Envy

by Lana Pecherczyk

  Both Evan and Sloan shot Liza a sympathetic glance. Liza was right. Her sin was the worst.

  “I know it sounds far-fetched,” Evan added. “But when I’m around her, the sin fades. I feel… normal. It’s real, man. I don’t know, there has to be some way you can find a partner without them being sexual vegans.”

  His sisters snorted.

  “No meat. Good one,” Liza said.

  “Well, I try.”

  Another crash from the kitchen drew their attention across the room, and when Wyatt’s shouting followed, Liza mumbled, “I hope his mate turns up soon.”

  Twenty

  Across the room, closer to the kitchen, Grace sat in her booth, picking at the stitched seams on the menu and re-reading the meals. She kept having to start again. There was too much going on in her mind right now, and the thought of Evan sitting across the stage with two stunning women made her heart spin. First, the Victoria’s Secret model had sat down looking all I’m-so-hot-I-don’t-need-to-wear-girly-clothes, and then there was sexy librarian girl with the black pigtails. Grace wasn’t jealous. It was obviously his family. But, there were looks cast her way. She wasn’t stupid. She knew they spoke about her. And after spending that glorious moment with him in the supply closet…

  She blushed. Was that what she was calling it now? A moment? Did she want more?

  Before she could finish her train of thought, a voice snapped her out of her daze.

  “Oh, my God. Did you see who just walked in?” Her friend Lilo Likeke had arrived. A journalist at the Cardinal Copy, Lilo was almost as busy as Grace, yet she always managed to find time to make baked goods, just like the ones in the Tupperware container she absently pushed across the table as she slid onto the bench.

  Lilo’s hair was cut in a short, wavy brown bob that set off her bronzed skin and brown eyes, now crinkled in a smile as she gazed across the room. Part Hawaiian, part Italian and everything friendly, Lilo had known Grace since the bombing.

  Grace smiled in greeting at her friend, then went back to her menu, and tried to focus.

  “Tony Lazarus,” Lilo elaborated when Grace didn’t respond. “The actor. He’s here. Must be here to see his brother in the kitchen. Gracie, did you hear me?”

  “Huh?” Grace looked up from her menu.

  Her friend frowned at her. “Is everything okay? You’re even more distracted than normal.”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m sorry, what did you say?”

  “Look over there. Holy shit, now look who’s with him: Parker Lazarus. And that last one, with the glasses—he’s gotta be someone important. Talk about sexy nerd. Wow. He’s a bonafide babe. Look how he carries himself, with complete confidence. Serious, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if the air parts way simply because it knows he’s coming.” She sighed wistfully.

  Grace laughed and followed Lilo’s line of sight to the three imposing men following the maître d down the opposite side of the room. She wasn’t the only one looking. Every set of eyes in the establishment followed suit. The men were gorgeous, fit, tall and extremely well built. It was more like they stalked or prowled than walked. She narrowed her eyes as they all took a seat in the booth with Evan and recognized the facial similarities. Sharp jaws, wide lips, thick lashes.

  “I wonder what kind of high-powered business deals they’re making, and who are those women? Probably girlfriends. If only I was a fly on the wall of that booth. There’s got to be something news worthy there.”

  “I think they’re all family.”

  Lilo’s shrewd gaze snapped back to Grace. “How would you know? Come to think of it, you’re not in your usual hospital getup. I thought you worked today, and that’s why we’re lunching so late.”

  “I haven’t filled you in on the past twenty-four hours.”

  “I know. You haven’t texted me for days. What gives?”

  “I got mugged and lost my phone.”

  Lilo gasped. “I told you to come to Krav Maga classes with me! Do you need a phone? I might have a spare.”

  Lilo rifled through her enormous leather satchel.

  Grace stopped Lilo with her hand. “It’s okay. I wasn’t hurt and bought a new phone this morning.” She glanced over at Evan. “The tattooed one with the messy brown hair, stuck between the two girls, is Evan Lazarus.”

  Recognition flooded Lilo’s large brown eyes. “The artist? From the exhibition. Where the murder happened?” With each sentence, her tone lowered a fraction more, adding more drama.

