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It wasn’t lost on me that she’d given me this folder when she could have passed it along to her bosses at the bureau.
After she’d left, I had kept her things as they’d been—scattered around my penthouse like she still lived here.
As soon as I’d dropped her ass off in the middle of the street, I returned home and sent the staff away.
I didn’t have the energy to grab Ari’s things and toss them out the front door. That was what I told myself as I stared at her toothbrush and shampoo sitting on the shelf in my shower.
Fuck.
She’d given me the file.
She probably made a copy for the FBI, too, I reminded myself.
Our man in the bureau, Uncle Vince’s old friend Wilks would never let the bureau hurt us. But knowing Ariana had spent the past few months spying on me, lying her ass of like Elsa, pretending to fall in love—
“She wasn’t pretending.” Hallucination Vince cut me off, not giving me space even in the shower.
This was why I needed food and sleep on the plane. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept for more than thirty minutes.
I squeezed shampoo onto my palm and ignored the fact that I had the hallucination of my dead uncle in the bathroom as I showered.
“You don’t know that.”
“We both know she loves you.”
“She’s a liar.”
Her lies had two parts—the lies she told me and the ones she told herself to justify it. A dual-edge sword filled with betrayals I wanted no part of.
“People lie. Actions do not.” Hallucination Vincent pretended to fiddle with the shower head, standing half in my body. “With the access she gained inside your inner circle, she could have launched her career at the FBI and been their newest superstar. But she never reported anything useful or Wilks would have told us.” He turned to face me and continued, “What she did do was teach you to bury Elsa in your past, help your sister feel less lonely, and support you as you grieved me. That doesn’t sound like someone who doesn’t love you.”
“Stop.”
I ignored him as I finished up my shower, but he kept going, “Whether I say something or not doesn’t change the fact that she loves you.”
“You’re a hallucination. What do you know?”
“Exactly. Everything I’m saying are things you’re thinking.”
I shut off the shower and rushed to dry off and change.
The sooner I got to the airport, the sooner I’d have food and sleep.
I couldn’t listen to this.
I couldn’t hear the truth.
For all he said about me looking like shit, Asher did, too. Bags had grown under his eyes, and I wondered when the last time he’d slept was.
Probably why he’d brought along eight security guards rather than his usual four.
I ate my burger in silence—slowly, so my stomach wouldn’t reject it—and slept for the remainder of the two and a half hour flight.
When we landed, I woke up to an escort of twelve Andretti soldiers on the tarmac.
One of Asher’s security guards grabbed the duffel of cash. I descended the plane with Asher and his guards trailing behind me.
The nap hadn’t been nearly as much sleep as I’d wanted, but it and the burger were enough to drive some semblance of sanity back into my head.
