She huffs as she rights herself, fixing her clothes and schooling her features. “Fine, if you want her and Karl to live, you’ll stay the fuck away from her and make her believe none of what you had with her was real.”
“I’m not fucking doing that,” Karl barks. “Kill me now because I won’t ever lie to her.”
Samantha whirls in his direction. “I’ll kill her and you. I honestly don’t give a fuck. I only need one of you for this to work anyway.” She points to the watch that controls our fate. “One press of this button, and it’s bye-bye Karl,” she singsongs.
Karl snorts. “You’re still not listening, are you?” he taunts, raising his knife to his own throat. “I’ll kill myself, and then nothing will stop them from killing you.”
“You see,” Sebastian chimes in, stepping forward. “You’ve overplayed your hand. While you might be able to control us now, if Karl or Emma die, all bets are off. So we have you by your pussy as much as you have us by the balls. So, my suggestion is, don’t overestimate your power here.”
Gritting her teeth, Samantha surveys the room. She must finally recognize she’s not entirely in control. Fisting her hands at her sides, she shrieks, “You better make her believe this is true because if she goes poking around, I won’t give a fuck if you all die. I’ll kill her.” Then she storms from the room.
None of us speak until we see her car peel out of the driveway on the monitor mounted on the wall.
“Why did she come back?” Rowan asks.
Liam holds his finger to his lips, silencing us as he walks the room, only stopping each time he hears a beep from the device in his hand. Once he’s finished, he faces us. “She planted three devices in this room.”
“How the fuck does she keep sneaking spyware in here?” I demand.
“Since we’re no longer allowing her entry to the Fraternitas or our houses, the country club offices aren’t as secure, making it easier to bypass security. But I have an idea,” Liam states.
“What is it?” Rowan grumbles.
Liam motions for us to follow him and stay silent. We walk down the hall to the private elevators. He scans his handprint and enters his code. Once we’re safely inside, he speaks. “We play along and give Sam what she wants.”
His statement is met with a chorus of vitriol from all of us at once.
“Fuck no!”
“Absolutely the fuck not!”
“Have you lost your goddamn mind?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Liam holds his palms up. “Hold on to your nuts. Give me a second to explain.”
“This better be fucking life-altering,” I mutter as the elevator door slides open, and we step out, heading for the SCIF. We only use this room when we have extremely sensitive documents or conversations that need to happen, and the Fraternitas isn’t an option.
We enter our entry codes and scan our pupils for entry one by one. This room doesn’t allow any visitors-
Heirs only.
“Out with it. What’s this plan?” Sebastian inquires once we’re all seated.
Liam explains his earlier statement in more detail, and for the first time in weeks, we feel like there’s hope. So, for the next three hours, we devise a plan.
“I’ll do it. It’ll be the most believable if it’s me. She expects this from me,” Rowan volunteers, and I feel bad because his part in this will be one of the hardest. But the truth is we’ll all have hell to pay once this is over-once we can safely claim her as ours.
Once plans are outlined, and tasks have been assigned, I voice the unspoken question stifling the air in the room. “Will she forgive us for what we have to do?”
It hangs like an oppressive weight on a fraying rope before Rowan answers, “We’ll have to fight like hell to ensure she does.”
“Is everything in place?”
“Yeah, man,” Colt sighs. “Between your girl and the guys, your ass is going to be handed to you once they find out how much shit you’ve been doing behind their backs.”
I smirk, picturing the fight Emma will give me once she finds out the lengths I’ve gone to keep an eye on her. “You let me worry about that. Just make sure her house by LWU is set, too.”
“Why isn’t Liam doing this?” Cooper asks.
Rolling my eyes, I retort, “Because, Asshole. They can’t know until it’s time for them to know.”
“Right,” Coop snorts.
“Don’t you have your own girl to worry about?”
“Fuck off,” they both shout before the line goes dead. I can’t help but feel a little sorry for the hell Eva is going to face this year at Groveton.
Well, when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes-and Eva played the most foolish game of all.
Shrugging, I slide my phone into my back pocket as I stride over to the side of Emma’s bed. Eva’s the Jacobis’ problem. I have more important matters to focus on. One being the delectable girl before me.
Something falls into place at the sight of Emma sleeping soundly in her bed. She’s back, and I’m torn on how I should feel. I want-no, I need her to be safe, and being here will not do that. But the peace that settles over me now that she’s home stomps all over that.
We can keep her safe. If I think about it enough, I can make it true. We already have plans in motion to ensure we can end this farce of an engagement. For now, we’re trapped. But that’s a tomorrow problem.
Tomorrow, I will have to be someone she’s never known before-we all will be. Tonight. Tonight, I can pretend everything is as it once was-time has rolled back to after we got rid of her mother, and we were preparing to announce her as our Chosen.
“Hello, Love,” I whisper in her ear as I slide behind her and groan. It’s been too long since I’ve last felt her pressed against me.
My hand glides up the expanse of her exposed skin while I press a kiss to the top of her left shoulder, where I know four tiny freckles are.
I slide my hand across her stomach and rest my lips in the crook of her neck as I close my eyes and count her breaths. Each inhale and exhale is a reassurance she’s really here, and I’m not dreaming her into existence.
A soft sigh escapes her mouth as she sinks into me. “Even in sleep, you know where you belong,” I hum against the thrumming pulse of her throat.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.