Society Girls: Neveah (15 page)

“It was then that they moved you to
Chicago?” Nev asks him.

“Yes. I moved into a house
near the Gallagher family, and took a job as a work-from-home
accountant. I observed most of what went on around the
neighborhood, but I kept to myself until the day Dylan was
attacked. I shouldn’t have stood by when he was being called names,
but I
couldn’t
stand by when they put their hands on him.”

“Thank you,” Nev says, and everyone in the
room turns to look at her.

“You’re thanking him for helping me?” I
ask.

“Why are you surprised? You know I love
you.”

“You just amaze me every day, Nev.”

“Good. I like to keep you on your toes.”

I love that she’s being flirty with me right
now, but apparently, Sadiq doesn’t. “As I was saying, I helped
Dylan, and he promised to help me re-connect with my family one
day.”

“And then you concocted a rather elaborate
plan to deceive our daughter, and essentially steal her away from
us,” Aqeelah says, and there’s no mistaking the ice in her
voice.

“I needed companionship. I
don’t want another woman for a sexual relationship, but I
want
family
.”

“Why our daughter? Why not me? How could you
not want me?” she’s yelling now, and not one person in this room
can blame her.

“If you all of a sudden disappeared, Matt
would’ve been suspicious, and gone looking for you. And also, I
didn’t want to leave our children with no parent at all.”

“Hold on a minute,” Matt says, speaking up
for the first time. “Do you really think I wouldn’t have gone
looking for Nev, too?”

“I knew you would focus your attentions
elsewhere, giving us time to go into deep hiding.”

“Holy shit! You were going to make it look
like Dylan killed her! You meant for me and everyone else to go
after him.”

“Yes,” I answer.

“No. I wouldn’t have let that happen. You
have to know I wouldn’t go along with that!” Nev tells me, holding
my face in her hands.

“I knew the plan wasn’t the best, but I
didn’t know you when this all started, Nev. I didn’t know if you’d
care.”

“And you both underestimated the scope of
our resources,” Reina says. “Even without Ellie being our friend,
we would’ve gone to the ends of the Earth to find Nev.”

“I know about you and your secret group, but
it wouldn’t have mattered. You wouldn’t have come back from that
mission alive,” Sadiq says, and I stare at him in shock.

“Are you insane?” Aqeelah asks before anyone
else can jump in. “Who are you? You are not the man I married. It
was honorable of you to have given the information you found, and
even to have left to save us. But to have exacted a vow from a
teenage boy, and then all of the rest of this…killing Reina if she
came to get our daughter? There is no honor in what you’ve been
doing, and would’ve continued to do had Dylan not fallen in love
with Nev. As far as I’m concerned, you are still dead to me Sadiq,
and it is time for me to leave.”

“It’s time for him to leave, also,” I say
quietly.

“You would throw me into the street after I
saved you?”

“I have more than paid you back for helping
me. But this—threatening people if they stand in your way—you’re no
better than the men you were trying to stop. Aqeelah says she
doesn’t recognize the man she married, and right now, I don’t
recognize my friend. As for ‘the street’, we both know you have
money. You don’t have government protection since you ditched them,
but you have money.”

“One week, Dylan. Please just give me one
week to get things in order, and then I will leave.”

“You don’t owe him anything,” Nev tells me.
“You’ve done more than anyone else would.”

“I can give him one week. I’m going to
Chicago to see my parents anyway. Ellie spilled what I’ve been
doing, and they called earlier to summon me home to talk.”

“You can call me if you need to,” she says,
echoing my earlier statement to her.

“Thank you,” I reply, kissing her cheek.

I walk everyone but Sadiq
out, accepting a hug from Aqeelah and a chin nod from Sully. I’m
glad Nev has them as well as her Society family. If I can just
figure out how to extract myself from all of my messes, I’ll be
part of her family once again. First, I have to face
my
family, who I already
know I’ve disappointed. How did trying to do something honorable
leave me feeling no honor at all?

