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One With You Chapter 3
Gideon takes Eva home and tries to go upstairs with her. Eva protests because if there’s a bed nearby, she won’t be able to resist temptation. After much whining about their circumstances of waiting until their fake wedding to sleep together again, Gideon agrees to go to his own place. Bye, Gideon.
Cary and Eva have a heart to heart when she gets in. Cary has told Tatiana (his baby-mama) that he’s not going to move in with her. I’m relieved it sounds like Cary is pursuing Trey and not just moving in with Tatiana because of their baby. Eva points out he can be a good dad even if they’re not living together and reminds us what an asshole Tatiana is.
Tatiana is apparently threatening to get an abortion if Cary doesn’t live with her. Calling this manipulative feels like an understatement. Eva volunteers to talk to Tatiana, which makes no sense to Cary or even Eva herself.
“I’m not a fan,” I admitted. “But I can work around that. A woman-to-woman talk—if it’s done right—could help. It really couldn’t make things worse, right?” I hesitated before saying more. I meant well, but my good intentions did sound naïve.
Ya think? Not only is Ea not a fan of Tatiana, but it’s been abundantly clear that Tatiana dislikes Eva too. It’s unclear what magical words Eva is going to say that will open Tatiana’s heart and mind. Maybe start with lunch and work your way from there.
One might think that this conversation could only go in a more sensible direction, but this is the Crossfire series, so instead it devolves into convoluted explanations about enemies and their malicious plans and how Eva must retaliate. Eva sounds so unhinged that Cary comes out of it looking like the level-headed one of their duo.
It starts innocently enough, with Eva proclaiming she wants to be a force to be reckoned with because she and Gideon have enemies.
“…Geoffrey Cross left behind a lot of people who want some payback from his son. And Gideon’s made his own enemies, like the Lucases.”
“The who?”
I wrinkled my nose. “The bat-shit Anne Lucas and her equally insane husband.” Then it hit me. “Oh my God, Cary! I didn’t tell you. About the redhead you messed around with at that dinner a few weeks back. That was Anne Lucas.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
I don’t think I have ever enjoyed Cary more than this moment where he just gives 0 fucks about this nonsense. The great thing is that he never gets on board. Like I can assure you, there is no upcoming moment where this clicks into place for him. He’s consistently just like WHO/WHO CARES/WUT???
“Remember when I asked you to run a search on Dr. Terrence Lucas? Anne is his wife.”
Cary’s confusion was obvious.
Even I remember when Cary basically just Googled this guy and that was his only plot point in an entire book. I guess he must have actually had a lot of other stuff happening off-screen.
It only gets more enjoyable/Eva only gets increasingly confusing:
I couldn’t go into how Terry Lucas had examined Gideon as a child and lied about finding signs of sexual trauma. He’d done so in order to shield his brother-in-law, Hugh, from prosecution. I would never understand how he could do that, no matter how much he loved his wife. As for Anne, Gideon had slept with her to get back at her husband, but her physical resemblance to her brother had led to sexual depravity that haunted Gideon. He’d punished Anne for the sins of her brother, leaving both himself and her mentally warped in the process.
Omg dat summary…but I think we all actually did need that reminder. Thanks, Cary!
That left Gideon and me with two very vicious enemies to contend with.
I explained as much as I could. “The Lucases have this whole twisted history thing with Gideon that I can’t get into, but it’s no coincidence that you two ended up together that night. She planned it that way.”
“Why?”
GOOD QUESTION, BUD. I have read ahead in the book, and I still cannot answer that question. But Eva tries:
“Because she’s nuts and she knows it’ll fuck with my head.”
“Why the hell would you care who I tangle with?”
“Cary … I always care.”
No, this still doesn’t add up, Eva.
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Suddenly, “Hanging by a Moment” starts playing, which is Eva’s ringtone for Gideon because of that time he sang it to her at karaoke. What a way to undermine this “intense” moment with Cary.
“But in this case, it’s the calculation behind it. You weren’t just some random hot fling. She targeted you specifically because you’re my best friend.”
“I’m not seeing how that accomplishes anything.”
“It’s flipping the bird at Gideon. Getting his attention is what she wants more than anything.”
Cary arched a brow. “The whole thing sounds loopy, but whatever. I ran into her again not too long ago.”
Hahahaha his refusal to get on board with this conversation is my favourite thing ever. Is this Sylvia Day’s way of quietly apologising/acknowledging to us that she just didn’t know what the fuck else to write this book?
Cary just bumped into Anne and they said hi. Also, Detective Eva figures some crazy shit out:
I nodded grimly. Anne wore her hair cropped and I’d never seen a picture of her otherwise. She’d worn a wig when she pursued Cary at the dinner, which had thrown me off and hidden her from Gideon.
Maybe it was a new style for her.
Or maybe it was another indication that she had special plans when it came to Cary.
I think this is all supposed to be very sinister because Eva freaks out and tells Gideon to come to the apartment and bring security.
But why is Anne wearing a wig to stalk (?) Cary when he doesn’t know what she usually looks like? What is any of this meant to accomplish?
Gideon and the body guard crew show up, and Eva explains the situation. They agree Cary should have security looking after him too. Eva informs us that Cary “looked ready to tackle a nap”, so clearly the stakes have never been higher.
Later, Eva decides the best course of action will be to confront Anne herself so she knows she can’t mess with her and that she and Gideon are a team.
“I don’t want to reason with her, ace. She’s targeting my friends, and she thinks I’m a weak spot for you. She needs to know I’m not helpless, and that by taking you on, she’s taking on both of us.”
“She’s my problem. I’ll deal with her.”
“If you’ve got a problem, Gideon, it’s my problem, too. Listen. Operation Gideva is in full effect now.”
Ah, so that’s the official couple name. Cool, got it. More importantly, this seems like a terrible plan. Gideon agrees with me, but Eva insists.
“…An ambush, so to speak. That’ll shake her a little, to find me lying in wait. Will she go on the defensive or take the offense? We’ll get insight from her reaction, and we need it.”
Now that Eva is leaving her job, she will be able to dedicate herself full-time to plotting various ambushes against her foes.
“We’ll sit down together to work out the logistics of when and where. We’ll need Raúl to get a handle on her routine. By definition, an ambush is unexpected, but it should happen somewhere she feels safe and comfortable, too. Give her a nice jolt.” I shrugged. “She’s laid down the ground rules. We’re just taking her cue.”
I am seriously concerned about this. I know Anne is meant to be a pretty gross character…but Eva is worrying me.
The next day is Eva’s last day of work because she gave basically no notice period. Rude. I suppose if you look at the pace at which things move in this world, maybe one day is like two weeks in this book, so it’s all okay. The chapter ends with Eva’s friends throwing her a goodbye party, and Gideon even shows up!
This chapter has my favorite version of Cary so far. I think his reluctance to get on with the program is because he’s too nice to call Eva out for thinking that everything’s about her, even down to the random person that he’d fucked with one time in a public restroom (I think that was where Cary and Anne had been, right?)