LN Cronan

 

Good morning, ladies in the States and afternoon ladies in Europe. Up for fun today is Chapter 11.  I remember how much buzz this snapshot generated in late April when it first went up, the U.K. fans quickly identifying the car as an Aston. 

 

The original idea behind the thread was to stick to just the chapter per day plus anything before it, but as the plots are now twisting quickly, the thread started to evolve yesterday into a re-read a day, picking up on stuff coming further up in the book, and that's OK, because increasingly the plot is moving more quickly. Kinda like this DB9

 

Sylvia loves hearing favorite quotes or paragraphs

Favorite Eva line from Chapter 10 - "I'm tired of Nathan running my life. I'm working toward that fresh start." More New Eva -- and it must have soothed something inside Gideon to know that he did more than save her life, he gave her a new life free from fear of Nathan.

 

Second favorite (talking to Stanton): "You and me, we're both guilty of tiptoeing around Mom -- Oh no, don't upset Monica! -- because we'd rather just five in than deal with her meltdowns. But that's emotional extortion, Richard, and I'm done paying out." More New Eva.

 

Favorite Gideon line: "Tell me what to do." What I'm terming "Growing Gideon" -- asking Eva what she needs (in this case, from him regarding what to do next about her father, now that her father knew about the rapes.

He's definitely got a taste for some elements of BDSM.

I'm convinced that at one point in their relationship all those years ago, Corrine wore a collar. She did a weird stroking on her throat, like she was touching a necklace that used to be there, the night she met Eva. At the time, she was feeding Eva lines about how Gideon was so possessive it frightened her when she was younger. Eva thought it was strange. So do I.

The question is - whose idea was the collar. Corrine did the pursuing and the seducing. Was she the one encouraging Gideon's need for control by introducing BDSM elements? As part of her desperation to hold onto him.

Gideon told Eva the dealbreaker for Corrine had been his refusal to spend overnights with her. Corrine's version of the dealbreaker -- the tale she fed Eva anyway -- was that Gideon's possessiveness scared her at the time. My own theory was that Corrine finally figured out their sex life was just f***** in a hotel room, probably some kinky stuff (collar? toys? restraints?) It was NOT making love.

LN you will love Man of Steel, I loved it so much, Henry Cavill is amazing in it and when you first see him in that suit, Oh Boy I think I combusted there on the seat LOL, he is just dripping sex in that suit.  Henry gives so many different emotions in this film and there is a part in there that I just felt he acted like Gideon would have done with Eva at a low point, it was just so good,  I hope you enjoy it

I'm seeing a matinee showing of the film tomorrow. SQUEEE!!!!

I think that Gedeon won't ever discuss openly the murder with Eva because in doing so he would make her an accomplice. Eva isn't going to tell anthing to Cary for the very same reason.

Eva already knows she is now is an accessory. As a cop's daughter, she knew that helping to collude to cover up a crime (something she recognizes in her head in Chapter One that is exactly what she's doing) does make her an accessory. As soon as she decided to help protect him from the police, she committed a crime herself.

Gideon also has repeatedly admitted to killing. He doesn't like to talk about it -- can't say that I blame him -- and he tries to avoid even saying Nathan's name in front of Eva.

You're right about her refusing to tell Cary the truth. In fact, I believe she won't ever tell him the truth. Even if he guesses it (and he's bound to some day) she'd never confirm it. To do so would put Cary in the position of having the decide whether to do the "legal" right thing (turn them in to the police) or the actual right thing, to protect them by keeping the secret. But protecting them would make him an accessory too.

The less people who know for dead certain (pun intended) the better. At this point, the only person we readers know for certain actually has been told the truth by Gideon is Eva. If Angus and/or Clancy helped during the killing itself or by stealing evidence from the murder scene (the bracelet and some stalking photos) afterward also know.

That's what Gideon is worried about now. That bracelet was on the body when he left Nathan. So whoever took the bracelet must know what Gideon did.

I've never tried audiobooks before but you ladies are unintentionally convincing me to give it a try!

You don't need to buy CDs nor own an iPod to listen to audiobooks, either. You can listen to them on a computer just like songs.

Those of you ladies who own Kindle Fire models? You can listen to them on those. In fact, audible.com is owned by Amazon. (And no, I am not writing some free ad for audible I love the iTunes store, too, but I definitely buy my audiobooks from audible.