Dylan

“I love you Dyl Pickle,” Ellie says, halfway
into our flight to Chicago. This is the first she’s spoken to me
since we took off, but if I’m being honest, I haven’t tried to
initiate any conversation, either. “I just can’t understand how
you’d go along with Sadiq’s plan.”

“I love you too, Ellie Bear. As for Sadiq, I
just wanted to be honorable.”

“When you were younger, I can understand you
thinking that making the vow to him was honorable, but once he laid
out his plan to you? You were really going to let him frame you for
a fake murder? You’d have lost everything.”

“He saved me, El. I really thought I was
going to die that day. I could feel it…they weren’t going to
stop.”

“And I’m so thankful for that. But what he
asked from you is too much. He saved your life, but then he asked
you to give it back.”

“I thought it was the right thing to
do.”

“Until you fell in love.”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you stand up to her when Eric
said those things to her in the cafeteria?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Mom and Dad are going to tell you to
un-complicate it.”

“I know. I need to talk to them about what’s
going on with Eric. I may need your help, too.”

“You know you’ve got it.”

“Thanks.”

We’re quiet again for the rest of the
flight, and the drive home. We walk inside, and I’m surprised to
see that it’s just the four of us. I was afraid my mom would call
all of my brothers in for this “talk.” I know they’ll hear about
what happens, but I’m glad they aren’t here with me right now.

I hug my mom, holding her as tight as she’s
holding me, until my dad pulls her back. He gives me a hug, too,
and then we all sit down. “Go ahead and tell us everything,” my dad
says. It’s the same request Neveah made of me, but since my parents
already know most of my faults, it’s easier to honor this
demand.

I explain about Sadiq and his plan, not
sugar-coating my part in everything, even as my dad shakes his
head, and my mom starts to cry. I also tell them about Nev, and how
I fell in love with her. I don’t hold back anything about her,
either, including what happened with Eric. “I’m sorry,” I tell
them.

“You’re
sorry? We should be the ones apologizing,” my mom
says. “We were working so hard to get the business running and keep
you all fed and clothed. We should’ve paid more attention to
everything instead of trusting that Sadiq was being a good
influence on you.”

“He was a good influence.
At least until he wasn’t, but that’s my burden to carry, not
yours.
I
made that
vow and decided to keep it, even though I knew it was wrong. You
guys were great parents.”

My dad speaks up, and it’s exactly what I
would expect from him. “I’m going to be honest here, son. I get you
wanting to honor your vow, but I’m having a really hard time with
you saying you’re in love with Neveah. I would never sit by and let
a friend of mine disrespect your mother—or any other woman for that
matter—especially not because of her faith.”

“Eric is not my friend. I don’t even want
him to be my agent, but I’m stuck for a few more months.”

“Why do I feel like
you
felt you couldn’t
stand up to him?” Ellie asks.

“He has some pictures of me. He said he’d
release them if I didn’t go to that party with the actress while I
was here. I can only imagine what he would’ve done if I’d defended
Nev.”

“What kind of pictures?” my mom asks, her
eyes narrowing at me underneath the tears she’s furiously wiping
away.

“The kind that would cause you more trouble
with the ladies at the church. He had hidden cameras at one of the
parties at his house I went to as a rookie. I entertained a few
women that night. At once.”

“You’re telling me you let your
embarrassment over some pictures stop you from defending the woman
you love?” she asks, looking like she wants to hit me.

“No. I let
your
embarrassment stop
me. I know you get all kinds of crap from those women already. I
didn’t want to add to it.”

She does reach over and smack me then. “I
raised you better, Dylan Spencer Gallagher! I’ve been handling
those judgmental, holier than thou women for years. A few pictures
aren’t going to change anything for me, but standing up for Neveah
would’ve changed things for her. She needs support.”

“She has support, Mom. All of us at the
Foundation support her,” Ellie tells her.

