by Ivy Fox
There is no one in all of New York City that doesn’t know by now that I’m in love with my stepsister and vice versa. And if they suspect my father tried to put his slimy hands on her, then that’s a good motive as any to break his skull.
When we finally get to the visiting room, and the last door is unlocked, my heart starts to race by the familiar, white hair I see in the distance. I hate that we are going to be separated by glass, but at least my eyes will be able to gaze at her, and I’ll get to hear her sweet voice.
When the guard ushers me to the booth, my girl’s face looks as stoic as ever. He stands next to me and blatantly takes a long, lustful look at her before ordering me to sit down. If I didn’t have these fucking cuffs on, I’d hit the bastard for ogling her so disrespectfully.
I wait for the fucker to leave us alone before grabbing the phone on my left, which is a struggle, considering my cuffed wrists. Snow picks up her own receiver, but her eyes are set on the guard, cautiously waiting for him to be far enough and unable to hear our conversation.
The first thing I notice when I get this close to Snow, is the deep shadows under her gorgeous eyes, disclosing her sleepless nights since the cops took me away from her. Although the need to hold her is suffocating, I need to keep my composure. Otherwise, she’ll never rest, and her body needs it. All of this stress could cause her lupus to flare up, especially if she isn’t taking care of herself. I straighten my spine and give her my best panty-melting smile, hoping it’s enough to assure her that being locked up isn’t as bad as her fears are painting it out to be.
“Hey, little liar,” I cajole with my trademark smirk.
“Don’t ‘hey’ me Roman,” she snaps furiously. “You’re lucky there is glass separating us, or I’d give you a piece of my mind.”
“Feels like you already are.” I chuckle with amusement.
“This is no time for jokes, Rome. You shouldn’t be in here,” she whispers under her breath, her eyes a little bit softer than they were a minute ago.
“No. And who should be? You?” My brows go up to my forehead to demonstrate that’s not an option. Her lips thin into a frown while her cloudy eyes beg me to reconsider. “Not a chance. I know what I’m doing.”
“Do you? Rome, they arrested you for something you didn’t do.”
“Exactly. So if I didn’t do it, they can’t prove it now, can they?” I try to assure her.
“From where I’m sitting, it kind of looks like they can. The police don’t just arrest someone willy-nilly. They must have some type of evidence to back up their claim.”
“So beautiful and yet so naive,” I tease, hoping my little jab is enough to get her out of her head.
“Don’t patronize me, Rome. I hate it,” she grumbles angrily.
“I know, little liar, but I love seeing the fire in you rather than any sadness.”
“You prefer me angry?” she asks suspiciously.
“A thousand times, yes.” I chuckle, gaining the first small smile out of her.
If she only knew how her smiles give me life, how they give me hope and faith. There is nothing I can’t overcome, as long as I can still spring one of those beauties out of her. Once we pass this hurdle in our lives, I’ll spend the rest of mine making up to her for all the tears she has shed. That’s all I care about—making this tender, beautiful soul in front of me happy throughout the rest of her days.
“God, you are such an asshole,” she counters, rolling her eyes at me, but unable to keep her grin from widening, warming my heart further.
“We’ve established that already, baby. Now tell me something I don’t know. How are the twins? How is Elle?” I ask, wanting to deviate from our conversation to neutral ground and learn how my siblings are taking my unexpected imprisonment. When I observe Snow begin to maul at her lower lip, unable to look me in the eye, it tells me all I need to know. “You told her,” I state matter-of-factly and get nothing but silence from the other side of the glass. “You told Elle, didn’t you?” I insist, needing to know to what extent I should expect my little sister’s wrath when she comes to visit me.
“Yes, and I’m not sorry. I had to, and besides, it was killing me not telling her. But don’t worry. Elle promised she wasn’t going to say anything to the police.”
“Are you?” I cock my brow again.
“Am I what?” she croaks, leaving me even more concerned.
“Don’t do it, Snow. Don’t even dare.”
