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“Vivian sent him.” Lucas folds his arms over his chest. “I’m not sure what bullshit he was telling you, but she wasn’t going to stop until she had everything, and to get that, she needed you gone.”
I try to remember what he told me. My memory is all so jumbled.
“He was talking about marriage, but it didn’t feel right. It felt like he was lying.”
“That was never going to happen,” Colt explains. “Vivian was never going to let you marry him. It was all for publicity. To get the public and the cops to believe your disappearance had everything to do with you not wanting the marriage, and not her greed.”
“I don’t understand. My father left her money. Why would she want me out of the way?”
“Your father left his business to you. It houses several smaller businesses that are used to launder his illegal income streams. She needed that, plus all the cash he left.”
“She wanted me dead because of money?” How much she must hate me to put money over my life? “I would have given her money if she needed it.”
“Not enough.” Lucas picks up my hand and squeezes. “She was fueled by her hatred, greed, and jealousy. Nothing you could have said or offered would have changed her. Nothing would have chased the evil from that woman.”
I know he’s right. She never showed me an ounce of kindness, but for my father’s sake, I ignored it. I made myself small in her presence so she would have the space she wanted. But none of it was enough.
“Wait. You said was.” I search Lucas’ eyes. “Is she gone too?”
“She was with him, Seraphina,” Colt explains.
“The drug he used on your lips was only to knock you out. She was there; you didn’t see her, but she was there with a knife. Ready to finish.” Colt stops. His jaw clenches. “I shot twice, Seraphina. One for her, then one for him.”
I nod, lower my eyes to my hands. I’m shaking.
They’d come to kill me.
Over money.
How many others will come?
“I don’t want it.” I clear my throat. “I want the company gone. I’ll give it to anyone else who wants it. Maybe Joey Catrone. He was always good friends with my father.”
Lucas squeezes my hand. Seth walks around the men and sits on the other side of me.
“Whatever you want to do with it, is fine. We’ll get it done,” Seth vows, grabbing my hand. “It’s all your call. Everything.”
“Everything?” I meet the gaze of each man. “I can decide to leave?”
They frown.
“I can decide to stay?”
Hope glimmers in their expressions.
“And if I stay, I’ll belong here? I’ll belong to…”
“Us,” Dylan finishes for me, firmly. “You belong to all of us. If that’s what you want.”
I swallow. So much has happened in such a small time. Death. Betrayal.
And out of it all comes the one thing I was sure I’d never find…
True love. With seven men.
“I want to stay,” I say, decisively. “But I don’t want to be locked away here. I want to be part of the team.”
They exchange glances.