  “Yes. He didn’t do it, of course. I spent the morning with him.”

  Lilo blinked a few times, taking in Grace’s words. “Like, spent the morning with him? Or spent the morning with him. Lucky you.”

  “Not that kind of morning. Well. Maybe I suppose. But… oh gosh, now you have me flustered. To be honest, I have no idea what’s going on between us, if I want something, or…” She left the words hanging.

  Lilo reached across the table and squeezed Grace’s hand. “Never mind. My love life’s not exactly going according to plan either. But enough talk about men. What looks good on the menu?”

  “All of it. Is your yoga friend still coming? What was her name?”

  “Misha. And, no. Her father had some dramas at his little Polish restaurant across the bridge. He also owns the food truck in the Quadrant park and apparently there’s been some gang activity in the area. She had to go and help him out.”

  “Is everything okay?” Grace asked.

  “Yes, she’s fine. It’s all good. For now anyway.”

  Somehow Grace knew that wasn’t what kept the pinch in Lilo’s eyes, or the twitch in her fingers as she plucked at the menu. “Lilo, I can tell when you’re troubled. What’s up?”

  “It’s just Donnie. I’m not sure it’s working out, but I don’t know how to tell him. Even though nobody at work knows we’re dating, it could still cause trouble.”

  Donald Doppinger (a.k.a. Donnie Darko) was Lilo’s secret boyfriend at the Cardinal Copy. Both investigative reporters, Lilo was at the start of her stellar career, while Donnie had been in the game for at least twenty years. A Pulitzer Prize contender many times over, he didn’t like the way it looked to date a newbie reporter—especially one as young and talented and beautiful as Lilo. He claimed people would think she slept her way to the top, but Grace believed the truth was, he didn’t like being overshadowed by her brilliance. He wanted all the attention for himself. Lilo was up to date with all the new tech. She blogged, she YouTubed, and she Instagrammed. Digital immigrants like Donnie couldn’t keep up, so they sabotaged the bright young things by any means necessary.

  “Lilo.” Grace reached across to steady her friend’s hands. “You’re incredibly talented. Not because of him but because you’re the hardest, most tenacious worker I’ve ever had the fortune of meeting, let alone be friends with. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”

  The small, shy smile Lilo returned warmed Grace’s heart.

  Lilo tapped her Tupperware box. “I made you brownies. I know they’re your favorite and you probably had no time to eat, as usual.”

  “Aww, thank you. I’m sorry I was distracted when you arrived.”

  Grace lifted the lid to take a peek inside, but shouting and clanging brought Grace’s attention to the open kitchen a few feet away. A chef dressed in grubby white blasted a terrified waitress. He was tall, broad shouldered, and intimidating as hell. Men like him were a common sight at the male dominated hospital—especially among the surgical staff. It brought her back to the days when she was berated as an intern for apparent lazy listening. After a thirty hour shift, she’d been too exhausted to double check the nurse’s stocked supplies before an operation, and had the pleasant experience of having a sermon handed to her by the attending surgeon. Still, that hadn’t been a public embarrassment like the girl near the kitchen. The chef jabbed his finger in the air about one inch from her flinching face. How humiliating. The waitress started to cry.

  The poor girl couldn’t have
been more than twenty years old. She defended herself with words, and pointed to something on a plate in her hands, but the chef was having none of it. His tirade increased, along with his blood pressure as he shoved the plate back toward her body, spilling its contents all over her front.

  A gasp shot out of Grace as she heard what he said, and it was horrendous. Too horrendous to repeat. But the worst thing was that nobody said a word. He was like that nasty television chef who didn’t know how to back off. Half the restaurant this side of the stage were eyeing them, and no one did a god-damned thing.

  “What a jerk!” Grace slammed her palm on the table in front of her, rattling the cutlery. She slid out of the seat and stood next to her table, arms folded, glaring at the chef.

  She steeled herself to stomp over there and give the man a what for, imagining herself tall and invincible. Then she cleared her throat, smoothed her blouse and took a deep breath.

