“There is none,” she admitted. “After we bonded, after Markson kidnapped us, I couldn’t bring myself to steal more money from you. In the months that followed the incident, I fell in love with you, William. That has never been a lie. But as time passed, I also realized that one day you’d find out. I thought I’d need money by then to escape. The money I stole from Charles’s office has been the only money I ever stole from you. I didn’t even know Sean and Ben were picking pockets in the fight club and the gambling club until Charles told you in his office; I was being truthful that night. And I’ve only stolen money from wallets a handful of times.”
William’s voice was laced with bitterness. “I’ve been so fucking blind. I should’ve known an upper class woman wouldn’t react to my depravity like you did. There was a voice in the back of my head screaming to be acknowledged. Your words and actions have contradicted themselves so often. I knew something was wrong. I should’ve listened to my instinct! I told Charles often about my doubts! How inconsistent your reactions were. How easily you accepted your fate! This was why you were so compliant. You were never upper class. You were so different when I first met you, all proper by not using my Christian name. But since you’ve been here, you’ve been using my first name the entire time. And you were always unreadable. Going from hot to cold. It’s because you were playing your own game, isn’t it? It was all part of your act.”
“I was just mixed up because I fell in love with you. There’s no con, William. I didn’t steal from you. I stole from your clientele.”
William’s intent look grew harder with each passing second. “I get now why you were desperate sometimes. Why you clung to me so fast after your kidnapping.” The frustration he felt was evident in his voice.
“I had a better life here. But from the start, I knew it was temporary. And there’s always desperation in something temporary,” Ivy pleaded her case.
“You said you needed money for an escape plan. What is your escape plan?”
She shrugged. “I haven’t formed one yet. You uncovered the truth before I had a chance.”
William looked at the floor, obviously letting all the information sink in, probably recalling all the odd encounters. Then his gaze shot up. “How old are you?”
“What?”
“You’re not Ivy Ravensdale, who is nineteen. So how old are you?!”
“Why is that important?” she retorted.
“You know exactly why. I’ve often wondered why you attempted to look older with makeup at the parties.”
“I’m eighteen.”
“If you lie to me....”
“I’m not lying! I’m eighteen. I turn nineteen at the end of the year.”
He flicked his wrist. “It doesn’t matter anyway!” And aimed another glower at her. He searched the depth of her eyes while she watched how he processed it all. “What’s between you and Jeremy Dechamps?”
So that’s the person besides Alfred he’d spoken to. Of course!
“Tell me!” he barked.
Startled, she replied, “Jeremy recognized me as Ivy Hunter, and I knew he was on the verge of telling you when you caught us. I stole his wallet at a party, and he caught me. In exchange for his silence, I had to give him my virginity. He was the only man I slept with before you. I only seduced men by kissing them to divert them, then I slid their wallets from their pockets, never taking it any further. Jeremy made me suck his cock, then he fucked me roughly in an alley.”
William’s fists clenched in anger. “So he blackmailed you into having sex with him?”
“Yes. You’re my first and only true lover.”
“Jesus Christ, Ivy!” he spoke in a tormented tone while jumping to his feet. “You used me to get revenge against Jeremy?”
“No, it just played out that way. I didn’t plan it. I ran away from your guard because I knew you saw me with Sean. Then I rushed to Sins, hoping to give you time to cool down. And that’s when Jeremy caught me. I didn’t want him to tell you who I was, because I wanted more time with you, William.”
He shook his head while closing the distance between them in one long step, then tangled his fingers in her hair to cup the back of her head. “Don’t you see what you’ve done?!”
She rested both her palms on his chest. “No! If you just look beyond your anger, nothing has changed. I’m still the same person. I didn’t con you! I can pay you back the money I stole from the office. Please! I’ll find a way to pay you back. Just let me go. I’ve been honest now. I told you everything,” she implored.