“I hate to remind you, but you’re not in a position to make any threats,” she spews, unimpressed with me bossing her around.
“Please. I’m begging you, little liar. Please don’t do something foolish,” I urge her, my heart already pounding profusely in my ear, afraid she’ll do something reckless just to appease her sense of justice.
“It’s not foolish, Rome!”
“Yes, it is! Keep this up, and the first thing I’ll do when I get home is to place you on my lap and fuck that righteous temperament out of you.”
“Big words for a guy in an orange jumpsuit who doesn’t even know when he’ll be coming home—if ever,” she quips back, letting the hurt in her voice finally shine through.
“Snow.” I choke, my heart beginning to shatter, witnessing the amount of pain she’s in.
“You know I’m right. You shouldn’t be here! I should!” she whisper yells, slamming her fist on the small, green ledge in front of her, unable to keep her frustration at bay.
“Hush, baby. Don’t say another word,” I beg, discreetly looking around to see if anyone heard her.
“I’m really getting tired of you always calling the shots, Rome. When will you let someone take care of you for a change?”
My shoulders slump against the chair in defeat. How can this extraordinary creature not see the impact she’s had on my life? That I’d still be empty and bitter if it weren’t for her?
“You know I’m right,” she adds, sorrow tainting her perfect features.
“No. You’re wrong. You’re so fucking wrong, little liar. You’ve already saved me from a worse fate than this. You’ve given me something I never thought possible. You gave me back my soul.”
“It was never gone, Rome. You always had it,” she mumbles meekly, her eyes glistening with tears she’s trying hard not to shed.
“It was dead, Snow, and you revived it. You revived me. This,” I wave my finger around the place for emphasis, “is just a hiccup in our story. It will not be our end. I promise you that. Do you trust me?”
“With my life.”
“Good. Then trust that I know what I’m doing. They have nothing, Snow. Nothing. Soon they’ll have to place me in front of a judge for my bail hearing. The prosecution can’t delay it for more than forty-eight hours, and their time is running out. My lawyers will have me home and in your arms sooner than you think. Believe me.”
“Are you sure? The media isn’t painting you in the best light.”
“Hmm. That can be a problem. Tell Ash to call my publicist and image consultant so they can start spinning this. We need all hands on deck. If he thinks any of them aren’t cutting it, tell him to drop the dead weight and get new blood. We need lions, not sheep,” I state stoically, thinking of calling my lawyer, too, and get him to do some other heavy lifting for me.
“You have an image consultant?” she asks, surprised, pulling me away from the damage-control checklist I’ve got cooking in my head.
“We all do. The Grayson name isn’t just me. It’s my mother’s hard work, too. We don’t want anything to tarnish it. Especially in a case where her husband finally met the justice he deserved.”
“There are a lot of people that don’t feel the same way, Rome.”
“That’s because they still believe the fabricated web of lies my father always put out into the world. We just have to show them the truth without having to reveal all of it.”
“And how are we going to do that?” she asks, confused, furrowing her bro
ws together.
“Give me a little time to figure some things out. I’ll make this all okay,” I assure her with a tender smile.
“You promise?”
“I do.”
“Okay,” she mumbles, not looking fully convinced.
“Snow, listen to me. I need your fire right now, your strength. You’ll need every bit of it to look after the twins and Elle. They are going to need you. Do you understand?” I supplicate, knowing that if they lean on each other, then they’ll be able to weather the storm without me.
“Of course. They’re my family.”
My heart leaps to my throat at her declaration, and I swear, if I didn’t love her so much already, I’d be done for just with that statement alone.
“I love you so much, little liar.”
“I know you do.” She smirks.
“Is that all you’re giving me? Not even a ‘love you’ back? That’s cold.” I can’t help but chuckle, even though my heart hungers to hear those words fall from her lips.
“I’m still mad at you,” she teases, her button nose rising to prove her point.
