Asher smiled. “I might actually know just the place. I’ll text you the address, but you’re not allowed to go by until after this shit is settled. I don’t need to lose my sales because of you.”
“No problem. One more thing. If you find out any confirmed information that Cameron’s behind this, let me have him. We have plenty of history and I would like to be the one to get rid of him.”
“No problem. Easier for me if he’s dead and I don’t have to clean up. Does this have anything to do with you fucking around with his daughter?”
I headed back towards the elevator, turning back to him.
“I’m not fucking around with his daughter. I don’t care who she is to him. She’s mine, and he just threatened to take her away.”
Thirty-Five
Regan
The party tonight was one more that I would go to alone. My dad had texted me earlier that he wouldn’t be home for a few more days, but for the first time, I didn’t care if I had to go alone. I preferred it.
I clipped the diamond necklace around my neck. The pink heart pendant that Rook gave me hung perfectly with the string of diamonds. I pulled my shoulders back, taking a longer look at myself in the mirror.
For the first time in my life, I felt like a grown woman. I felt ready to not shrink back and not hide away. I wanted to be seen and feared.
And I would be.
Rook had made it clear I could handle being on top, and his words repeated in my head. I was capable of this.
So I headed to the dinner alone, but this time I held my head up.
I stepped out of the car onto the sidewalk, looking up at the flickering lights on the front of the sprawling mansion. I didn’t know what I was doing anymore, or why I was here. It felt likemy brain couldn’t piece together what had just happened to me, so I just kept going through the motions.
I had nothing left. There was no other career waiting for me, no other family that would welcome me in. I didn’t even know if I had enough talent in art to know if I could make that a career. I forwent pursuing it in exchange for helping my dad, and that wasn’t going well for me now.
I might have Rook, but who knew how real all of it was for him?
I kept staring at the building. Another dinner for no reason, another dress no one cared about, diamonds that showed my wealth and hid every terrible, disgusting thing that was underneath. I ran my fingers over the pink heart that Rook had given me.
Everything he did felt special, like I was special to him, but his words still nagged at me. He was going to ruin me, and I think I was starting to realize that he meant he would take my heart and shatter it into a thousand pieces.
And he had been right. It would ruin me, because I was going to let it happen.
I started up the steps again, but I stopped when I heard the rumble of a bike engine. It was funny how I was recognizing them now, since I never cared to listen to them before.
The bike got louder, the rev of the engine making me turn to watch the road. Another few seconds went by before a dark bike rounded the corner, the hue of pink lights making my breath hitch. I didn’t know if I would ever get used to Rook riding up to me.
Or kissing me. Or looking at me.
Every time it made my stomach flip, the small burst of excitement made it impossible to stay still.
He pulled up in front of me, cutting me off on the sidewalk. My smile fell when he ripped his helmet off, and I saw the scowl.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.
“Hello to you, too. I was going to dinner.” He swung off the bike and grabbed my arm, dragging me into the shadows.
“But why?”
“I didn’t know what else to do,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. I didn’t want to shy away from my decision now, and I didn’t want him to think he could scold me for anything. “I was sitting around that house and I had nothing else.”
“And you are happy with this choice?” he asked, still sounding mad.
“Maybe. I don’t know. I have wasted a year of my life for this world. I can’t give up all of that because of one thing.”