“We are far beyond the point of simply returning the money you stole, Ivy. You’re not Ivy Ravensdale, so I no longer have the option of your father making sure you keep your mouth shut to save his own life. You’ve witnessed what happens in my clubs. You’ve witnessed how Charles and I guarantee our empire stays viable. You’ve witnessed how far we go to ensure our place in this world. You know we don’t play nice. You’re a liability to us. You’ve confessed to being a con woman! Nothing you say can be trusted. You’ve endangered yourself by living in my world under another name.”
“But I’ll never tell. What do I have to gain by revealing your sins?”
He made a derisive sound. “That’s what they all say.”
“William, don’t forget that you kidnapped me. Don’t pretend to be a saint and make me the only sinner.”
His eyes were vacant, devoid of any emotion, which made the situation ever more foreboding.
She stood on her tiptoes, sliding her palm up his neck to rest on his cheek and kissed his mouth, then whispered brokenly against his lips, “Please, there’s always a way out.”
“There isn’t for you.” There was a strain in his voice dismissing his cold words. He sternly let her go and paced to the elevator without looking back once.
“Where are you going? William! William!”
She went after him, but the door closed before her eyes.
CHAPTER 35
William
William’s mind spun. He hung on the edge of true madness. Persistently, the encounters since the first time he saw Ivy troubled him.
He should’ve known.
When William first met Ivy, he’d believed they were so different. But in reality, she came from the same poor place as he. Only, she was still stuck in that seedy position of being someone society looked down upon.
The task to focus and keep his bearings was impossible. The strangest thing was how his temper had flared when Ivy confessed what Jeremy had done to her in that alley. And since William had lost his grip on his emotions, he headed down the corridor to his private room.
Bursting inside, he went straight to Jeremy.
“Did you talk to Ivy?”
William clutched Jeremy’s dark hair. “I did.” And he swung his fist into his face, over and over. “You raped her!”
Blood gushed from Jeremy’s nose, and he didn’t even get the chance to speak in between blows. William punched him until his knuckles bruised, and only then did he release Jeremy, out of breath.
Jeremy’s chin dropped to his chest as spit fell from his mouth.
William clenched and unclenched his fist, attempting to control his ragged breaths, seeking a calmness that wouldn’t come.
No more delaying. Surely Charles eagerly awaited an update. That conversation would seal Ivy’s fate.
Seldom had William endured spiraling emotions like those that were rioting inside him. They left a bitter taste in his mouth. While he wasn’t looking forward to executing his initial plan, he dreaded what was bound to happen next.
Inhaling a deep breath, he entered Charles’s office, apparently just as Charles arrived himself, as he was hanging his hat on the brass rack.
“William, you’re right on time to inform me of what’s going on.” He took his usual place behind his desk.
“I need a drink,” William mentioned without sitting down.
Charles’s brows furrowed, but he poured a generous amount of whiskey from the decanter
on his desk and leaned forward to hand it over.
William consumed it in one gulp and set it on the table. Then he placed his hands on the edge of the oak desk.
“William?” Charles prompted.
“The woman upstairs isn’t Ivy Ravensdale.”
“That’s impossible.”
“It is possible,” William countered.
“What happened at Alfred’s? Charles beckoned to him to sit, but William’s tensed body failed to oblige.
“I told him I have his daughter. Alfred replied that she’s in England.”
Charles’s eyes widened. “Are you positive he’s telling the truth?”
“Yes! I asked you who she was months ago when I first met her, and you told me she was a Ravensdale. You didn’t identify her correctly.”
“I distinctly remember seeing her with the nametag ‘Ivy Ravensdale’ at some soiree,” Charles defended.
“That’s correct; you did see her with that tag.”
“Who is she then?”
“She’s Ivy Hunter. She’s a con woman,” William expressed.
Charles began to put together what had happened. “So is she conning us? No, wait. First tell me how you handled Alfred.”
