Jayson was looking at him now the way he had looked at him at twenty-one in the ballroom at the Montage. He was trying to disarm Piper.
Piper held the look. He did not care about the outcome.
“There was a boy at a pool house when I was twenty-one.”
Jayson let the statement sit.
“I never knew his name, but after we met, he was dead. You did to him what you have been doing to me.”
Something in Jayson’s face moved.
Jayson’s hand went into his coat pocket.
Piper saw the gun in the corner of his eye approaching his temple.
“You have taken everything from me, just fucking kill me!” Piper shouted. “Do it, Jayson, do it, I would rather be dead than owned.”
Jayson held the gun to Piper’s head, pressing in hard. His face turned a darker shade of red as he unlocked the safety. His hand showed the slightest tremble as he squeezed the gun.
“Piper, you brought this upon yourself. You are just like others. I gave you everything. You would be fucking nothing without me!” Jayson yelled as the tremor in his hand increased.
Piper thought this was theater, that Jayson was teaching him another lesson.
Piper felt a surge of adrenaline in his system. With his forehead pressed against the gun, he leaned back and thrust forward catching Jayson off guard.
The gun dropped to the ground. Piper’s eyes went straight to the floor and he knew in that split second that it was his turn.
Piper grabbed the gun, the safety still off and pointed it at Jayson. His hand shook as he held the gun tightly.
“You would never shoot me, Piper,” Jayson said as he stared at his gun now in Piper’s hands.
Piper raised the gun to the Lalique chandelier overhead, and fired. The shot pierced the base and the entire chandelier came crashing down to the floor, shattering across the marble. Piper didn’t flinch as the crystal spread.
“No. But I’ll shoot that fucking chandelier you gave me for my 27th birthday. Now get the fuck out of my house. I am not signing.”
“Piper, I’m not afraid of you,” Jayson said, half his body buried beneath glittering crystal shards worth thousands.
Piper heard it first, the side door slowly opened. Christian Louboutin hitting Italian marble like a chorus. Vivienne had a Glock and pressed it against the back of Jayson’s head.
“Look, I have no problem fucking killing the most famous tech billionaire on earth, but I would rather destroy you when you are still breathing. That’s my game, girlfriend, not lights out,” she said, pressing the gun harder.
“You know there is a rather large file on you, that is just waiting to be released. Money can only buy your creepy ass so much protection,” Vivienne said, twisting her Glock into the back of Jayson’s head.
“Vivienne, you are playing way above your weight class here. I will find whatever this file is and it will never see the light of day,” Jayson replied.
“The world loves to burn a sexual predator, Jayson, and it will be my pleasure watching you get burned at the stake.” She pressed the gun deeper into the back of his head.
Vivienne pointed to the door with her free hand.
Jayson looked into Piper's eyes and then at the gun he pointed back at his face. “This conversation is not over. I hope you both know what you have started.”
Vivienne set her Birkin down on the floor, which she would never normally do.
“You heard Piper…get the fuck out.”
Jayson slowly backed up as Vivienne held the gun at him. Piper held the gun steady at Jayson.
“You never owned me, Jayson. You rented,” Piper said, squeezing the gun tighter in his hands.