“Yes, and that’s wonderful. But there’s
nothing like the man you love standing up for you,” she says,
looking over at my dad with a smile.

“If those pictures come out, she probably
won’t want to be standing anywhere near me.”

“I think you’re underestimating her, Dyl.
Nev isn’t as naïve as people think she is. I doubt she’s harboring
illusions of you being a virgin.”

“Being a virgin and being with several women
at once are different things, El.”

“Did you ask her to bring other women into
your bed with her?”

“Fuck no!”

“Then why does it matter?”

“Your sister’s right, son. If this girl is a
keeper, she’ll understand that your past is just that—the past.
What’s happening now between the two of you is what’s
important.”

“There’s currently nothing happening between
us right now.”

“Do you have a plan to make things happen?”
my mom asks.

“She said she needs me to tell her the truth
about anything and everything.”

“That’s not much to ask after all she’d
found out about in the last couple of days,” my dad says.

“No. It’s not. I need to meet with Eric so I
can set him straight about things, and then I’m going to head back
to Vegas.”

“You’ll have to let me know how the meeting
goes, and if there’s anything I can do to help,” Ellie says with a
smirk.

I smile back, because the thought of the
Society being unleashed on Eric is pretty awesome. It’s time for me
to set things right with both my career, and my girl.

* * *

Neveah

I heard Faith com into the gun range a few
minutes ago, but I ignored her as I finished emptying my gun into
the target in front of me. Now that it’s empty, I lay it on the
counter in front of me, take off my headphone and goggles, and look
to where she’s standing on my right.

“Hi Faith.”

“How are you holding up?” she asks, skipping
the formalities.

“I’m standing upright, I’m out of my
apartment, and I only cry three or four times a day, so I guess I’m
doing pretty good.”

“I was hoping you’d come talk to me,” she
says, looking a little hurt.

“I haven’t talked to anyone. I don’t know
what to say.”

“You can say whatever you want—or need to—to
me, or any of the other mentors. I’m sure your friends feel the
same way. Part of what I love so much about the Society is that
we’re not just co-workers, but friends. I know you heard Reina’s
speech after Greta was let go, and I hope you realize that
everything she said was true. None of us would still be here if we
didn’t have each other. The things we’ve gone through…well, let’s
just say some of us have had more unusual paths than others. I even
quit once, because I thought I didn’t belong. I was convinced
otherwise, but if it wasn’t for the women—and men—around me, I
might be working in a kitchen somewhere, regretting that I left a
big piece of my happiness behind.”

“You really quit? I thought that was just a
rumor?”

“Many rumors have a little kernel of the
truth to them, but I’d caution you to ask the person who’s being
talked about before believing what you hear.”

“I’m not a gossip,” I say, hastily, because
I’m really not. “I just heard it, but I never spread it
around.”

“I was speaking generally. I’m sure that
before your training is over, you’re going to hear things about all
of the mentors—and probably some, if not all of your fellow
recruits. It’s only natural in a company this size where almost no
one in the building knows what really goes on. When people tire of
trying to figure things out, they tend to speculate.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good.”

“Are you going to ask me about my
father?”

“I was waiting to see if you’d bring him up
yourself.”

“I don’t know what to say,
because I don’t really know how I feel. I know I should be happy
he’s alive, but he’s not the man I remember him to be. The
father
I remember
would’ve sacrificed himself for his family, so I believe that part
is true, but what he’s been doing now? I just can’t wrap my head
around what he tried to make Dylan do, and how he was going to make
things look for him after I disappeared. I mean, even if he didn’t
go to jail, his reputation would be ruined.”

“I’m not excusing your father’s behavior,
because I don’t believe he was doing the right thing, but from what
I’ve been told, I think he was lonely and wanted his family with
him again. He knew he couldn’t take everyone, so he chose you.
Dylan was trying to honor a vow he should’ve never made, but I
admire him for sticking to it, and also for planning to break the
vow when he got to know you.”