AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But I’m in it. I’m in the consortium. The door to my old life has closed and locked behind me. I can’t go back.
My family is on the other side of that door. My company.Mason’scompany. The way he tried and tried to be business partners with me. Goodbye, scraps of pleasure.
Elise is on this side with me, and Jacob, and I could scream. They’re not supposed to be here. I was supposed to be the only one who went down with the consortium.
My plan is fucked.
Jacob tries to angle himself closer to me, but his father is in the way. Elise sidesteps them both and comes to me.
I’m on the verge of losing control, so I shove my hands deeper into my pockets. If I leave them free, I’ll throw her over my shoulder and bolt for the door. Elise tips her face toward mine, but I don’t lean down. Something at my foundation is shaking. The concrete is splitting. An old metal padlock is turning to rust around my heart. It’s all going to come down.
“You should have run for it.” I’m hyperaware of my expression. I don’t look charming. The best I can hope for is calm. We’re surrounded by members of the consortium, so I can’t speak freely. Wearemembers of the consortium.
Elise shrugs. “I wouldn’t have made it very far. No shoes.”
Her father is watching us, his mouth twisted into an ugly smirk. He’s pissed that the initiation spiraled out of control. Bettencourt still thinks he’s won. He has control over all three of us now.
Over every member of the consortium.
The man doesn’t seem to care that I can see him looking at Elise like she’s a cheap piece of property he can sell for a quick buck. He’d do it, too. He loathed when she forced his hand about joining the consortium, but I saw his face change whenshe added her signature beneath mine on that sheet of paper. The ink wasn’t dry when he started thinking up new ways to fuck with her.
That’s how Bettencourt gets off. Power. Elise knew that about him. It makes him different from the other men in the consortium. Charlotte’s father, Cyrus Van Kempt, only cared about money. He didn’t particularly care about power.
That’s all Bettencourt cares about. The money is incidental.
Goddamn it, this was supposed to be freedom. I was going to reach this point in the plan and leave everything behind.
So much for that.
Chambers claps his hand on Jacob’s shoulder, and it breaks up the quiet. “Welcome to the consortium, Son. Time to celebrate.”
Bettencourt barks for Newhouse, who goes over to the conference room doors.
Elise looks to her father, who crosses to us in a few long strides. He puts out his hand for me to shake. “Enjoy yourself tonight, Gabriel. I’m sure your father wishes he could welcome you himself.”
It almost works. I almost snap.
But instead I give him my best, brightest smile and shake his hand. “What about Elise? Is she allowed to enjoy herself?”
“I think she already has.” Bettencourt glances down at his eldest daughter, who holds her head high. He pats her shoulder. “You were certainly the clever one tonight, Elise. I hope you haven’t forgotten what I taught you.”
Elise narrows her eyes. “You were angry with me a minute ago.”
“I reassessed the situation. Remember, sweetheart, you’re done playing the whore for the evening. Try not to embarrass me.”
Bettencourt turns his back on her, looking toward where Newhouse is waiting at the conference room doors.
He opens them to reveal six women balancing trays of champagne and liquor on their hands. Every one of them is beautiful. Every one of them has glossy hair, styled in a flawless twist or a perfect fall or elegant curls. Every one of them wears a lingerie minidress.
They all start talking, circulating through the conference room like it’s a party fifty times this size.
The cold chokes me off first. Then the brick cutting into my cheek. The hand on the back of my neck.
Not again. Not in front of all these people.
The women are making their way toward us, and I can’t stop it. They’re going to see me. They’re going to know. One by one, every person in this room is going to turn and look at me, and they’ll know what I did. They’ll know what I am.
These women in their lingerie minidresses will know first, because we’re the same.
