Bea’s brows shot up. “Wait. Hear me out.”
“No.”
The word hit the air like a crack of lightning.
Bea pulled the tie of her robe tighter. “You said this was going to be a conversation. ‘No’ is literally the opposite of hearing me out.”
Rafael shoved the sleeves of his training jacket up his forearms, the motion abrupt. His body was already heating up. She was calm, which meant her argument was already loaded. “I’m saving us both time.”
She planted both hands on the rail. “That line is significantly more annoying coming from a husband than a boss.”
“When it comes to you, I’m both.”
Bea opened her mouth. Closed it again. He felt her ire rise like heat off asphalt. She was small, but something in her dark eyes said she was calculating whether she could throw him over the railing. “That’s not the flex you think it is.”
“You’re asking me to sit there while a man who tried to blackmail you puts you under studio lights and invites the world to dissect you.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” she asked evenly. “That I would walk in unprepared?”
“Iknowyou’d be prepared. You prepare for everything. But he’s been doing this longer and he’d be careful.”
Bea shook her head. “I researched. His numbers in the past couple of years have been collapsing. Viewership, sponsorships, social traction. He’s bleeding now.”
Of course she had. She was a regular Enola Holmes.
“Heneedsthis interview,” she continued. “That’s why he risked coming to the UR in the first place. He’ll agree to any terms we set.”
“Between GV, Dao Strategic Forensics, and the Ministry, we can get most of what you want. Fox ends and we publish the evidence online.”
“It won’t get the views,” Bea said immediately. “I’mthe carrot.”
She wanted to be bait.
Somewhere in Rafael’s lower back, a muscle seized in response as his mind skipped straight to the ending of that plan.
Bait was the part of the trap that got eaten.
“Since our engagement announcement, we’ve had two dozen interview offers aweek. The world wants me to say something. Which means we’ll get way more attention that way and it’ll spread faster.”
True.
He didn’t say it.
“‘Silence invites fiction.’ Those were your words, remember?”
Rafael had the sudden urge to go back in time and gag his past self.
Bea’s hair whipped around her face, cheeks flushed from the cold air. “We let Fox think he’s bringing them my story. Instead we’ll give the world his.”
Her robe slipped open at the collar, silk visible underneath. A distraction he didn’t need while she was winning the disagreement with a spectacularly bad idea.
“So your proposal,” he said slowly, “is that I should hand my wife over as the lure for the entire world so a desperate man can have the spotlight.”
“Yes.” Bea nodded. “Exactly.”
The audacity might have been admirable if it weren’t directed at him. His pulse kicked hard enough to echo in his ears. “Fuck no.”
Her expression turned mulish. “I want your protection. Not your permission.”