“I took care of that simply. I told him that now we know his daughter is in London and that I was only threatening him, but if he doesn’t pay up in two weeks, I’ll make the threat a reality.”
“Good thinking. Did you confront Ivy when you returned?”
“I did. She says she’s not scamming us, and I believe her. She says she fell in love with me and couldn’t follow through with any of her deceitful plans. However, she and her accomplice, her brother, are the perpetrators of the club thefts the last couple of months.”
“And the money from my office?” Charles inquired.
“That was her doing. Oh, and listen to this. She knows Ben.”
“Ben?”
“The boy that witnessed me killing the caretakers on the day you and I met,” William explained.
Charles poured himself a drink as well. “Well, this just keeps getting better. How does Ben fit in?”
“Ben is one of her accomplices. The day you and I met was the same day she met Ben. She’s also an orphan, by the way. She, Sean, and Ben had the initial plan to target us. Ben’s idea, of course.”
“Does she know about what happened at the orphanage with you ten years ago?” Charles sipped his whiskey.
“I’m not sure. I’m inclined to believe she doesn’t.”
“Where is she now?”
“Still in my apartment.”
Charles hesitated before voicing his next statement. “Deep down, we both felt she was untrustworthy. This explains everything.”
“I know.”
“She has seen private dealings of our business that may never be made public, William. Do you realize that with discovering she’s a con woman, she—”
“Is a liability to us? I understand that perfectly,” William interrupted in a cold tone.
In turn, Charles grasped the turmoil William felt.
“Anything else I need to know?” Charles asked.
“No. Oh, she’s eighteen, by the way.”
“So she’s young, poor, sly, and a good con woman. William, I only see one option left for us. We need to get rid of her. We need to eliminate her. She can’t be trusted.”
William straightened, combed his hair back with both hands, and clasped his fingers behind his head. His throat burned as he stared at a random point on the painted wall. The annoyance that pinged inside switched to hurt.
How could he eliminate the one woman he cared for? Yesterday, he’d just come to terms with letting her go. Now he had to erase her from this earth? As if she never existed. As if she hadn’t turned his world on its axis.
“William, promise me that we haven’t killed men and fought for years and years to have this empire just to jeopardize it over this slip of a woman?”
“We haven’t,” he replied, without moving a muscle.
“Are you sure?” Concern threaded Charles’s words.
No. “Yes.”
“Do you want Silk to take care of her?”
NO!
“No, I’ll do it.” William mustered a wan smile.
There was a torment in his mind that wouldn’t ease. There was a pain in his chest that wouldn’t cease.
CHAPTER 36
Ivy
Ivy had thrown on the lilac dress when William left and was pacing back and forth in the living room.
“Shit, shit, shit!” she whisper-shouted.
What would he do when he got back?
No more time to brood over that; he’d returned.
Crossing the threshold, William cut quite a commanding figure.
She halted mid-pace.
William blankly stared at her, and then he headed to his bedroom.
As her mistrustful eyes followed him, she witnessed blood on his hands and discolorations on his knuckles.
What had he done?
Ivy stayed in the exact same spot. She heard the faucet running. A drawer being slammed shut. Then he strode back.
Although all hope had fled, she still attempted one last time to reason with him. As usual, she felt the tightening low in her stomach and the slow drum of her heart when their gazes collided.
“William, what happened to your knuckles?” she murmured, daring to inch closer to him and lift his hand in hers. While she touched the marred skin, a burst of hope resumed. “Did you go to Jeremy? Did you hit him?” Her head shot up to look at William.
He was silent, his expression betraying not the slightest flicker of emotion as he took in her features.
“You did, didn’t you?” Ivy tried her hardest to blink back impending tears. She brought his hand up to her mouth and rained soft kisses on his knuckles.
“Ivy.” His voice was so soft that she could’ve imagined it.
She seized the moment and kissed him. He didn’t participate at first, but when she licked his lips, they opened, and his fingers tangled roughly in her curls. His tongue danced with hers in a startling provocative duel.
