AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why?” He walked around the cross to face her. “Let me ask you this, Lillian. I personally approve all the applications for the trainee parade. You weren’t among those I signed off. How did your name get on the list?”
“I don’t know.” At least that much wasn’t a lie. She had no idea how Rocco managed to get her invited. “I received an invitation via email.”
“Without applying? You didn’t think it was strange, Lilith?”
“No. I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to apply. Perhaps she—”
“More lies.” The disappointment in his eyes cut through to the bone, leaving her feeling lost. “So, how many untruths have you spun since the day you walked into my club?”
“I didn’t… I mean it wasn’t—”
“I don’t even have to give her a shovel, Master Phantom. She just keeps digging the hole deeper with every word coming from her mouth.” The derisive tone was reiterated by the grim line of his lips. “Do you believe me to be a fool, Lilith?”
Lilith’s entire body turned to stone as she realized it was the second time he had used her real name. “What did you call me?”
“Lilith.” The word spat from his lips as though he was a mamba spitting venom at an enemy. “It’s your name, isn't it? Lilith Prince. One of the Prince twins and owners of DevelopMate. A company thatusedto belong to the Prince family.”
Her breathing faltered. Suddenly, she felt more than naked, like every part of her body had been slayed open to the bone. “Please untie me. I need to… I need my coat.”
“And I need to see you exactly for who and what you are. A liar, a fraud, and a deceiver.”
“I didn’t mean to. Rocco and Gustav… they wouldn’t listen and—”
“Yeah, they got lazy, but then again, your brother always has been a lazy shit looking for the quick and easy route to get ahead.” His eyes narrowed as he pressed his face closer. “I suppose you know who I am?”
“Y-Yes, but I only found out a week ago.”
“Of course, you did. So, this was your big plan? To seduce me into giving you my designs.” He smirked at her shocked expression. “Yes, Lilith, in case you didn’t know, I’m classified as a genius and putting two and two together wasn’t rocket science. Your cohorts believed you would be able to seduce me in the hope that I’d share work secrets with you as pillow talk after you fucked me silly?”
“No! I... I…” Lilith faltered. What could she say? Everything he said was the truth. “I didn’t agree with their plan, but I didn’t have a choice. This is why I called you over. I knew I wasn’t going through with it, not now that I got to know you, fallen in—”
“Don’t bother, Lilith,” he cut her short, his voice curt. “It’s done. I’m done. You’re done. In fact, the Prince empire is done. By the time you get back to work on Monday, it will be to the welcoming of Ground Zero completing a hostile takeover.”
“NO!” Lilith’s body turned cold. Her father had left them a legacy that he had worked to the bone to build up from the ground. If they lost it because of this, he wouldn’t survive the shock. “Please you can't—”
“It’s already done, and you only have yourself to blame. You’re a fraud, but I hope you had your fun, since now you are going to spend a long time behind bars, with your brother and Rocco Butler in the jail next door.”
“Please, Hunter, I beg you! Just give me a minute to explain. I need to—”
Hunter turned away, his words shocking her to complete despair.
“I’m leaving. She failed the assessment. You can release her, Master Phantom, then drop her in Key West. I’m sure her brother will find a way to get her back home to Seattle.”
In a matter of minutes, Lilith’s entire world fell apart. What made it worse, was that it wasn’t only her career, their company, and their father who would suffer, it was also her heart. Somehow, the pain throbbing deep inside her chest warned her it was the last part that would take the longest to recover… if at all.
Chapter Eighteen
Hunter
Two weeks later, Sensations Sub Academy, Forest Avenue, Mercer Island, WA…
The one thing that always worked to settle Hunter’s mind was work. From the day he returned from Castle Sin where he had left Lilith, he had thrown himself into tweaking the final algorithms of the program he had been working on for the past two years. He had been surprised that the presentation three days ago was attended by the U.S. Senate, as well as the POTUS.
All the long hours, working day and night at times, had paid off. The government had signed a deal for his program, to be implemented for use by the Military, the Navy, and the Police Force.
Since then, he had forced himself to return to SSA to catch up on the evaluations of the trainee subs. He had avoided going there, purely because everywhere he turned, he felt Lilith’s presence.
“Life is fucked-up,” he muttered as he read Master Adonis’ report on the BDSM 101 class. “Just when a man finally finds the one woman who—”
