I send messages to the men first. Asher arrives discreetly in a cab. Cosgrave and Worth reach the suite door within minutes of each other, Cosgrave already loosening the collar of his button-up and Worth tossing aside his suit jacket.
Both of them discard their gloves on the side table by the door. My fingers curl inside my own.
Technically, there’s no risk now that my glim’s awake. But the layer of leather feels like a necessary shield against impulses I shouldn’t give in to.
“Is she on her way?” Cosgrave asks.
I pull out my phone. “I’ll get her now.”
It takes five torturous minutes after I’ve sent the room number for a final knock to sound on the door. I answer to find Elodie standing outside, her head cocked and eyebrows arched. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain…” I usher her in so we don’t have to worry about being overheard.
Elodie notices the other men waiting in the expansive room beyond, and a shadow crosses her expression. “Is everything okay? Has something?—”
I hold up my hands to stop her, wincing inwardly that I’ve already caused her more distress. “No. Nothing like that. You actually have less to worry about than before. Mr. Cosgrave has arranged for certain doctored evidence against your father’s consultant to be sent to the government… We can’t expose the entire group she’s part of yet, but we can at least get her out of her position of power.”
“Really?” Elodie’s voice brightens. She glances at Cosgrave, and he nods with a satisfied smirk.
I clear my throat to bring her attention back to me. “Right now… This is just for you. After everything that’s happened, I wanted to arrange some time for you to relax without having to be on your guard. And with all of us. Because it’s also important that you know how much we’re all committed to being with you.”
Elodie blinks, taking in the whole room with its opulent furnishings. “I… Here?”
“It was convenient.”
I motion her farther into the room. Her gown murmurs around her legs tantalizingly, but this escape is for her benefit, not mine.
I point to a stack of clothes I’ve set on the coffee table. “You can change into something more comfortable, as I suspect you’d prefer. They should be the right size, and I picked out the softest fabrics I could find.”
Elodie picks up the sweatshirt and leggings and pauses over the undershirt folded next to a pair of socks. Her gaze darts to me with a glimmer of panic, but I keep my expression what I hope is reassuringly mild.
I couldn’t help picking up on some of the ephemerawound around her when I held her in the car the other night. There’s something that unsettles her about her upper body, that she wants to keep covered up.
I don’t need to know more until she’s ready to tell us of her own accord. I just want her to feel as at ease as possible tonight.
With that goal in mind, I nod toward the bathroom. “You can take a shower or even a bath if you want, as long as you like. The suite came with a wide variety of salts and oils and that sort of thing. We don’t mind waiting while you take your time.”
“Or joining you!” Cosgrave pipes up with a salacious grin. When I glower at him, he makes a zipping motion across his mouth. “Please continue, Professor.”
The others are contributing to making tonight possible, but they know I’m trying to atone for my own behavior. That it’s important she realizes this was my idea, that I pulled everything together for her.
I gesture to the kitchenette next. “I brought a range of snacks based on what I’ve seen you picking in the cafeteria, from a couple of different shops known for healthy alternatives that still taste great. Beyond that, it’ll be up to you how we spend the evening. We can simply talk, or watch TV or a movie, or I can see what else we can have ordered in or sent up… Whatever makes you feel like we’re a real union. Because we are.”
Elodie stares at me for several anxious thuds of my heart before her gaze sweeps over the room once more. “I… I wouldn’t have expected—I know how tight things have usually been for you, financially?—”
“Don’t worry about that. I arranged tonight mostly with magic rather than money.”
Cosgrave clicks his tongue. “Look at the professor thumbing his nose at the law.”
I scowl at him. “If you’re allowed to murder people onher behalf, I think I can justify a little light fraud.”
It’s far from the worst thing I’ve done in my life.
Worth looks vaguely chagrinned, as if it never occurred to him that my bank account is only a fraction the size of his and now he’s second-guessing his involvement in this scheme. But he keeps his mouth shut.
“Youdid all this for me,” Elodie says, and her disbelieving emphasis on that first word almost kills me.
I meet her gaze and answer as earnestly as I’m capable of. “I have a lot to make up for. You deserve this. You have to believe that we’re all here for you, and that we can have your backtogether. You’re never alone, not now, not ever again.”