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“It’s too late for that.” It would hurt less to give him what he wanted in the short term, but I can’t. “It’s been too late for a long time.” I look my father in the eye. “Where do I sign?”
Fucking with people is my father’s favorite thing. He makes me wait.
It feels like months have passed in the silence when he slides a pen out of his pocket and holds it out to me.
I go to him with as much dignity as possible. I don’t have panties or shoes, and my thighs are still damp with how much I want Gabriel.
When I reach for the pen, my father draws his fingers back so we don’t touch.
My next stop is the head of the conference table. Jacob steps elegantly out of the way, his arm extended to point me towardthe portfolios. My father follows. He reaches around me, leaving a buffer between us, and opens Gabriel’s portfolio.
“Print your name and add your signature beneath Gabriel’s.”
I need to keep a steady hand. Just for printing my name. One signature, and then I’ll be good. “Is this because we’re a package deal?”
My father laughs. I turn to look him in the eye and find no trace of a smile on his face. Only dark malice. “Just how you wanted, sweetheart. If one of you fails, both of you pay the consequences.”
I wait a beat. Two. Let him think I might back down. “Good.”
Then I bend over the paper and sign my name in big, bold strokes.
19
GABRIEL
Fuck.Fuck. Fuck.
This was the plan. Exactly the fucking plan. Get into the consortium, then blow it up.
I’ve been living a double life since I was fifteen years old. At first, I was hiding my work in the alleyways from my family, but I never stopped selling myself. The only thing that changed was the goal. I made money to keep Mason alive and all of us together. Then I made fuckloads of money. So much money that I could sell myself for secrets instead. I could use my body to find people’s keys. To spring open the locks covering what they knew.
It has beenawful.Fucking awful. The level of awful that people like me deserve. I’ve denied myself everything good in the world while meticulously maintaining the illusion that I was pleasure personified. I was the sensual voice in everyone’s ear. I was the warm body in their beds at night. I was the smile and the kiss and the gentle fuck or the rough fuck or the listening ear, and I wasmiserable.
It was all in service of this plan. Every single night I spent floating up near the ceiling while I licked down another person’s spine was another step closer to tonight.
Elise signs her name beneath mine on that contract, and it’s a blow to the chest. The ribs. The heart.
Bettencourt looms over her, face blotchy with rage.
Kill him before he touches her.
A stranger’s voice makes the suggestion, but I don’t move. This has gone far beyond malicious compliance. The entire evening is turned on its head. I waved a red flag at a bull, but Elise shoved a knife into his side. If I tackle him now just to get him away from her, he’ll have the guard shoot me. Maybe Elise, too.
Whatever happens, we’ll both pay the consequences.
Fuck.No.How am I supposed to blow up the consortium with Elise inside? I love her. I couldn’t hurt her like that. And Jacob? I’m not in love with him anymore. I’ll always care for him. I don’t want to murder him, either. I don’t want him to go to prison for his father’s bullshit.
He was my first boyfriend. My first real relationship. And yes, he was an ass when we were fifteen and he betrayed our love. But he didn’t murder my parents. He promised to help me tonight, and he did. Jacob went above and beyond what he’d promised. He had no idea that my mind would turn on me tonight.Ihad no fucking idea that would happen. Jacob could have turned on me, too, but he didn’t.
There’s still a way out,Mason comments. He’s wrong. Only one of us had a chance to get the hell away from the consortium, and Elise just signed it away.
Bettencourt closes the portfolio over Elise’s signature, and then he smiles.
It’s like watching sharp teeth appear out of the dark, followed by wild eyes. I have the abrupt sensation that I’ve swallowed a snowball and it stuck in my throat.
Hedeserves to get fucked over.Hedeserves to be murdered. Not Elise. Not Jacob.
My entire revenge mission has gotten gray and fuzzy. I don’t know where the lines are anymore.
