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She shook her head.
I shrugged. “Suit yourself.” I took my first bite, closing my eyes and letting out a groan as the flavor burst on my tongue. “Oh my gosh, this is incredible.”
When I opened my eyes, her face was red with anger.
“So,” I continued. “What do you say? There are worse fates than marrying me.”
“Why do you want to marry me anyway?” she grumbled. Then, she gestured with her head to the waitress. “You can marry her. I’m sure she would love to.”
I could practically taste the jealousy in her voice, and for some reason, it pleased me. I didn’t comment on it, though.
Now came the tricky part. I needed to convince her to marry me without telling her about the fact that her father had left her something in his will.
“I need you for something,” I said matter-of-factly, and her eyes widened. “Not for anything illegal, trust me. Just…as a front person for one of my businesses.”
“So you’re going to use me too?”
“Yes,” I said honestly. She should never mistake me as a hero when I was a villain through and through. “But it won’t be forever, and at least I can assure you that I can protect you from them. None of them are going to touch you. Not now, not ever. Believe me.”
She looked away and then looked back at me with a forlorn look. “Do I have a choice?”
13
EMILY
I felt a yawning gaping hole when I considered my future.
And growing despair when I thought about the possibility that I’d just been taken for a ride.
Not that I didn’t know Chris was right. From hanging around the wrong street corner and talking to the wrong people, I knew the police had certain deals with people in the underground. The Moranos had even hinted at it at one point, although I’d been too oblivious to catch their meaning at the time.
So it wasn’t that I necessarily had faith in the police.
I was just not expecting to be sold out quite like this. Especially not by someone I considered, at the very least, a friend.
But the truth was that I just didn’t think Angel would ever put me in this position. I knew he was selfish in a way and obsessed with catching Chris, but to sacrifice me to do it? To deceive me this entire time, knowing he had an association with the Moranos?
The betrayal hurt more than anything, and it was a bitter pill that was stuck in my throat. I should have known.
No one could be trusted. Everyone I’d ever trusted in my life had failed me.
Everything was starting to come into sharp focus in my memory. Now all the little details I brushed off or hadn’t noticed looked like clues I had overlooked. Like the sudden way that Angel came back into my life and the fact that he asked me if I still had that picture book from when we were kids in juvie.
And also the fact that not too soon after Angel and I started dating again, the Moranos started invading my space out of nowhere.
What if the police had planned that? What if they’d told the Moranos to harass me so I would run to Angel for help?
And then Angel, not believing I had nothing to do with the Moranos’ current crimes, accused me of it and made me cry when he knew damn well I was innocent.
The fucking bastard.
Pure, unadulterated rage unfurled within me, and it was so strong that I wanted to throw something. I wanted to scream, too, but I still had the presence of mind to know I was in a public space.
I’d cried in front of him. Few people got that kind of vulnerability from me, and I’d cried to Angel and pleaded with him that I wasn’t a thief, yet he still tried to pull this off.
“Is that enough evidence?” Chris asked, interrupting my internal musings as he held out his hand for his phone. “Or are you going to need more convincing?”
I shook my head and handed him the phone. I knew he was right, but it didn’t make me like or trust him more.
