Page 76 of Ballrooms & Blackmail

“Done?” he asks quietly.

“Yup.”

“God, you’re even buying your own bullshit, aren’t you?”

I’m not.

But it’s still better this way.

“Did you even listen to a word of what I said last night?”

I did.

Of course, I fucking did.

So much so that I’d almost convinced myself to tell her everything.

Then reality smacked me right across the temple.

I reach into my pocket, pull out my cell, and scroll to the message chain—to the texts I received last night, the texts I got at the vet’s office, to the text I got a fucking hour ago—and toss it to him.

He’s quiet for a moment, reading. Then he sighs and tosses it back. “You believe this shit?”

“Believe that Sergio will leave her alone if I cooperate?” I snort. “Fuck no.”

But it was the universe giving me a timely reminder that I can’t have soft things, can’t have nice things, can’t have the things, the people that I love.

They’ll take it away.

“They poisoned Violet,” I say.

“Bullshit,” Pascal says.

“You know it’s true. They got in here somehow. They got her sick?—”

“Again,” he says, “Bullshit.”

“You can’t be sure?—”

“I am. Your apartment has been under surveillance since the moment we knew you were bringing River here. There’s no way anyone got in to hurt Violet.”

“You saw the text.”

“I saw some idiot trying to claim responsibility for something they couldn’t have done.”

“When River and I left yesterday your team followed us. There was opportunity?—”

“We had eyes here too, Thorn. I knew the women were coming over, so I didn’t leave an opening for the Lyons. You don’t believe me? Fine. But I have the footage. You can watch it for yourself, see that Sergio’s a lying fuck.”

“It doesn’t matter if he’s lying or not.”

“No?”

“Nope.” I clench my jaw. “Because he’s right about enough of it.”

“Ah,” Pascal says, leaning back against the couch.

“Ah what?” I grit out.