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Enzo turns scarlet and presses in on Nathan.
Nathan doesn’t back down.
“I said, ease off. Did you figure out bail yet? Sitting around in here isn’t going to get us anywhere.”
“Yes.” Good for the lawyer, finally chiming in. “Let’s continue our discussion with the Sheriff.”
The lawyer, who looks like a strong wind could blow him over, somehow manages to herd Enzo out of the cell, leaving me alone with Nathan.
“Jesus, Aves. I leave you alone for five seconds and you go on a shooting spree.”
“I didn’t shoot anyone.” But I could have.
I feel split in two. Part of me will always be in that basement, helpless and bleeding. Part of me will always remember how it felt to have that gun in my hand. Guns fuck with your head, they really do. They make you feel like you might be able to win.
Enzo negotiates bail not long after, and I sit through a silent ride. It’s halfway through when I realize we’re not headed home. I don’t bother asking. If we’re not going to the house, there’s only one other place.
The Capulet Corporation headquarters.
Inside the building, Enzo has his secretary follow me into the women’s locker room off the employee gym. In the hot water I let the sweat from the police station sluice down the drain. I already need another confession. That poor priest—now his car is going to be associated with my unhinged self. At least his church gets a hundred grand out of it. See? There’s always a silver lining.
The secretary brings me a clean set of clothes from my office. The clothes, like all my other clothes from before, are too big, but a belt will do wonders for a pencil skirt. I tug on the black skirt and button-down shirt, then slip my feet into the emergency pair of blood-red Manolo Blahnik heels I always keep at the office. I feel like a complete fraud. The woman who used to wear these clothes isn’t me. Maybe she never was. But I can’t get into existential questions like that now, because the secretary is waiting.
She ushers me through the building to my father’s office, where Enzo is temporarily reigning over things from behind Daddy’s desk. My uncle is significantly less red now, but the setup reminds me uncomfortably of that last meeting with my dad, on my birthday.Look how well that turned out. Nathan has perched himself on one of the windowsills and looks out to the city, the bones of his face in sharp relief in the natural light.
“Have a seat, Avery.” Enzo glances up from paperwork as if he’s actually been working—quite the act. “It’s time for us to talk about damage control.”
“There’s nothing I can do about being kidnapped.” I take my seat, crossing my legs and feeling the pleasant ache between my legs where just hours earlier, Rome was inside me. Avery Capulet, pretending to be the girl she used to be. It’s easy enough to slip into her mannerisms, but her mind? I think that’s gone forever. “And I can’t do anything about the woman at the clinic, except apologize to her and throw a bunch of money her way. May the share prices rest in peace.”
“I’ve already handled the receptionist,” Enzo says, waving his hand dismissively. “She won’t be a problem going forward.”
I glance at Nathan, then back to Enzo. “You paid her off? It’s my fault. It should come out of my money, not yours.”
“I didn’t pay her off.”
“What’d you do, have her killed?” I’m joking, but the grave expression on Enzo’s face fills me with dread. “Please tell me you didn’t have her killed.”
“She’s fine. Our lawyers dug up some dirt on her and made her aware we can pull the trigger on sending it to her employers at any time.” Enzo smiles when he sayspull the trigger. I have no doubt he chose those words carefully.
“You blackmailed her.”
Enzo shrugs. “We did. You’re welcome.”
“When did you become such an asshole?” I ask him. “You were always the one who was the least of an asshole around here.”
Enzo sits back in my father’s high-backed leather chair, the venom in his gaze all for me. “I imagine it was around the time you started doing armed robberies and letting our sworn enemy use your cunt as his personal cum dumpster.”
I blink rapidly. Did he just actually say the wordscum dumpster? Andcunt? Am I hallucinating right now?
Nathan starts to choke on his coffee, slamming his balled fist against his chest as he wheezes in a strangled breath.
“Speechless,” Enzo says. “About fucking time.”
He’s right. Iamspeechless. I have no idea how he knows what Rome and I were doing in that hotel room, but I have no doubt that he does know. Even the words he chose chill me to the bone.
“Let’s get to the meat of the matter, shall we?” Enzo rubs his temple. “The bad press regarding you and themanymen associated with you...” He means Will. He means Joshua. He means Rome. “Not to mention, the kidnapping itself. It’s bad, and it’s only going to intensify. As much as I hate to say it, your little stunt with the clinic receptionist today is the least of our problems. Your terrible judgment in who you choose to fuck, on the other hand, is becoming quite the PR nightmare.” Enzo steeples his fingers in a strange imitation of my dad. “The best way forward is for you to get married.”
I’ve never heard my uncle swear like this. Never heard these terms come out of his mouth. Has the power of stepping into my father’s shoes, albeit temporarily, gone to his head? Or is the stress of trying to balance this shitstorm on his shoulders just forcing him to crack under the pressure?
