by Lily White
But then, I’ve never been angry.
Only challenged.
Only bold.
Only alive.
Just like he is when I strike back.
We’re two opposing forces, strong enough when we’re together that lightning cracks the pristine skies, and the earth shakes beneath our feet.
We’re destructive.
Disastrous.
The blinding chaos of a tempest storm.
And we face each other now. Him with his signature smirk and me with my eyes narrowed in promise that this may be the beginning, but I’ll be the one who ends it.
Gabe stands within a hair’s breadth of me, his eyes tipped down to remind me who stands taller.
“I’ll get you for that, too,” I promise him.
He clasps my chin between his fingers, his eyes locking to mine with challenge.
“Would you like to discuss the new rules of the game we’re playing?”
I lick my lips, and his gaze drops down to them, hunger burning behind the green.
“Sure. It’s not like I can run away.” I rattle the chains again.
Gabriel’s fingers tighten on my chin, his head lowering so that his mouth brushes against mine when he speaks.
“You’re going to behave. For me and everybody else. No more pranks. No more talking back. No more starting wars. You truly will surrender.”
Our eyes dance together, confusion flooding me. Why would he want that? The only thing that has kept us going is the battles we’ve fought.
“Why?”
“Because that’s the way I want you from now on.”
Muted, I thought. My colors fading.
My heart shatters a little more.
“Is that all?” I snap, the razor edge of the question tugging his mouth up at the corners.
“Not quite. I also want you to talk to your father about his relationship with Jerry Thornton.”
Brows tugging together, I tilt my chin. “I’ve already agreed to do that.”
“Yes,” he says, his thumb sweeping across my bottom lip, “but I also need you to get me inside your father’s office, so I can dig through his records to make sure he’s honest.”
My heart thumps painfully, tension driving through the muscles of my shoulders and neck. “I never agreed to that.”
I won’t give him proof. Not to use against my dad. Words are one thing, just secrets whispered. But physical proof? No. It would only hurt my father.
How dare he? After everything that’s happened. How fucking dare he demand this?
“I told you I would help you in the only way I could.”
That silver-tongue of his finally tells the truth. I should have known better than to trust him.
“And I’m telling you that unless you give us what we want, a certain video will somehow leak online. You asked me if the price had been paid when we were at my office, and I told you no.”
He pauses, searches my face, something unreadable behind the way he looks at me.
“This is the price,” he says softly. “Paid in full.”
I see it then. The entire picture. The game he’s been playing since we saw the article at the cabin and I called him.
Trapping us there.
Running me through the woods.
Pretending like he gave a damn.
It had all been a smokescreen to cover up what he really planned to do.
He wants me muted.
Subdued.
Bland instead of vibrant.
If I were a little girl at this moment, I’d be shoved to the dirt again, my eyes staring up at the broken prince who wants me on my knees.
Fine.
If that’s what he wants, that’s what I’ll give him.
“Deal,” I say. “Now let me out of these chains.”
His brows tug together, suspicion bleeding into his face. “It can’t be this easy.”
“It is,” I answer, my voice shaking with the emotions I’m fighting like hell to hold in. “My father can’t know it was me. That video can’t surface.”
He stares at me silently for a few seconds. “You’ll behave? No more escape attempts? No more wrecking my place? None of that?”
“I’ll behave,” I agree, spitting it out because it burns my tongue like acrid bile.
It almost looks like he’s disappointed. “Once we have the documents, you’re free to go. You can go speak with your dad tomorrow to get the ball rolling.”
“Fine.”
Another twitch of his brow, but he pulls a key from his pocket and removes the restraints. I pull my hands down and rub at my wrists. They don’t actually hurt, but the way he watches what I’m doing shows me the guilt he feels.
Gabriel steps back to put space between us, his hands slipping into his pockets as I sink to the floor. My legs are tired from standing, my heart breaking apart because I always thought he felt the same about our games as me.
“This is strange,” he says, drawing my eyes up to him.
“What is?”
“Finally winning this war with you. I thought there’d be more to it.”
“What? Did you want me to shoot off fireworks and organize a parade?”
His lips twitch. “It’s not a bad idea.”
“I’ll be sure to jump right on that. Just as soon as I forget how much I hate you again.”
Blinking at that, his voice is soft when he admits, “It’s nothing you haven’t felt before.”
He has no idea.
“This is your room while you’re staying here. I’d offer you the bigger one across the hall, but it has some slight structural damage.”
“You should take better care of your property, Gabe.”
“I should,” he laughs, not as if he found what I said funny, but more that he’s hurt that my destruction will never happen again.
Shaking it off, he explains, “The guys are coming over tonight. We need to discuss my conversation with Warbucks and the best way to go forward. If you’re a good little girl, we’ll be done with this by the end of the week.”
“Great.”
He grins. “And you’ll remember to behave. No pissing them off?”
“Yes.”
It’s insane how I’ve been reduced to one-word answers. Gabriel blindsided me with this, the one person I know exists behind the mask there one minute and then gone. When he’d chained me up, he was the person I know he can be. After speaking to his father, he returned with bruised eyes and a busted lip, and all I saw was Fraud.
Stepping close to me, Gabriel offers his hand to help me to my feet. Ever the fucking gentleman.
I say nothing as I grip his palm, that spark that is always between us still there despite the way my heart feels crushed beneath my ribs. I can barely breathe to look at him.
Instead of releasing my hand, Gabriel tugs me to him, his fingers trapping my jaw, his thumb running along my lower lip as he stares down at my mouth.
“Do you really promise to behave?” he whispers.
My eyes meet his, but I recognize something he doesn’t want me to see shadowing the color. I’m not surprised by it. Even if he doesn’t know it’s there.
“Is that what you want?”
