09:45
Chapter 76
She was telling him that she would stake her life on every word she said, claiming responsibility with the utmost sincerity.
Could it be that he had misunderstood her all along?
But how could he explain away the accusations of bullying a young lady? Who else had he bullied, if not her?
Tarquin’s expression darkened as he contemplated. He hadn’t mistreated her. He had his reasons for detaining her, and he conducted himself with integrity.
“What’s on your mind now?” Keaton nudged him.
Tarquin snapped out of his reverie, took a hard drag on his cigarette, and fell silent.
“Keaton, where did you and Tarquin run off to? Come on back, everyone’s here. We’re just waiting on you two,” Booker called out to summon them.
“Okay,” Keaton replied, “we’ll be there in a sec.”
After hanging up, he turned to Tarquin and said, “Let’s go. Stop overthinking for now. The birthday boy is calling us in.”
Tarquin let out a quiet sigh, stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, and followed Keaton to the private room.
Keaton added, “There’s something I need to tell you in advance. My sister has taken quite a shine to that girl. If you plan on doing anything to her in the future, you’d better be discreet, or my sister will make a scene. She won’t confront you directly, but she’ll take it out on me, and then I’ll be forced to draw a line between us. That could mess up our brotherhood.”
Tarquin smirked. “That’s all the guts you have, huh?”
“Heh, easy for you to say. You don’t have a sister. You have no idea how devastating an older sister can be to her little brother!”
Tarquin rolled his eyes and continued back to the room.
Booker greeted them cheerfully, “The prodigal sons return! Now that we’re all here, as today’s birthday guy, let me just say thanks for coming out to celebrate with me. Let’s
have a toast.”
Everyone raised their glasses to honor Booker’s birthday.
Sitting at the head of the table, Tarquin didn’t stand up. He simply clinked his glass on the table and knocked back his drink in one gulp.
The others, taken aback, followed suit. What was supposed to be a sip turned into a
downing of glasses.
The table buzzed with lively conversation. As someone moved to toast with Tarquin, Keaton, knowing his friend was not in the best of spirits, intercepted, “Why aim for Tarquin? Go toast with Booker. It’s his birthday, and you guys should be getting him hammered and throwing him into the arms of a lovely lady to celebrate his manhood. If you don’t, you’re not really men.”
The others, sensing Keaton’s intent to shield Tarquin from more drinks and noting his sour mood, turned their attention to Booker instead.
The crowd got rowdy, insisting that they would see Booker’s bachelorhood ended that night, accompanied by raucous laughter and risqué jokes.
Not wanting to dampen the mood, Tarquin played along for a bit before falling silent. He lit another cigarette, leaned back in his chair, and his gaze landed on Zane.
Earlier, he had seen Elysia chatting with Zane. They seemed quite familiar with each other, and the way Zane looked at her was ambiguous.
Feeling Tarquin’s eyes on him, Zane quickly looked back, searching for a way to engage with Tarquin–now he had his chance.
Zane smartly approached with a glass in hand and said cheerfully, “Mr. Bradford, a pleasure to meet you. I’d like to toast to you. No need for you to drink, I’ll take care of it.”
Zane tipped the glass and emptied it in one go, but Tarquin just continued to smoke, unmoved.
Someone of Zane’s caliber wasn’t yet worthy of sharing a drink with him.
09
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