“This is nothing but an old grudge, Cas.”
“I don’t need to explain myself to you. You know what he did. You know why he deserves his life to be taken apart piece by piece.”
“Abhorrent, I agree, but—”
“Why are you here? As you can see”—I gestured around the room. “I’m busy. Tell me what you want so I can go about my day.”
“What do I want? I’d like to stay alive if you don’t mind.”
“Then go.”
“Your sister deserves better.”
“When this is over, she’ll be able to feel safe for the first time in her life.”
“He’ll put a bullet through your brain.”
Considering he’d threatened to do that to me years ago, it was old news. “I have his gold.”
“Where did you find it?”
I ignored that. “At least fifty million.”
“What were you thinking?”
“Honestly, I was thinking that’s a lot of fucking gold. So I took it.”
He dragged his fingers through his hair. “Don’t tell me anymore.”
I suppressed a smirk at Ridley’s reaction as I pushed up from my chair. “Glassman won’t find her until I want him to.”
“He knows you have her.”
“That was the point.”
“Where is she?”
“Why?”
“I want to see she’s still alive.”
“She is.”
“I’m not leaving until I see her.” He pointed a finger at me. “You’ve gone too far this time.”
“That’s not strictly true.”
“If she’s hurt. . .”
“She’s fine.” For now.
“I don’t trust you.”
“For God’s sake.” I gestured for him to follow. “Come on.”
We headed out and into the hallway. When we made it to the foyer, he gave me a quizzical look. Then stood back, waiting for me in the center.
I walked back his way. “I’m showing you out,” I said. “I’ll be in touch.”
“I’m not leaving knowing an innocent woman is locked up here.”
“She’s not innocent.” I gave a gesture of that’s just how it was.
“She’s eighteen, Cas.”
“Old enough to know about her father.”
“Look, I know what that man did to you was. . . that he. . .” Ridley looked away, not wanting to say it. “Your father wouldn’t want you to be this man.”
“Had my father given Glassman what he wanted, my parents would still be alive.”
“Your father did the right thing. You know that in your heart.”
“What heart?”
Ridley huffed in frustration. “What are you going to do with her?”
“You don’t want to know. Right? As my attorney.”
He swallowed back his words. “It’s her father you want.”
“This works for now.”
“Maybe it’s time to consider forgiveness?”
“He robbed me of my father, Ridley.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “Don’t be this man. The man they say you are.”
“And what is that?”
He mouthed the word monster but was polite enough not to say it out loud.
A blur of movement came from above.
A chair flew over the balcony and barely missed Ridley’s head before it crashed to the ground behind him, smashing to smithereens. He raised his eyes from the crook of his arm where he’d shielded his face. Turned to stare at the chair. Then snapped a glare upward.
Anya peered down over the balcony at us.
“What the fuck?” Ridley looked horrified.
“We didn’t lock her door,” I said flatly. “I’m not a complete monster.”
“You’ve got to contain her!”
“Go home,” I told him. “Forget you ever saw her.”
“I’m not leaving her here.”
“You seem to forget. I’m the man who pays your ridiculous salary. Step outside and take a breath.”
“Your mom wouldn’t want this for you.”
“She’s not here. And tell me . . . why isn’t she here?”
Ridley’s shoulders slumped, and he peered up toward the balcony. “If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Forgiveness?” I rested a hand on his shoulder. “You think I give a fuck about forgiveness? That word hasn’t been in my vocabulary since your father failed to listen that day. The day he sent me away without warning my father. Their blood is on your family’s hands too.”
“Don’t you think I’m haunted by that every day of my life?”
“Apparently not haunted enough. Since you’re still giving me this shit right now.”
“Cas,” he whispered.
“I’ll call you if and when you’re needed.” I headed up the staircase toward Anya.
Anya
Cassius glared up at me from the foyer.
I’d barely missed his friend with the chair. The tall man with the slicked-back hair, cunning features, and that Louisiana accent. Cassius looked annoyed. They exchanged a few words below as though I hadn’t just thrown a piece of furniture over the balcony at them.
Cassius’s foot landed on the first step of the staircase.
Not waiting to see if he took a second, I scurried back into the bedroom and slammed the door behind me. Rushing over to the other side of the room, I flung myself onto the bed and braced for when he came in.
Cassius strolled in casually, his expression dangerously calm.
A shudder of regret stretched through me as I realized I wasn’t safe where I was sitting and moved to try to get away. He caught hold of my ankle and dragged me back toward him. I kicked out with my other foot at his chest. He grabbed my leg and twisted it, flipping me over.
He grabbed my feet to still me. Struggling, I pulled one free. With a swipe of his hand, he knocked my foot away from his face. The mattress dipped as he clambered onto it and reached for my hands. Clasping my wrists with an ironclad hold and leveraging both my arms up until he’d captured them above my head and pinned them to the mattress.
Looming over me, his heady cologne reminded me of dark fantasies turned real.
“What the fuck was that?” he growled, his body close to mine, heat and tension radiating off him.
“Let me go.”
“If that chair had hit him. . .”
“Better luck next time.” Snapping my eyes away, I refused to show how much he scared me and continued to squirm against him. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
He looked amused. “You?”
“My father.”
He let me go as though struck by some invisible force. His expression turned dark, reflecting hate and fury in his gaze.
Before he could respond, I used the opportunity of his moment of distraction and scrambled off the bed and back on my feet. “He will find you. And when he does. . .”
Cassius rounded the bed and stalked toward me with a dangerous stride, closing in fast. My back struck the wall behind me.