In fact .... audible regularly runs a special to let new users try one book for free, a way for the company to let prospective new customers try out the service for themselves. Sooooo ... never downloaded an audiobook before? Maybe try a freebie copy of Entwined from audible, see how you like it ... I'll bet you go back and buy Bared and Reflected too! Be warned though, Reflected is even more of a tear-jerker on audiobook.

Amber is exactly my pic, but you're right about the bod. Gideon is a boobs and butt man. Lol

Gideon has a taste for light spanking -- NOT the pain-inflicting Christian Grey version, but he'd definitely like to go down the road of some more love pats. And as Cary told Eva very early in Bared to You, "spanking's not deviant." That crack by Cary was at their apartment shortly after the infamous B.O.B. phone conversation between Gideon and Eva when she insulted his "intelligence" (wounded his male pride actually) to the point where he threatened to spank her if she did it again.

Hiya

I've just downloaded the audio version, listening to it now.

The way some scenes are read, puts a different spin on the story.

An audiobook does add a new dimension to a story, especially about the dialog -- the words that characters say aloud. I kinda compare it to listening to a phone message versus reading someone's email. Hearing the words being said aloud makes certain things jump out.

The main reason I've become almost a walking encyclopedia of the series thus far comes from both listening to the books several times as well as re-reading them a couple of times. More stuff jumps out hearing the narrator say things.

Bomer looks young. Hes in. Lol. I just think he doesn't have the 'warrior' physique that Gideon is supposed to have. Bomer's always been my Christian Gray, though Slvia reminded me that Christian is a dark red-head. We can fix all this!

Ah, if we could only transplant Hollywood faces and bodies. In the speculation race to play Eva, Amber Heard seems to be winning the popularity contest. Supporters see her as the "face" of Eva. But quite frankly, her body isn't curvy enough. Scarlett Johannsen has a body like Eva's.

Though I suspect she did know about the pregnancy, I'll play devil's advocate here for a minute and say "what if she hadn't known -- yet. What would she have done once she did find out?

Terminate the pregnancy, even though finding a care provider willing to perform one past 12 weeks wouldn't be easy (clinics and hospitals in the United States are run by private companies and/or non-profits, so individual institutions get to decide what, if any, abortion services they will provide.)Obviously, it wasn't a planned pregnancy to begin with. And Corrine wouldn't want any sort of "complication" diminishing her chances of becoming Mrs. Gideon Cross. She at least knew Gideon well enough to guess that if Gideon did know she was carrying Jean-Francois' baby, he'd urge her to go back to her husband -- and Mr. Control Freak Gideon would dump her to try to "make" her do it.

Matt Boemer does have an amazing set of blue eyes too. He is a little old for the part, yes, as a 30-something, but if we can't have Henry (and it looks like Warner Brothers is going to "steel" him away (punny ) well then, there are other Hollywood hotties out there.

This is also the chapter you hear a phone conversation I can only assume is with his attorney to draw up the prenup!

That or playing hard-ball about the proposed pay-off to Ian; a private settlement in return for him signing a non-disclosure agreement to keep his mouth shut about being punched in the face (i.e. no talking to Deanna Johnson). Putting pressure on the other side by essentially threatening "shut up and sign or the settlement is going bye-bye, because some reporter is already sniffing around and could break a story any day. If the story does end up breaking, then Ian isn't getting a cent. If anything, I might sue him and the reporter both for libel, financially destroying the pair of them."

When I listened to that scene on audiobook, it came across as Gideon being a hard a.s.s. It's why Eva, I think, backed out of his home office and "left him to it."

LN do you think Graves did this trip on her own dime?

If she travelled out to California, it wasn't on her own dime, I firmly believe. She was still actively investigating the murder case (we'd find out more later in the novel.)

For one thing, paying to fly out to California and staying at a hotel wouldn't be cheap, and cops do not make a lot of money. Not even homicide detectives. At her level, she'd make enough to be middle class, but never rich. And Victor, as a regular street cop, would make even less money.

Guys like Angus and Clancy (and Raul, too) on the other hand get paid VERY handsomely in the private sector as private bodyguards to ultra-wealthy VIPs.

Like lots of other posters, I had my own set of theories of what was going to come up in Entwined. Some turned out to be way off, because of clever plots twists I never could have anticipated, and some were partially right. One theory I nailed on the head came true in this chapter, concerning Gideon and Corrine.

