Fraud (Antihero Inferno Book 2)

by Lily White

  She rolls her eyes.

  “Daddy insists I work there for a few hours each week helping update his files, but I think it’s ridiculous. Women aren’t supposed to work, and it really cuts into my hair and nail appointments. So, since Gabriel is such an amazing man, he offered to help me make sense of all that important information. All of it goes over my head usually. He’s even offered to keep helping me since I can’t make heads or tails of what I’m looking at. Don’t you think that’s sweet of him?”

  Warbucks’s glare lifts above her head to look at me. “I hate to cut this visit short, but we need to leave. I expect you to give me a call tonight.”

  Both of our fathers step around Ivy like she doesn’t exist, their smooth strides sliding past me on their way to the elevator.

  I say nothing as the doors open and they step inside, one last glare shot my direction before the doors close and they’re gone.

  “Holy fuck. Those guys are two of the biggest dicks I’ve ever met in my life. It must be where you and Tanner get it from.”

  Tanner and I both turn to stare at her.

  “What the fuck was that?” Tanner barks. “Are you nuts?”

  Ivy smiles, something unsaid behind the gleam in her eyes as she looks between us like we’re idiots.

  “How else was I supposed to hint that Gabriel has access to my father’s files? I set you two up perfectly. Now Gabriel can dig for more of what his father specifically wants since he needs to know what to look for.”

  Damn it.

  She’s brilliant.

  Soft laughter shakes my shoulders to realize it.

  Tanner’s eyes snap my direction. “Okay. Maybe that makes sense...”

  It’s the best compliment she’ll get out of him.

  “...but that’s not the only problem we have.”

  Not in the mood to hear what else has gone down, I ask anyway. “And what’s our other issue?”

  Tanner grins. “Lacey’s packing up her desk, so it’s a good thing you came by. I think she’s planning to quit.”

  The muscles over my shoulders lock, and I glare at him.

  “What the hell did you do?”

  “Nothing,” he lies. “But you might want to go talk to her. Probably right now would be best.”

  Fucking hell...

  Rushing off to go fix that fuckup, I leave Ivy and Tanner behind without remembering that the two of them should never be alone together.

  Ivy

  “You’re insane, you know that? Do you have any idea what our fathers are capable of?”

  Tanner’s dark gaze bores into mine, his mouth quirked at the corner in a mocking sneer.

  “When it comes to them, let me and Gabe handle it. I tend to believe your stupid girl act. It’s more fitting of what I know about you.”

  Bristling at the accusation and his refusal to see that what I did only helped them in what they’re trying to accomplish, I round my shoulders and snap back.

  “Are you telling me nobody besides the two of you have ever stood up against those assholes? That’s pathetic. And you can fuck off thinking I’m stupid.”

  Tanner steps back and eyes me, the sneer curling into a smile. “No. Someone else told Warbucks off once.”

  “Who? Because I’d like to shake that person’s hand.”

  “Luca,” he says with a laugh. But the humor is only there for a second, love filtering behind his eyes to say her name.

  Seeing it shocks me.

  Tanner loves nothing except the Inferno and Tanner.

  As quickly as it was there, it’s gone, and he’s right back to his usual asshole self.

  “But you’re still an idiot.” He grabs my elbow and starts leading me deeper into the office.

  Unfortunately, his grip is too strong, and I can’t pull away. My feet are practically tripping over themselves to keep up with his breakneck pace.

  “How so?”

  Tanner laughs, the sound anything but friendly.

  “If you were a smart little girl like you pretend to be, you wouldn’t have fucked up in high school so bad that you needed a favor.”

  I smile at that. Not that he can see the expression as he shoves me into a corner office.

  Spinning to face him, I brush the hair from my face.

  “Does it matter that I happen to think you’re an idiot as well?”

  He smirks.

  “Not at all. Enjoy the fantasy since you’re miles from the truth. But then that just proves my point that you’re a dumbass.”

  Tanner turns to look left while stabbing a finger in my direction.

  “Watch her. She is not to be trusted. I have to go help Gabe deal with this Lacey thing.”

  A feminine laugh drags my attention to a black, leather couch positioned against the wall. Luca’s kind smile greets me. I didn’t even realize she was sitting there.

  “I’ll be sure to keep a lookout,” she answers him with a shake of her head.

  Tanner glares at me, but his gaze softens as he glances back to Luca.

  “I’m serious. Tackle her, if necessary. Or scream your head off, and we’ll come running. She’s not to touch anything.”

  Saluting him, Luca nods. “I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

  Shooting me one last suspicious glare, Tanner spins on his heel to march off. My eyes slide to Luca where she sits quietly laughing.

  “I see the two of you get along just about as well as you did at the cabin.”

  Laughter bursts from my lips.

  “We have history.”

  “You appear to have history with the entire group,” Luca comments, her voice curious. “One of these days, I’ll need you to sit down and tell me all their dirty secrets.”

  She’s so sweet. That’s the first thing you notice about her. Beyond that, she seems intelligent, a little shy and quiet maybe, but she’s not like the idiot Tanner groupies from high school.

  “How can you stand being with Tanner?”

