobs at the moment. I'm already spread so thin. They wouldn't let me play poker with them anymore because I can count cards, I told them that I've been banned by every casino in Las Vegas." 

How did someone this smart, beautiful and well-connected choose to kiss me of all people?

Compared to her, I am quite literally nothing in the grand scheme of things. I have made no extraordinary mark, I've worked for no government and I don't even have a high school diploma. All I have to give her is the club, a fuck tonne of baggage and a leather jacket. She's so out of my league. 

"I wouldn't want to play against you either, you'd take all of my money." Gears is our best player, he's been playing poker since he was sixteen and trying to win money to buy a motorcycle. Ollie is our second best player and that's only because he's played all of us over and over again after stealing our stuff.

Speaking of, Ollie digs his hands all the way into Eva's purse, like up to his elbows and she just laughs. She takes out a wad of cash and hands it to him, winking as his jaw drops and he runs flat out to his parents who just yank it from his hands to put in his account. 

"I don't gamble with money normally, at least not with them. No matter how much I took, it wouldn't make a dent so I gamble buildings, cars, land, clients." 

"What have you won so far?"

"We'd be here all night if I answered that question, Peyton. I need more scotch." She drops her purse off by me, laying her blazer on top of it and disappears into the bar area to grab more alcohol. 

"You're so old!" Riley shouts, just to get a rise out of Evangeline who bounces back in with a bright smile and a large bottle of scotch. 

"You know they asked about you three, they called you the devils and I quite like that description of you." 

"We are not devils!" Both Riley and Saviour shout in protest while Eva just pours herself a glass and settles on the arm of my chair. Everyone notices but no one comments which I thank God for because that would be embarrassing. The rest of the conversation continues in the same fashion, someone winding another up and then an entire argument stemming from there. 

I look up at Eva, who is watching the debate with keen eyes, laughing when someone says something completely stupid. She passes me the glass with a smile and I take a few sips, "You chose the bad one."

"Well the good one is locked in your office, trust me, I tried." I laugh at that. "Where did you get that from by the way? It's good stuff."

"My dad gave it to me when I joined the club. I didn't start drinking it until last year when he died." 

"Were you close with him?" 

"In almost every sense of the word. He was a Rider so he wasn't exactly the most loving man on the planet but he cared. Helped me with my homework, taught me how to ride, everything. He retired a few years before Reign joined, he went to the Forefathers and then he died good and old. What about your father?"

"He left me and my mother when I was four or five. Took my older sister and all of his money to Israel. He was killed by one of his friends because he betrayed them, I inherited his millions and made billions out of it." 

"What about your sister?"

"My sister didn't get much from the will, I think they made a mistake with it but no one contested it as she married rich so she didn't really need the money, I did." 

"What about your mother?"

"Haven't spoken to mine since I joined the army at fourteen, I only ever saw her when I came back for Riley. She didn't care for me and I didn't like her much either, she blamed me for my dad leaving."

"My mom died when I was a kid."

"I'm sorry." 

"My dad said she was planning on leaving anyway so I was never really that affected by her death. We didn't really have a relationship either."

"What a pair we are, eh?"