Chapter 99

As soon as she stepped inside, Inez felt like she had come to a completely different place. Though she did follow the boys to Esper once when she was just fourteen or fifteen, she was taken out of the building very quickly, for Dominic got angry at her for coming to a place like this.
Back then, she thought that it was because Dominic was really protective of her, but now she had a feeling that he did it because he just saw her as his possession. Maybe the thought of her watching men and women grinding against one another and getting all hot and bothered seemed to stifle the man.
No wonder; he often stopped her when she tried to get close to other men. Even though he continued to reject her feelings for him, he refused to let her move on either. Inez didn’t understand his actions in the past, but now she did and boy, how she hated it.
Inez looked around the bar and finally found the man for whom she was looking. Once she found him, her face blanched because she saw the man letting a woman grind against him. And from the looks of it, they might as well be doing that underneath the tablecloth.
Was her father really a hooker who cheated with multiple women?
A bit worried and looking as if she had seen a ghost, Inez walked towards the stool that was right behind the table where Jared was sitting. However, Inez soon stepped out of her daze, as she told herself again and again that she simply suspected the man and thought that he was her father, but that didn’t make him one.
She first needed to gather information on what he did, who this woman was, and what kind of relationship he shared with her mother. Once she had gotten enough information, she would confront the man about what he did.
She had waited years to face her father and question him regarding the things that he had done; she could wait for a few more weeks.
“Young lady, would you like something to cheer you up?” the bartender asked her when he saw that Inez looked as pale as chalk. One look at Inez and he could see that the woman was not in a good place at that moment. As he wanted to help her out, he was quite polite and gentle with her.
“Sure.” Inez felt nauseous and thought that a little drink would be able to cheer her up.
It didn’t take more than a few minutes for the bartender to serve her her drink, which Inez took and then took a sip from. The drink was indeed quite good, but something made Inez put it down only after taking a few sips from it, as she felt her stomach churn even more when she finished swallowing it.
She listened to the conversation of the man behind her and frowned when she heard the nasty details. It seemed like both Jared and the woman had partners, and yet they were cheating on them. But what brought her attention was the fact that Jared confessed that he was not a shifter. If he was not a shifter, then was he a siren?
Did he lie to her mother like he was lying to the young woman?
Was that how he charmed her mother into having an affair with him? Inez wondered.
She was lost in thought and didn’t even notice that a man had come to sit next to her. It was only when she smelled the familiar scent that she choked and turned to look at the man sitting right next to her.
It was Luca. And why he was sitting next to her – this was something that Inez couldn’t even fathom. Her eyes swivelled around and she found Dominic, Blake and Tao sitting right behind Luca. In her hurry to find out more about Jared, she was like a blind cat chasing a mouse. She didn’t even look around her and was only fixated on her goal.
“Hello there,” she heard Luca say. The man was blocking her view as he looked at her, with his hand resting behind her chair. “If you don’t mind, can I sit next to you? It seems like you are sitting here alone, looking quite pitiful.”
At first, Inez didn’t understand why the man was treating her in this manner, but then she recalled that she was no longer the Inez Sinclair these men knew, but a completely strange woman.
Her back straightened on her as she looked at the man next to her. Her eyes studied Luca carefully and with a hint of annoyance, for she couldn’t understand why this man had come to disturb her.
But then again, Luca was the kind of man who would flirt with any woman. As long as he got laid, he truly didn’t care about anything else.
Inez raised her glass and turned to look away from him. She said to him, “No, thank you.” As charming as Luca was, she had no desire to sleep with him.
She knew that by coming to this bar, she had caused trouble for herself. Now she was like a little lamb in the middle of countless wolves who were looking at her with covetous gazes.
“Woah, this is the first time someone has refused me,” he said with a wink at Inez as if she were simply trying to play hard to get with him. Of course, he thought that. Inez knew that there was not a single woman who would refuse to sleep with someone as good-looking as Luca.
But having grown up with him for so long, Inez would take off her hat if Luca could use his charm on her. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ
“There is always a first.” Having wasted her time, Inez knew that there was no point in staying in the pub any longer. With Luca sitting beside her, it would be surprising if she could get even a small piece of evidence against Jared. She got to leave, but—