  The question flies out before I can think better than to ask it. But it doesn’t make sense that someone as nice as Luca would be with the biggest asshole on the planet.

  Her shoulders shake with soft laughter.

  “It took us some time to get here. I told you what he did to me at first.”

  Nodding at that, I cross my arms over my chest and glance around the office.

  It’s a gorgeous room. Very large and spacious. The walls are painted a muted grey, and one full wall is floor to ceiling windows looking out over the city. It’s not overly decorated except for a few accent touches on a side table and Tanner’s desk, that and the collection of degrees and accolades on the wall.

  All in all, Tanner’s resume must be impressive. But then I don’t actually think he’s stupid. If anything, he’s too smart for anybody’s good. But I’ll never pay him the compliment. It would only swell his ego to astronomical proportions.

  “He’s also in a bad mood today,” Luca says, pulling my attention back to her.

  She settles against the couch. “He pissed off Lacey, and that’s never a good thing. It’s impossible to replace her.”

  Curiosity takes hold again. “Who’s Lacey?”

  “His secretary. That poor woman has worked for him for the past two and half years, and I honestly have no idea how she does it. She needs to be declared a saint when she dies.”

  Interesting. While she tells me about the way Tanner treats his assistant, I slowly move around, my attention jumping between Luca and the odds and ends scattered throughout the office.

  On a side table, a jug of water sits, and I pour myself a glass, sipping from it as I walk over to Tanner’s desk and take a seat in his leather executive chair.

  Luca smiles across the room at me.

  “Anyway, today he was angry because one of the associate attorneys didn’t file a document on time, and he took it out on Lacey like it was somehow her fault. I swear he expects the poor woman to police this place in his absence.”

  From what she’s telling
me, Tanner hasn’t changed a bit since high school. He’s still a dickhead that needs a lesson taught to him.

  Fortunately for Lacey, I’m here and just the girl to do it.

  I stare across at Luca and smile, my toes pushing on the ground to rock Tanner’s chair back and forth.

  “So,” I say, needing her to launch into a longwinded conversation, “Tell me about Everly. I know she’s a big deal, and Jase seems to want to kill her, but nobody told me why.”

  Laughing at that, Luca kicks her feet up onto the coffee table in front of the couch and begins the story at the beginning of her second year at Yale when a surprise reshuffling of dorm assignments led her to being roommates with Everly.

  Something about what she says awakens my spidey-senses as being strange, but I ignore it to continue on with my plan to screw with Tanner.

  There’s not much on his desk that I can mess with, but as Luca talks, I run my fingers over his computer keyboard and glance up at the monitor.

  A thought comes to mind, and very slowly so that she doesn’t notice what’s happening on his screen, I pull up the settings. Scanning my options, I grin and decide to change the display language.

  A hundred different choices pop up, and I know I need to go with something out of the ordinary. As part of our prep school education, we learned enough Spanish, French and Italian to be able to have a rudimentary understanding. Choosing one of those would make switching the computer back too easy.

  My eyes land on Swahili, and I quickly click on it, biting my cheek to keep from laughing when everything on his screen becomes a mess of indecipherable writing that he’ll never figure out.

  Done with that, I glance at Luca again, smile, and keep listening as she continues on about how Everly was the person who dragged her into the first party where she met Tanner.

  I take another look around, rock in the chair some more, and then have a flash of brilliance that is sure to send Tanner’s blood pressure skyrocketing to dangerous levels.

  Intentionally knocking a cup of pens off the desk to the floor, I say, “Whoops. Damn, I’m such a klutz. Keep talking while I drop down and pick these up.”

  Luca’s chipper voice continues on while I lower myself to the floor, and quickly loosen all the levers and bolts holding the chair together, leaving them just tight enough to keep the chair from falling apart.

  Whoever sits in the chair next is going to crash heavily to the floor, and I smile just to think about it.

  There’s no way the chair will hold any weight, so rather than sitting down in it, I push to my feet and step away from the desk, slowly making my way back to the front of the room where Tanner left me.

  Five minutes pass while Luca finishes her story, my mind skipping back to the beginning to focus on the one detail I found strange.

  “Did you ever find out why they suddenly switched dorm assignments? Was that through the entire building or-“

  Luca’s head tilts.

  “Actually, no. It was just my room and Everly’s. We both wondered about it, but never really found out what happened.”

  I nod my head. “It just seems weird after what my dad said about her being there for a specific reason.”

  A light bulb could have gone off over her head and it wouldn’t have been more telling than her expression that I’d just touched on a fact she hadn’t considered.

  “Oh, my God. You’re right.”

  Of course, I’m right. Unlike them, I’m not yet caught in this game, so I have a clearer view of the players and how the pieces are being shuffled around.

  Just then, Tanner and Gabriel walk up to the door, my eyes immediately seeking out the gorgeous emerald green I’ll only ever associate with Gabe.

  He steps up beside me. “Are you ready to go?”

  I grab his hand and start walking him toward the elevator.

  “It was good seeing you again, Luca.”

  Glancing at Tanner, I look him up and down but say nothing. He doesn’t seem bothered by it.

  Gabriel notices I’m in a mad rush to leave, his eyes sliding my direction with suspicion behind them as he leans forward to push the call button.