“And I promise I’ll let you take all that anger out on me in ways that will pleasure us both.” I wink at her, licking my lips in anticipation.
“God, you really are an asshole. How can you be thinking about sex at a time like this?” She giggles.
“I’m not thinking about sex. I’m just thinking about loving you in all the ways I can the minute I get out of here,” I confess truthfully, making it clear how I yearn to be with her, to treasure her, to take care of her, and to make her happy to the best of my ability. It’s all I think about—loving her.
“Oh,” she hushes shyly, her lovely blush tingeing her cheeks to perfection.
“Yeah,” I begin to say, but then a loud bell interrupts me, announcing our time is up. I swallow dryly, taking another look at my girl and engraving her loving face to memory.
“I’m going to need those words from you now, Snow. Don’t make me beg,” I say through gritted teeth.
Who am I kidding? I would beg on my knees, bruise and slash the fuckers up if it meant I’d hear her say she loves me. But thankfully, I don’t have to go to extremes to hear what has already been branded on my soul—her unconditional love.
“I love you, Rome. With all my heart, I love you,” she replies, the tears she didn’t want to shed in front of me, finally begin to trickle down her cheek.
“I’ll be home soon, baby. Then you can show me just how much. I promise you.”
“I’ll hold you to it,” she says with a forced laugh, wiping the tears away.
I give her a nod, and then stiffen when I feel the guard already at my back, pulling me to my feet. He gives my girl another once-over, and Snow’s face instantly takes on the coldness she has perfected over the years.
Luckily the guard doesn’t say anything as he directs me back toward my cell. It seems that his self-preservation is winning out since my death glare told him I would go ballistic on his ass—handcuffs or not—if he said anything about my girl.
I’m starting to list all the things I need to do to get out of here and clear my name when he stops midway. He places my back to a wall as he grabs his keychain to open the closed door next to me. My apprehension increases, wondering if this asshole is stupid enough to get me in a room alone.
“You’re too fucking popular, Grayson. I knew you’d be a pain in my ass,” he barks out, shoving me into a room similar to the one reserved for lawyer visitations. However, my jaw tics in place when I see another blonde waiting for me sitting triumphantly in her chair.
“Vivienne, I can’t say this is a pleasant surprise,” I state bitterly, as the guard she obviously paid off for this intimate visit pushes me into a chair opposite her, and chains my cuffs onto the table so I can’t hurt the bitch seated in front of me.
She gives me a little flirtatious look and waves the guard away like he’s one of her minions. I guess he is since this little clandestine visit is certainly not in the books. I wonder who else Vivienne West Grayson has in her pocket to get this type of stellar treatment.
“Now, Roman. Be nice. I’m here as a courtesy. Trust me, you ought to be on my good side from now on,” she singsongs in that over-the-top way of hers.
“Don’t count on it. What do you want?”
“Well, justice, of course.” She shrugs with a malicious grin painted on her lips.
I can’t help the sinister laugh that rips through my throat at that pile of malarkey.
“Justice? Right,” I goad, leaning back in my seat, my contempt of having to put up with her—even if only for a minute—clear on my face.
With the corrupt guard still standing in the corner of the room, she gets up from her seat and walks over to me. She tries to caress my cheek with the back of her knuckles, but I snap my head away from her touch. Annoyed, she leans in further toward me, grasping my chin in her grip, her red nails piercing my jaw in place.
“Of course I want justice, Roman. I want my husband’s murderer locked up behind bars for the rest of his miserable life. And believe me when I say that, in the end, I always get what I want—one way or the other.”
A chill runs through my bones when I observe how confident she is.
“What’s your game, Vivienne? What do you have to gain out of this?”
“Me? I have everything to gain and nothing to lose. You, however, don’t have the same luxury.”
Her Cheshire-Cat smile widens, her face leaning closer until it’s a mere breath away from my own. Before I can stop her, she bridges the small gap between us and presses her mouth to mine, taking from me what I would never willingly give her. Manically, I shift from my seat, trying to get this bitch off of me, but her lackey comes out from the corner, and grips my shoulders in place, making it impossible to get the distance I so desperately want. When she’s finally had enough and releases me, I spit on the floor to show how much she repulses me.