I just knew it about him deliberately leading Corrine on by sending her mixed messages, lying to her not in word but rather in deed. Acting in a way that had her believing they were going somewhere. Cold-stone using her. Because it was to protect Eva. Too much was riding on things. Did he feel bad about what he was doing? Of course. But he did it anyway. He was willing to do anything to save Eva, and that included deliberately manipulating Corrine.

I also guessed correctly that whatever guilt Gideon had been feeling would be negated when he ultimately found out exactly how dirty Corrine was playing, how ruthlessly she'd tried to manipulate Eva's weaknesses. As soon as Eva told him exactly what happened outside Corrine's apartment, including the fact the "nooner" stunt HAD been deliberate, Gideon's reaction to the news was a then-and-there decision he never wanted to speak to Corrine again.

Of course, it proved to turn out to be more complicated than that .... but that would be jumping ahead to later chapters, stuff I couldn't have seen coming.

Coming back to this particular chapter, Victor started doing his own digging that Friday night after Eva shut herself in her room. He was the one who showed Eva proof Gideon was with Corrine. Victor didn't have to come out and say "cheater" -- Eva's own reaction confirmed for him, watching with his cops' eyes the agony cross Eva's face (as what went through her mind was -- Gideon saw the rape photos, "it has to be this way" cannot be with her anymore, he's definitely f***** Corrine now, they probably went at it all night together after the party, heading right up stairs to the fully-stocked f*** pad.)

 

I think he honestly flew back to San Diego on Sunday, though. He's a regular street cop, not someone who could afford to hang out in New York City for nearly three weeks running his own private investigation. Besides, wherever Eva had been living during the years she was being raped, it wasn't New York. The summer the Crossfire story unfolds was the first time Eva lived in New York City.

 

So it had to have been somewhere else. Perhaps that somewhere else might have been somewhere in California. 

Hi Gigi.

Someone stated that Cary could have let things slip, while under the medication for his pain.

 

Or even slip post-coital, when he was most relaxed. I can see T.w.a.t.i.a.n.a. very subtly plying Cary for information on Gideon Cross. Plus, Cary would have been more likely to trash the man after Eva dumped him -- especially based on what happened Friday night during the family dinner. Cary was the one supporting -- literally supporting when she came near to fainting -- Eva when the detectives started talking about Nathan being in New York. Gideon stood there on the other side of the room, wouldn't even look at Eva, and was deliberately being evasive about his own whereabouts Thursday. Like Victor discovered, a check of the Internet would have revealed a very cozy picture of Gideon and Corrine out as a couple on Thursday.

Monica comes across as the sort of woman willing to take a temporary position (rich man's mistress) while hunting for a permanent position (rich man's wife).

 

Mr. Barker (Nathan's father and her first husband) was a widower, and so as ruthless and/or desperate as Monica can be, her first marriage didn't involve stealing another woman's man (like the married Corrine was willing to attempt to do.) 

 

Among the needs Barker has was to find a stepmother for Nathan, therefore, it was naturally easy for him to be willing to become a step-parent in return to Eva.

However Victor found out about Nathan being a rapist, it appears it was Sunday morning at the police station where he works. On the phone early Saturday afternoon, when their weekly father-daughter phone call got cut short and Eva promised to call him Sunday, he told her "I may have to stop by the station in the morning, but you can reach me on my cell no matter what. I love you." (page 119)

 

1. He was his usual happy self on Saturday. On Sunday, he was angry, practically crying, and was dropping everything to fly to New York as soon as he could arrange it. Given the dramatic change, there's no way he'd been sitting on the knowledge for two-plus weeks. He's not that good of an actor. He was a devastated Dad who found out Sunday and lost it.
2. It was before 8 a.m. local time in California he started phoning Eva's cell phone repeatedly. She missed three calls because she was sleeping in late, having been up almost all night. He also started calling Monica, because by the time Eva did check her phone, Monica was trying to reach her too. He'd even tried Eva's apartment or Cary's cell phone, because Cary sent Eva a shouting text message CALL ME. More indication it was early Sunday morning local time Victor found out.
3. Courts aren't open on weekends, so we can rule out Victor managing to somehow pull Nathan's juvenile crime records Sunday morning. 
4. So how did he find out Sunday morning, apparently at his station house? And how did he know Saturday afternoon he "might" need to stop by the station the next morning?

