Kal
Just as the waiter was setting out my eggs benedicts which Laurence had made me pick over fruit (apparently I was getting too skinny) Greyson walked out into the garden café. Oh. Shit. Things were about to get very awkward. Please don't see me, I silently pleaded. Dear lord please don't see me. But he did, he looked right at me and looked absolutely livid and... possessive? Definitely possessive. Not good! This was NOT GOOD! Because Laurence, upon seeing Greyson looking at me with that look, turned suddenly possessive as well, grabbing my hand and kissing the inside of my wrist.
"Who is that, Victoria?" he asked me in a soft tone.
"That's just Grey. I- we- he... um," I hastily tried to explain. Please don't get mad at me, Laurie, I thought. Grey chose that moment to walk over to us and rest his hands on the back of my chair. I tried to release m hand from Laurence's grip, but it just tightened to an almost painful point.
"Kal, who's this?" Grey asked me the same question Laurence had asked about him. His hands snaked up to my shoulders where he tugged Laurence's coat off them, caressing the skin as he did, and handed me one of my own. Then he handed Laurence's back to him.
"I don't think she'll need this anymore," he told Laurence in a snide tone. I hastily donned my own sweatshirt. "Now, Kalshan, would you like to tell me who your little friend is?" I could just hear the silent Buttercup in there.
"My older brother," I answered right as Laurence answered,
"Her old lover and boyfriend." Greyson's eyebrows raised and he looked at me with shock.
"Which is it Kal?" I wanted to curl up under a rock and die.
"A few years ago April moved us to London convinced she could make it as an actress over there. Or, I suppose it was really... you know." I gave him a significant look. Greyson nodded.
"Her new location. Please, do go on." His voice was weirdly polite. He was never this polite.
"Anyway, I met Laurie- er, Laurence- when I was over there. And April met Laurence's dad, Xavier. They ignored that we'd had a thing before they had a thing and got married. We kind of stayed together even after they did. They divorced two years later and we moved back to the states." No need to tell him exactly why they divorced or why we'd high-tailed back to the states as fast as we possibly could.
"I see. And you came to the states as well?" Greyson asked Laurie. He shook his head and took a sip of coffee before answering,
"No, I'm attending Oxford at the moment. However, a friend of mine down here needed some help, so I came. And happened to come at exact right time, I suppose." He smiled warmly at me.
"Who's the friend?" Greyson asked, still sounding mild and polite. Not the least bit jealous or possessive. He and Laurence were doing very good, acting like the well-bred boys of the higher class they were. I was almost proud.
"Name is Charlie," Laurence told him. "Nice Aussie bloke." Greyson's hands suddenly stiffened on my shoulders and he said through clenched teeth,
"Kalshan, please go." I opened my mouth let out a disbelieving noise.
"What? No!" Laurence gave me a look.
"Victoria," he barked, "Go." Stiffly, I rose, threw my napkin on the table and left the room with all the dignity I could muster up.
Grey
I sat down the chair Kalshan had recently been using and stared Laurence Van Winter down. Finally, he raised an arched, aristocratic brow and sneered,
"Greyson Beaumont, I presume."
"Laurence Van Winter," I sneered back. Our families went way back, and not in a good way.
"What are you doing with my Victoria?" Laurence asked. I raised an eyebrow.
"Your Victoria? One, she is most certainly not yours. Two, her name is Kalshan." He laughed coldly.
"Yes, but her middle name is Victoria and I think it sounds so much more classy than Kalshan." Wow, but was he snob. I'd been raised in the same world as Laurence, with the same people, the same nannies, the same rules. Yet we'd turned out so differently. That was the thing about position in society. It either made you like or, or like him.
"Personally, I particularly like the name Kalshan," I countered. "What exactly brings you to LA?" I asked him.
"I told you," Laurence snapped. "My friend Charlie is in a jam." I picked up Kalshan's coffee cup since mine was empty and took a sip.
"Charlie is an old friend of mine as well. If he needed help I'm sure he'd have called me since he knows I'm in town. What business do you really have with him?" Laurence leaned back in his chair and smiled.
"The same business I imagine you had with him."
"Since he no longer sells heroin, I can imagine not." Laurence's eyes went sharp.
"What the hell did you just say?"
"What? You in desperate need of a fix? I'm sure he can hook you up with other dealers." Laurence growled something unintelligible under his breath.
"No, you dumb fuck. I work for Maximus," he told me. "Charlie works for me. I thought you two knew each other threw your fathers drug line." I shrugged mildly.
"No. He was my dealer a while back. I didn't even know about that part of my dad's business. Thanks for telling me, though. I'm sure Maximus is going to be really happy with you." I heard a clicking noise under the table and barely lifted the table cloth to look under where Laurence had a gun pointed at me. I got out my own and also readied to shoot.
"You're not going to tell Maximus you know." I laughed.
"Or what? You'll kill me. It's Maximus's assassins you have working for you. Do you really think they'd kill a Beaumont because you tell them to?" I laughed humorlessly. "I seriously doubt it, Van Winter. Maximus wants to keep me around a while longer." His eyes tightened and he gave me a glare that could stop most people in their tracks. I just continued leaning casually forward, my gun still aimed.
"You stay out of my fucking way," he hissed. I smiled politely.
"I don't think I will, thanks. I kind of like being in your way. It amuses me."
"You are one dumb fuck," he growled. I kept my mildly amused mask on my face. No need to let him know how badly I wanted to blow his brains out. That would have just given him the advantage.
"So people keep telling me." I put the safety on my gun back on and tucked it into the holster under my jacket. "You have a reputation with girls, Van Winter." I stood and walked over to him so we were nose to nose.
"I already don't like you, don't make me hate you. I'm sure you know what I mean. I assure you, it would be a good situation." With that I turned and left the garden to go find Kal. I had a feeling she needed me.
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You think you know what laurence's reputation is. I assure you, you know nothing! haha, but you will soon. xoxo~Ash