Don’t turn away from me. You’re the man my heart has chosen.
Ivy wasn’t brave enough to speak those words aloud. She’d already confessed to loving him while he might be plotting to get rid of her.
They moved closer to each other, and his hands rapidly drifted down to cup her ass. She hooked her legs around his waist when he lifted her up, slamming her back against the wall as they shared an alarmingly pleasurable kiss.
Ivy moaned into his mouth and groaned louder when his erection pushed against her center. Arching her back, she grasped his hair as their teeth clashed. William pressed her against the wall fiercely. Uncontrollably. Both lost in a savage moment of turbulent attraction that seemed to permanently brew between them.
Ivy’s hands glided down his neck, into the collar of his dress shirt.
He found bare skin under her skirt and nudged her panties aside, rubbing her slit.
“Oh, William,” she whimpered.
All of a sudden, he stopped, breathing unevenly against her lips.
“William?” Ivy whispered.
“We can’t do this.” He slid her down and palmed his neck.
“Why?” she asked, even though she knew the answer.
“Don’t start distracting me. You’re quite sly.” His voice had gone flat and hard.
Her breath lodged. So, seducing him had failed for the first time. He definitely had already conjured a plan. William had probably discussed her with Charles. Apprehension clamored inside Ivy, along with indignation. Why should she declare love over and over again to make things up to him while he wasn’t innocent in all of this either? He fucking kidnapped her!
“At least I fight for us. What’s your plan, William? Did you discuss me with your boss? Your mentor?” she spat, reaching her boiling point.
His displeasure finally became palpable, and the lines of his profile
hardened. Gone was the man who had reined in his feelings from her since he came back five minutes ago.
She adopted the haughtiest expression she could draft. “You’ve let Charles decide the course of your life for so long. I expect nothing less than his giving you orders about how to deal with me.”
“Shut up!” he snapped, revealing that she’d hit a soft spot and was right.
Nonetheless, Ivy continued, “You will listen to what I have to say. I’ve kept quiet for months while you played your game as well. You’re an exact copy of Charles. Only, his darkness is more contained than yours. Where you’re volatile, he’s calmness. Perhaps that makes him even more dangerous than you. He’s molded you into what you hate most. You claim to hate the upper class, but you’re just like them. Your greed has infected your mind. How much more money and power do you need? You always talk derogatorily about the upper class society, but you’re one of them, only, you’ve been so focused and ruled by your greed for so many years that you can’t even see it. You are judge and jury. You think you’re above the law. Do you think all your money and power will keep you warm at night? One day, Charles will be dead, and you’ll be all alone, and you cling to him now because you don’t want to be alone. You’re just too scared to trust people. And that doesn’t make you strong. No, quite the opposite, it makes you a coward. At the end of day, you have a lonely relationship with your precious money.” Her tone lowered. “Emotions, you shy away from them. Love is a weakness to you. You’re afraid to love me while I tried to make you feel more, to make you see that I’m here, to love you, yet you refuse to budge. So what if I’m a con woman? No other woman could stand beside you. You’re a sinner too! And a bigger one than I am.”
William fisted his hands at his side and crowded Ivy.
“You want to hit me? I’ll hit you back if you touch me,” Ivy said.
Towering over her, his nostrils flared violently. He wasn’t used to any backtalk from anyone. Everyone blew smoke up his ass.
“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?” she commented spitefully.
If looks could kill, she would’ve been dead.
It was the first time in months that she’d felt like her old self. Being Ivy Ravensdale had been daunting. Being submissive to him had been arousing, yet also challenging. Often times, she’d wanted to provoke him more, but as a Ravensdale, she couldn’t. Even though, she did suspect that’s what fascinated him about her. In the beginning, she believed they thrived on provoking one another. Now, she refused to show him her fear. If he planned to end her, then she wouldn’t go down without a fight.
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