Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 132498 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132498 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
My jaw flexes.
I keep reading.
He raises a brow. “Ah. So it’s both.”
I slam the file shut. “Why are you always here? Don’t you have a life?”
He downs the whiskey in one swallow. “Not really. My ex is trying to kill me all the time, so I’m much happier being here, when you only threaten to kill me half the time.”
“Glad I could provide emotional support,” I flip another document.
Rafe walks up behind me and looks over my shoulder. “What’s this? Oh. Their numbers dropped harder than you fell for that girl.”
My eye twitches.
This fucker thinks he’s funny…
Let’s see how funny he is when he’s facing me?
I turn and catch him grinning.
“Too soon?” he asks.
I toss a pen at his head. He dodges, laughing as it clatters across the floor.
“Look,” Rafe says, hands up like he’s surrendering, “I’m just saying—Danforth Steel bleeding out isn’t going to magically fix what happened between you two.”
I smile.
Slow.
Sharp.
“What’s funny.” He backs up a step, “is nothing about that smile is normal.”
“She shouldn’t have been in that meeting,” I say, voice low. Controlled. “She shouldn’t be anywhere near the fallout.”
“She’s part of the company,” Rafe reminds me, pacing to the window. “She was always going to be dragged into this.”
“She’s not built for war.”
“Well”—he shrugs—“she’ll have to be.”
I turn the page violently, ripping the corner without meaning to. “I’ll handle this.” I shove the next file open, then grab my phone off the desk and dial Dom. I don’t wait for him to talk before I start barking orders.
“Order the remaining inventory hijacked,” I say, while punching in a message to my logistics crew. “Every truck leaving Danforth Steel gets detoured. I don’t care how. Make it disappear.”
“On it,” Dom responds and waits for me to continue.
“Wow,” he says quietly. “You’re really doing it?”
“Oh, I’m just warming up.” I flip a page. “Next are the partners. Pull them out. Quietly. Bribe some. Threaten others. Make it look like financial instability. Just enough to get the board nervous.”
Rafe’s jaw drops. “You’re dismantling a billion-dollar company.”
“Brick by brick,” I reply.
“And for what? Revenge? Or because you’re still in love with her and want her to come crawling—”
“Back off,” I snap, whipping my gaze at him.
He raises both palms. “I’m not judging.”
“You are.”
“A little.”
“Well, don’t.”
Rafe sighs and grabs a second glass from the shelf. “You know, you’ve always been unhinged, but recently, this past week? It’s like watching a Greek tragedy, yet I’m not even sure if you’re the hero or the villain.”
“Villain obviously,” I respond, reading another report. “And thanks.”
“Not a compliment.”
“Didn’t ask.”
He sets the glass down and plants his hands on my desk. “Lorenzo. Seriously. You can’t keep doing this. She made her choice.”
A hot pulse flashes through me.
“Shut up,” I growl, standing slowly.
“You need to move on,” Rafe says softly.
I stare at him.
He stares back.
The silence crackles.
Then I laugh.
“Move on?” I repeat. “You really want to do this? You really want to piss me off?”
He hesitates.
Exactly. Then rolls his eyes. “You’re a dick.”
“Go home,” I say, dismissing him with a flick of my fingers. “But don’t forget to get me what I asked for.”
He lingers for a moment, searching my face.
Then he sighs, grabbing his coat. “Fine. But, Lorenzo . . . be careful. When you blow up someone else’s empire, make sure you don’t take yourself down with it.”
I grin. “Oh. . . that’s the fun part.”
He shakes his head and walks out, muttering something about therapy. The moment he’s gone, I pick up the file again. Victoria’s face stares back at me.
My chest tightens.
I brush my thumb over the image.
“You shouldn’t have fucked with me,” I whisper.
But she did.
So now?
Now I escalate.
Now I end this.
I reach for my phone.
“Dom, you still on the line?”
“Yes, boss.”
“Tank their reputation. Anonymous leaks. Fake scandals. Use the press like a weapon.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And, Dom?”
“Yes?”
“Make them bleed.”
I hang up.
Then sit back in my chair, staring at the grainy photo again.
The girl who once read to me in an abandoned boathouse. The girl who once kissed me like I was her whole world. The girl who left without a trace.
My voice comes out low.
Certain.
“I’m coming, Little Bird.”
I tap the picture, right over her face with one finger.
“And when the smoke clears . . .” My eyes narrow. “You’ll come back to me.”
A dark smile curls across my lips. “One way or another.”
26
Victoria
I’m sitting at my kitchen island, spoon halfway to my mouth, leftover pasta going cold on the counter because I’ve been staring at nothing for ten minutes, when my phone lights up with my mother’s name.
She never calls me unless she needs something, and usually that something isn’t good. Usually, a dress code is involved, which is something I really don’t want to deal with right now.
I swipe to answer. “Mom?”
“Victoria, you need to come home.” Her voice cracks.
I shift in my seat. “What happened?”