  “I’ll be right back,” she said in a controlled voice to Lilo and then stormed to the kitchen. She skirted the serving area and walked right up to the couple. The waitress hastily tried to pick up the spilled mess from the floor while the chef glowered.

  “Excuse me,” Grace said, clenching her fists to stop them trembling.

  The chef and waitress stopped and stared.

  “Look,” Grace added to the chef. “I appreciate you’re having a bad day, because nobody deliberately sets out to treat another human being like garbage, but I don’t know if you realize you’re being rather hurtful.”

  “Who the fuck are you?” he clipped.

  “Dr. Grace Go.” She jutted out her chin.

  “Well, Dr. Grace Go. I don’t give a flying fuck if her poor little feelings are hurt. It’s none of your business, so respectfully, Go fuck off.”

  Well. No need for cussing. Grace swallowed. This was harder than she thought. The man was much, much bigger this close, and his anger rolled off him in heat waves. She totally got how the waitress wanted to shrink back. But, it wasn’t the first time someone made fun of her name, and it wasn’t the first time a man tried to tell her what to do. Grace stood tall.

  “I’m not talking about hurting her, although that isn’t good either. I’m talking about the damage you’re doing to yourself.” She jabbed a finger in the air, just like he’d done to the waitress.

  “What?”

  “That anger isn’t helping you. It’s toxic. To you and everyone around you.”

  “Who the fuck do you think you are? This is my restaurant, I do what I want.”

  His restaurant? Grace paled. Oh yeah, wasn’t Evan’s brother a chef here? Her eyes snagged on the Michelin star on his uniform. “I’m nobody, I guess, but—”

  “Grace,” came a low male voice.

  She turned and found Evan and his very surly, unhappy older brother, Parker. The chef noticed too, and his face morphed from confusion to bottled fury. It was such a shame. He was extremely handsome, but the anger and hatred in his expression made him all twisted. The waitress fled.

  Parker cocked an arrogant eyebrow. “If I’m not mistaken, brother, this is my restaurant, not yours, and I won’t have you treating my staff like that.”

  But the chef ignored his remark and instead turned to Evan in accusation. “You know this… woman?”

  What the hell did that pause mean? Did he have trouble distinguishing if she was female? Or was he insinuating she was a beast?

  Evan stepped between Grace and the chef. “Yeah, and if you’ve got a bone to pick with her, you’ll have to go through me.”

  “You know that can be arranged.”

  The tension in the air was palpable. Grace couldn’t help thinking she’d started something she couldn’t finish and perhaps the chef was right, it was none of her business. Now the whole restaurant stared, including Lilo from her booth, not ten feet away.

  “Wyatt, don’t make a scene,” warned Parker. “Clock off and come over to the booth. The whole family’s here. Let’s talk.”

  The chef, Wyatt, darted a glance across the room to where Parker indicated, then lifted his gaze to the ceiling and shook his head in disbelief. “Of course you’re all here. You fucking railroaded me.” He pulled his cap off to reveal black flattened hair, scrubbed it, and then stormed toward the kitchen. He came back a few seconds later with a ramekin, then went to the table where the rest of the family sat, mumbling: “Fucking pussies.”

  Evan exhaled sharply. Parker gave him a quizzical look.

  “Don’t be long,” Parker said and left.

  “You okay?” Evan’s concerned eyes washed over her.

  She expected some sort of chastisement, but not concern. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry I put my nose where it didn’t belong, but I couldn’t let him talk to that woman like that.”

  “Somehow, I’m not surprised.”

  She blanched.

  “I mean that in a good way, Grace.”

  A pang of worry speared through her when she thought about Wyatt who was clearly Wrath. The heartache he was about to receive. “He’s not well. Go easy on him, Evan.”

  “He just bit your head off, and you’re standing up for him.”

  “I know.” She touched his arm gently. “He’s been hurt. Try to remember that. You’re about to turn his world upside down.”

  Grace thought for a moment that he was going to argue with her, but he glanced over at his family table, then tucked his hands in his jeans pockets and gave an abrupt nod. “Listen, I have to go. You’ll wait for me, won’t you?”