“You’ll pay for this!” I warn, but all I get is another one of her cruel laughs.
“Malcolm always told me you were the most stubborn, the most prideful. But pride will get you nowhere. Not where you’re going.”
“Fuck you,” I bite out, my nostrils flaring with disdain.
“Oh, my darling Roman. That ship has sailed,” she laughs. “The day you threw me out of my own home and chose her instead of me, you sealed your fate. But don’t you worry. I still have plans for you. You see, I like my toys. And you, my darling boy, I will enjoy toying with most of all. Before I’m done with you, I’ll have you begging me for mercy. You’ll see,” she threatens playfully before licking my cheek like the twisted bitch that she is.
It takes everything in me to push down the bile lodged in my throat, but I keep my revulsion at bay, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of seeing how she got to me with ease.
“You’re just as sick as he was,” I bark out instead.
Her head falls back, and the shrill laugh that leaves her makes the lump in my throat fall to the pit of my stomach.
“Oh, stupid, stupid boy. Where do you think I learned it from?”
Chapter 3
Oliver
The minute our town car stops in front of the courthouse, flashes of blinding light begin popping left and right in our direction.
“Fucking piranhas!” Ash censures with a snarl, looking at the crowd of reporters who are anxious to jam their microphones and cameras in our faces.
Thankfully our windows are tinted so they can’t see our disgruntled faces just yet. Not that it matters. The moment we step foot out of this car, they’ll have their chance to get what they want—a picture of the wealthy and untouchable Grayson family disgraced. I’m sure they’re all salivating at the mouth, wanting to goad and taunt us of our shame, as our family walks the steps of the city’s courthouse, minus the defendant who is already inside, waiting in chains like a criminal.
Watching a priv
ileged, high-and-mighty family like ours fall from grace is every reporter’s dream. Nothing makes for better entertainment than to build up our heroes, only to tear them down later. As hard as it is, I push that god-awful thought out of my mind and turn over to the girl who can’t stop fidgeting in her seat.
“Remember, don’t say anything. Keep your head down, and walk through them like you don’t even see them,” I caution Snow, knowing she isn’t used to this type of media frenzy.
“Like hell, she will!” Elle blurts out, her amber eyes colder than the chill of the late December wind blowing outside.
“Elle,” I mumble softly, not wanting to ignite her rage any further, just before we have to face the drooling vultures outside.
Ever since we told Elle the truth, she’s been less than happy with us. And when I say less than happy, I mean she’s been punishing us with her snarky reprimands every chance she gets. The only one who has been saved from her sharp tongue has been Snow. I think it has more to do with the plight that our girl had to endure at our father’s hands, rather than my little sister actually forgiving her for keeping such a secret. Whatever her reasons, I’m glad that at least one of us is still on my sister’s good side. Lord knows it’s going to take Ash and I ages until we are.
“I’m serious, Ollie. I’m not keeping my head down for any of those assholes! Rome didn’t do anything wrong. Our father did. And for that, he deserved what he got. I’m not going to march up those steps looking ashamed for my brother, taking part in his demise. And neither should any of you,” Elle scolds fiercely, the uncompromising expression on her face letting us know she is dead serious and won’t take no for an answer.
“You know what? Elle’s right. Fuck those cocksuckers out there. We go out like Graysons. All of us. Like a family,” Ash adds sternly, squeezing Snow’s hand at his side.
“We are a family, aren’t we?” Snow hushes, her eyes flashing onto each of our faces for the confirmation she needs to hear right now.
“You better believe we are. You’re just as much a Grayson as any one of us. We always stick together through good and bad. Rome has always had our back, and now he needs us to have his. And none of us are going to disappoint him, now are we?” Ash rants, but I clearly hear the underlying message he’s telling both girls.