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“Yes!” It was the first time since we’d left The Four Seasons that I felt he might really consider what I was asking. “Talk to him. That’s all. Will you talk to him?”He met my gaze head on. “No.”“Please, Reeve?” Blinking back emotion, I laid myself bare. “For Amber?”His expression softened. “Not even for you, Emily.”His words hung in the air, with all the sweet and sting of a backhanded compliment.And it dawned on me that it didn’t matter if he loved both of us, because he didn’t love either of us enough.At least he seemed remorseful as he turned off the engine and unbuckled his belt. “Stay here,” he said softly before slipping out of the car.Numbly, I watched him unlock the office door and disappear inside. The blinds were closed so I couldn’t see what he was doing inside, but I could tell he hadn’t bothered to turn on the light. Darkness followed him – it was there, in the room where he’d gone. Here, where he’d left me. My eyes closed, and I let the gloom settle in like a pai
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“I’m taking a Glock and a magazine,” he informed the man. “Here’s the serial.” He pulled out the piece from his jacket and read off a number while the guard wrote it down on a clipboard.“Got it checked out,” the man said.“Thanks.” Reeve continued out to the office with me on his heels, ignoring the guard’s fish-eye as I passed.“Seriously, a gun? That’s helpful. So much better to put out press releases and carry a gun than have a fucking conversation. One simple conversation and all of this could be over.”He was midway through the room when he stopped and spun around toward me so fast that I nearly bumped into him. “A simple conversation? There’s no way you’re that naïve, Emily. Do you really believe that’s all it’s going to be?”“I have no basis to believe anything else since you refuse to tell me —”“Bullshit. You don’t need to know anything other than what you already know. He killed a dog to prove a point. Those bruises on your friend? Those broken ribs? That drug habit? And yo
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I’d wanted to be away from him by the time he got inside, but now I didn’t care. The air was tense and charged and all I could think about was Amber, sure that something terrible had happened to her and I had to know now, before the worrying ate me up. “Will someone please fucking tell me what’s going on?”“It’s Chris Blakely,” Joe said without any further hesitation. “He’s dead.”CHAPTER 16I didn’t sleep well.The few times I started to doze, I dreamt. Vague nightmares where images of Chris faded into images of Reeve then Michelis then Joe until all of them morphed into one man who was one minute trying to make me come, and the next, trying to kill me.It was still dark outside when I gave up on sleep. I tossed the covers aside and got out of bed to pack my suitcase instead.Joe had heard the news about Chris on the radio as he drove back to the ranch from The Four Seasons. Although the police weren’t releasing any information yet, he’d called a friend on the Los Angeles force and l
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Though my eyes were directly on Joe, I was ever aware of Reeve in my periphery, ready for his protest. Part of me wanted that – wanted him to fight for me to stay, even though I’d told him not to.But if he didn’t, if he planned to just let me go, it would break my heart a little.It would break my heart a lot.Joe didn’t answer me. Instead, he looked to Reeve as if asking for guidance. Reeve responded by shooting a look at Amber, a look that I knew and understood as though it spoke in a language that had been scratched on my bones at birth. The look told Amber to do something – something that they must have previously discussed. And the look she gave him in return was the one I was most familiar with – it was a look of acquiescence.“I need to make arrangements,” Reeve said. He stood and left the room with Brent in tow.Exhaustion fell over me like a curtain. I knew what was coming and, in some hidden remote place inside where I was still capable of strong emotions, I was outraged an
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Her grin was coy, saying she was both proud and a touch embarrassed to be called out on her reputation as a diva. “You know how to play the game,” she said. “Sometimes when you’re trying to win the guy, you have to forget who you are for a minute and be who he wants you to be.”I sat with her statement, unsure how to let it settle. Somehow I’d forgotten that about her – forgotten that, even though she was a natural princess, she could play submissive when she needed to.And what a time for her to remind me.She was honest, at least. I was grateful for that, and, if I had any inkling to begrudge her for taking that position, I knew I had to swallow it. Because flexibility had been one of the most basic rules of our man-hunting. I’d focused on that very idea when I’d prepared myself to go after Reeve – be who he wants you to be. And I had been.But then I’d fallen for him, and when I had, it had been genuine and the ways I’d won him had been honest. It bothered me that she had to preten
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When I went back into the house, my luggage was missing from the hall. Presumably, it had been returned to my room for me. It pissed me off. Wasn’t it enough that I’d stayed? Reeve had to rub it in that he’d known all along that I would?As if to further gloat, Reeve was standing at the top of the stairs when I climbed up.“Congratulations,” I said before he could speak. “Looks like you succeeded in ‘keeping’ me too.”I stomped off to my room before he could respond, and shut the door behind me, leaving him to stand in the hall alone for once.CHAPTER 17It took three days to prepare to leave for the island. There were all sorts of arrangements to be made. The compound house had to be opened and the kitchen needed to be stocked. Clothes were an issue. Amber had been sharing my clothing since she’d returned to the ranch, and neither of us had anything that would be suitable for wearing on a beach in the South Pacific. Reeve didn’t allow us to leave the ranch to shop, and even if he had
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I lifted my head, slowly, afraid that if I moved too quickly, I’d interrupt the spell. It was the first time he’d admitted his connection to Michelis. The first time he’d volunteered information without me prodding.His eyes grazed mine, but he quickly shifted his focus out the window. “My mother, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, was born Elena Vilanakis. Her grandfather was… a don, of sorts. Powerful. His children and their children were practically royalty. Crime was their birthright. It’s a patriarchal system, but women do have their places and their duties. My mother was the oldest of her siblings so her role was significant. Whoever she married would be adopted into the family business. It was expected that she would wed someone with economic or political strength. Someone like Daniel Sallis, who had built a fortune and name in luxury resorts. Their union was blessed and encouraged by her parents.”“But your mother wanted to leave.” It came out before I could stop it, and h
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“I guess I’m the exception.”He was quiet while I sunk back in my chair and processed. One of the reasons I’d always been attracted to Reeve was because he’d seemed dangerous. He’d always suggested that I wouldn’t want to find out that he actually was. I wasn’t sure that he’d been correct. I wasn’t sure that he hadn’t been.“You aren’t part of the family business? Not at all?”He leveled my stare. “What do you want the answer to be, Emily?”No. Of course the answer was no.I swallowed the ball in my throat. “You said you weren’t. You said you left.”He nodded ever so slightly.Propping his elbow on the armrest, he leaned his chin in his hand. “But I was in it. Really in it. I didn’t even realize it in the beginning. First, it was just running errands for my uncle Nikki with my cousins. Then it was accompanying him on what he called ‘negotiation visits.’ After a few of those, I retitled them ‘scare jobs.’ I’m sure you can guess the nature of what those entailed.”If those TV shows I wa
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