 

My theory - Detective Graves (or possibly her partner, Detective Mincha) flew to San Diego and had a quiet cop-to-cop meeting during a quiet time at the precinct house on Sunday morning. One or the other (perhaps both) called him Saturday to say they were coming out. What they'd have to say was too sensitive to speak about over the phone, nor would it be discrete mailing copies (someone else could open the envelope -- and besides, there's no mail delivery anyway on Sunday) or to fax the material (someone else could see the pages coming off the machine.)

In just one week, we've had nearly as many views of this thread as in almost two months of the re-read thread covering Bared to You and Entwined with You. The records keep falling. Love it!

Angel of Mine

Devious Deanna Johnson

Creepy Christopher Vidal Jr.

Lizard Lizzie/Elizabeth Vidal

Conniving Corrine Giroux

Tat (or if we've being truly snarky, T.w.a.t) Tatiana Cherlin

 

The list is growing. More bad guy/girls up for grabs.

I've got another idea along your lines, Julie -- mistress. She found some rich and powerful man to keep her as his woman on the side. 

 

She's been pragmatic with Eva about the fact that when it comes to rich and powerful men, they're often married to their careers, and their wives get what time they can spare. 

 

In case where such men keep mistresses, often it is the mistress that gets the quality spare time. The wife gets to have fun spending money.

 

We're up to Chapter 10 on the chapter by chapter review. Everything this chapter and everything before it is open for discussion, speculation, dissection and obsession!! Favorite lines and paragraphs welcome!

Hi LN

I wonder if chris Vidal has had a visit from our resident journalist? How much dirt could he let slip on Gideon without it affecting their business? After all he(Gideon)is the main shareholder.

 

Time for a new nickname. We have Lizard for Lizzie and Mommica for Monica. I propose Creepy for Christopher Vidal Jr.

 

 

I'm certain Creepy Christopher Jr. has been talking to Deanna Johnson. The one thing Deanna did get right thus far is Eva was caught in Brett's arms and Gideon physically attacked Brett because of it. Deanna spoke to someone who was there, contact details she could have gotten from Creepy.

 

Gideon is a smart businessman and he knows a scandal involving "Golden" wouldn't be good for business. Creepy, however, isn't a smart businessman, which is why Vidal Records was going down the tubes and needed bailing out by Gideon. Creepy can't stand his brother, and he's have loved a scandal portraying Gideon as some violently jealous nutjob, even at the expense of Eva, who would have been painted as some cheater who kept provoking Gideon's assaults on other men. 

 

Creepy wouldn't consider the consequences to Vidal Records -- or he wouldn't care even if he did consider it. It'd be worth more to him to see Gideon's glamorous celebrity image, that Christopher is so jealous of, trashed. I fear Creepy does know about the Eva-Brett sex tape and has already told Lizard about it.

Ladies, several thoughts came to mind last night.

 

Why don't the Vidals go to these charity dinners.  Gideon and Eva have been to 3 in 3 months.  The Advocacy Dinner (their first date)

Gideon gave a speech.  That should have been in the news.  Son, why do you talk about child abuse?  questions questions  maybe they don't care

 

also, Gideon called Eva  (page 44) at her office.  we don't know if she has a direct line (don't think so)  so if Megumi transferred the call to Eva, surprised she didn't ask who that was; unless Scott made the call or Angus.  so even if Gideon used the burner phone, the call still came to her office phone.

 

in the pre-nup it stated that it would cost Gideon considerably if he cheated.  so what if Eva cheated?  what would happen....we don't want our lovebirds to cheat in the first place, but just thinking out loud.

 

can't wait for the new snippets and of course book 4  (wish we had a title)

 

Christopher Vidal did go to the first one, the advocacy center dinner. He asked Eva to dance and tried hitting on her. Lizzie (and probably safe to say Chris Sr.) were at the third event, the one at the very end of Entwined. Given that Gideon has generally avoided his family, it's probably pure chance that they sometimes show up at some events.

 

Eva answers her boss Mark's direct line. Gideon has called that line directly before repeatedly. Everything from pestering her that first week when he was still trying to seduce her (the infamous "B.O.B." conversation) to calling her up to yell at her for leaving the Crossfire for lunch the day before Nathan was killed, the week Gideon had been trying to order Eva to stay in.) In Entwined, it would be safe for Gideon to call the direct line with a burner phone. Monica has called the direct line too, as has Cary. Brett obviously didn't have her direct line, because she'd have had no reason to give it to him. So he must have called the main office telephone number, which he could have gotten off the Internet or from directory assistance. Part of Megumi's job is to answer that main number.