  “Sure.”

  Then he left to join his family.

  Twenty-One

  When Evan returned, the hushed arguments were in full swing. The girls were in the middle of the u-shaped booth and on either side of them sat Griffin and Tony who were enthralled in Wyatt’s explanation of what his ramekin full of brown fluff was. Parker stood blocking Wyatt’s exit. Mary and Flint took up space next to Tony at the opposite exit of the booth. Thankfully, they were the last table at the end of the restaurant, and had a little privacy, otherwise the entire restaurant would be spectators to their current drama. Maybe he should have booked the private dining room.

  Wyatt caught Evan’s approach and made to leave.

  “I’m not doing this,” he growled.

  Parker placed a firm hand on Wyatt’s shoulder. An animalistic rumble came from the base of Parker’s throat and he bared his teeth. “You’re not going anywhere. It’s high time you stopped acting like a complete fuckwit and dealt with this.”

  A hush fell over the table.

  When Parker wanted to make his prideful opinion known, he did it in style, except this was the first time Evan heard that feral noise. The snarl had been utterly beast-like, and Parker prowled back and forth in front of the table, fists clenching, muscles rolling, veins in his forearms writhing. He looked like a giant demon, or fallen angel about to wreak havoc.

  “Don’t push me, Wyatt,” Parker snapped. “This involves all of us.”

  “What the fuck do you care? You live in your Ivory Tower, far from the rest of us lowly peasants,” Wyatt spat. “In fact, none of you are really here. Apart from the little fuck-up there, none of you give a shit anymore. You don’t do anything to help the city. You say you do, but I know you’re too proud to actually get out there.”

  Evan was taken aback; Wyatt had actually noticed he’d been trying to make things right. For a moment, Evan was transported back to elementary school when he got into a fight with another kid in the school yard. It was so long ago that he couldn’t remember what it was about, but this other kid had thrown the first punch.

  Evan knew he was special, and that they were in hiding. His parents and siblings had drilled it into him, You’re stronger than the other kids, so stay out of trouble otherwise you’ll get noticed. The Hildegard Sisterhood will find you and take you away from us.

  When the teacher came over and caught Evan defending himself during this fight, Evan was blamed. He only pushed the kid off him, but caused
bruising and damage. Wyatt had turned up, somehow there to save him. He’d defended Evan and explained to the teacher what he saw. In the end, Evan still received detention, and it had devastated him. He hated getting in trouble and knew that it compromised their safety and feared it would cause the end of the world as he knew it.

  That night when they got home, Wyatt had asked Evan if he’d heard the biblical story of Lazarus. Some guy who rose from the dead, was all Evan had replied and Wyatt had laughed. He never remembered much apart from that either, but the point was, Lazarus came back. He didn’t quit, and Evan shouldn’t too.

  Thinking on those memories now, Evan thought maybe Wyatt wasn’t a lost cause. Maybe he was fighting a hard battle, just like the Post-it note said on Grace’s fridge.

  “You asshole.” Liza tried to reach past Tony and made a grab for Wyatt. “Don’t you dare tell me I do nothing.”

  Liza was a cop. A damned good one, too. Tony tried to intervene, but it was Griff on the other side of Liza who pulled her back, much to her annoyance.

  “Could we just focus on the reason we called this meeting? Sara,” Griffin said.

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” Wyatt snapped, and then scooped out a bit of chocolate from the ramekin.

  “The fuck there isn’t,” Parker said, voice still laced with a lethal rumble. When Parker cussed, you knew he was at his limit. Pride usually kept the crass in check. “You know Evan had an exhibition where she was the sole focus. What you didn’t know was that she turned up. Alive.” Parker took a few moments for that to sink into Wyatt. When Wyatt turned ashen, Parker glared at the rest of his siblings. “And if the rest of you had come to support your brother, you would have known that too. In fact, if you were all there, perhaps someone else apart from Evan and his doctor would have seen Sara, and we wouldn’t be stuck in this no-man's-land.”