  The motor hums as the car lifts to our floor. My eyes stay glued to the red numbers by the door, willing it to climb faster. Thankfully the car was only a few floors below us.

  “Is there any particular reason we’re practically running out of here?”

  “None at all,” I lie, refusing to meet his curious stare. My foot is tapping a mile a minute, relief taking over when it’s close.

  “What the hell happened to my computer?”

  Tanner’s voice booms through the office, and my eyes round. Gabriel turns at the sound of the voice and then immediately back to me.

  “Should I be worried about that?”

  “Not at all,” I lie again, a heavy breath pouring out of me when the elevator doors open.

  Grabbing Gabriel’s hand, I tug him to follow me, both of us standing inside when a loud crash is followed by “Who fucked with my goddamn chair?”

  Gabriel squeezes my hand, his lips a thin line.

  Before the doors close, Tanner comes running out of his office, his quick, angry stride headed our direction.

  “Hold that fucking elevator.”

  Gabriel glances at me and leans over to whisper, “He wouldn’t be pissed off at you for some reason, would he?”

  I shake my head and wriggle my fingers at Tanner just as the elevator doors close in his face.

  Turning to Gabe, I blink innocent eyes.

  “Who? Me? Why would he be mad at me?”

  Gabriel’s laugh is like springtime, only because it’s the real one I rarely hear.

  “Is there a reason you didn’t just screw with him?”

  He says that like he doesn’t believe I had nothing to do with it.

  We reach the bottom floor, and the elevator doors open to reveal the parking garage. Gabe swings out an arm to allow me to step ahead, but once out, he grabs my hand and pulls my back to his chest.

  Dipping his head down, he whispers against my ear. “At least let me know why my best friend is going to be after your head.”

  Smiling, I can’t help but enjoy the heat of his body against mine.

  “When you get a chance, give that Lacey woman a call and send my regards.”

  His voice is dangerously rough when he asks, “Should I tell her anything else?”

  I nod my head. “Yes. Let her know that the next time Tanner pisses her off, to let me know. I’ll be happy to give her ideas for getting even.”

  Gabriel laughs again, and I silently wish that I could hear that sound for the rest of my life.

  It truly does something to me in the rare moments the real him shines through.

  Gabriel

  All I can think about is my father as we weave through town back to my house.

  The city disappears in my rear window, the manicured lawns of the expensive suburban neighborhoods bleeding away as I put distance between myself and a life I have to live because it’s expected of me.

  One of the reasons I chose a home far out in isolation was because I like to shed that skin when the day is over and be in a place I was never allowed to know as a kid.

  I want to be me.

  Want to expel the person inside that is always screaming.

  Want to unleash the broken prince that wears a mask of jokes and lies when he knows that people are watching.

  Only, with Warbucks on my thoughts and Ivy sitting next to me, I can’t shed the mask this time as the miles pass quickly beneath my tires.

  It’s not long before we’re pulling into my driveway, trees a wall enshrouding us so that there’s nothing else in the world but this piece of land. The house was built to my specifications so that it doesn’t destroy the small circle of woods that surround it, but instead adds to their beauty.

  Inside, the house is still a wreck and I had to switch the larger guest room I’d originally given Ivy for a smaller one on the opp
osite side of the hall.

  Throwing the car in park and killing the engine, I sit back in my seat and turn enough to lock her in view.

  “Judging by your behavior at the office, you’re still not tame enough to be trusted.”

  She laughs at that, and the sound tugs at the corners of my mouth until I’m grinning to hear it.

  “I’ll never be tame,” she admits. Her eyes slide my direction, and she says something that reminds me so much of myself. “Being tame is boring.”

  I agree, but I don’t tell her that.

  Instead, I search her face, making note of the changes that have occurred over the ten years we were apart.

  The last image I have of Ivy as a teenager is superimposed over sparkling blue eyes that have matured and a crooked smile that is more beautiful than I remembered.

  She’d stared down at me that night, daring me to chase after her for what she did to my car.

  Beneath my feet, my Mercedes sat at the bottom of Kyle’s pool, and above my head stood Ivy on a second-floor balcony.

  Hundreds of kids stood around us, their voices lifting into the night, some laughing, others whispering about how I would destroy Ivy when I had the chance.

  Despite them, all I saw was her. All I cared about was that I’d already trapped her in a game I’d play again when college was over, and we returned to the city as grown adults.

  Our eyes locked together that night. But now, as I remember what I saw in her face, it wasn’t challenge brimming behind her stare, it was regret and sorrow.

  Ivy had worn a mask just like mine.

  Except I’d never taken the time to understand what was beneath it.

  The present moment bleeds back to abolish the memory, and I reach out to run the pad of my thumb along the line of her jaw. She shivers at the contact, the silence in the car deafening.

  Ivy had changed in the years between that night and when I found her again at the engagement party. And what I found, I didn’t like.

  “Your father tamed you.”

  Laughing softly, Ivy presses her cheek against my open palm, accepting the small contact.

  “He may have muted my colors, but only because I was missing something.”

  “What was that?”

  Don’t say it, I silently beg.