The shadows deepen when he answers, “Yes.”
I’m not sure where to go from here. Or what will happen.
But judging by the look on his face, I do know one thing for sure.
Gabriel Dane is a such a good liar that he doesn’t even know when he’s lying to himself.
Gabriel
“You did what? Please tell me you don’t think that will actually work.”
Tanner’s laughter fills my office as he settles back in a chair on the opposite side of my desk. We’ve sat like this more times than I can count. In our law office. In our houses. Back at Yale.
It wasn’t too long ago that I sat across from him watching him self-destruct after confessing to Luca what he’d done to her, only this time, I’m the one who confessed my crime, but in a different way and with a com
pletely different outcome.
“You wouldn’t really leak the tape,” he correctly assumes. “Not now anyway. A month ago? Maybe. But not now and you know it.”
“No,” I admit, “I wouldn’t. But Ivy doesn’t know that.”
A month ago...hell, over the past ten years...all I wanted was to destroy Ivy Callahan. But the time I’ve spent with her quickly dissolved that idea, the hatred I held onto melting away to reveal what existed beneath it the entire time.
It’s something I could never see when we were young, and I’m still struggling to admit it now.
Tanner’s smile vanishes.
“I came here with every intention of raining hell down on her for what she did in my office.”
“I know that, which is part of the reason I tamed her.”
He laughs at that.
“Tamed her, my ass. This is Ivy we’re talking about. You may have tossed down rules, but she’ll find a way around them.”
Outside my office door, the rest of the Inferno waits for the family meeting I called. Luca, Ava and Ivy are with them, and I can’t help wondering if Tanner is right.
So far, Ivy has behaved, which honestly, I can’t stand.
I like her more when she’s painted in bold colors.
I like the way she paints me in them as well.
She wasn’t wrong about that.
But then, it’s only been two hours. How long will she continue her good behavior?
“Why did you really do it?”
A smile creeps over my face. “To get access to her dad’s records-“
“That’s bullshit, and we both know it. Don’t fucking lie to me, asshole. I see through that shit.”
“Fine. My secret is out. She knows I set her up with the pavilion.”
Confusion tugs his brows together, and I settle more in my seat waiting for him to catch up. It only takes a few seconds, the corner of his mouth stretching into a smirk.
“And she didn’t tear you a new asshole for it?”
“Nope. Not when I admitted it while laying down the new rules.”
“You sly son of a bitch. You just snuck that in there with something that pissed her off more so you wouldn’t have to face the wrath like I did with Luca.”
Another quirk of my lips. “Like I said, I’m not a moron like you.”
Tanner narrows his eyes, his fingers flipping a pen through them.
I have no idea how he always manages to grab something to fiddle with. A pen. A rubber band. A paperclip. It doesn’t matter. His hands are always moving when he’s thinking.
“What I told Luca was your idea-“
“And you were the idiot who followed through with it, but that’s not what we’re here to discuss.”
My mouth curls more as the pen flips faster. Pissing Tanner off is always amusing.
“I really do need access to her dad’s office,” I say, changing the subject before he launches that pen at my face. “I highly doubt she’ll be able to get the truth out of him. Ivy’s loyalty to her family is a problem.”
The pen in his hand stops moving as his nostrils flare, and his head turns just a fraction. He grins and taps the pen against the armrest of his chair. “Do you really think she’ll behave?”
“She has so far.”
His grin lifts more, something flickering behind his eyes. “You sure about that?”
Shrugging, I stare at him with suspicion. “She thinks I’ll leak the tape.”
You can tell Tanner is trying not to laugh. His eyes lock to mine.
“Do you remember how I said she’s not allowed at my house?”
“Yes, why?”
His expression tightens with the restraint it’s taking him not to laugh.
The faint scent of smoke hits me just before my office door pops open and Sawyer peeks his head in.
“Uh, just wanted to let you know the kitchen is on fire.”
The fuck?
My eyes round and shoot to Tanner.
“That’s why,” he laughs as I shove to my feet and run out of the office. “How did you not smell that?”
Two fucking hours. That’s all it took for her to strike out.
I round the corner into the living room and see the flames, my eyes widening more despite the smoke.
An alarm blasts above my head, the guys all gathered in the kitchen trying to put the small fire out while Ivy, Luca and Ava watch from the living room.
My head snaps Ivy’s direction, and she stares at me with a blank expression.
“We were trying to cook dinner,” she says innocently, her eyes filling with concern.
Beside her, Ava and Luca cover their mouths and noses as if trying not to breathe in the smoke, but I suspect smiles linger behind their hands.
Eyeing all three of them suspiciously, I realize Ivy managed to secure reinforcements. How did I not see that coming?
When my stare locks with Ivy’s, I make a silent promise there will be hell to pay for this, but I don’t have time to deal with it at the moment.
Hauling ass into the kitchen, I throw the pantry door open and yell, “Move.”
The guys scatter, and I spin with a fire extinguisher in hand, the white substance quickly dousing the flames.
Whispering draws my attention to the right, three women speaking quietly to each other with all their eyes on me.
So this is the new game she wants to play...
She’s pushed it too far.
I turn back to assess the damage, a growl crawling up my chest to hear four of the guys lose the fight against laughing.
Dropping the fire extinguisher to the ground, I march in Ivy’s direction, her smirk calling to me like a damn siren.
She says nothing as my hand wraps over her bicep, and I drag her from the living room, her head turning back to Ava and Luca.
“It was an accident,” they call out to me in unison, but I don’t believe them. Not that I think Luca and Ava are lying, they just don’t know Ivy like I do.
After marching her into the den on the other side of the staircase, I spin her around and press her against a bookshelf, our eyes locking in battle with the metallic clash of swords.
“Exactly how is setting my kitchen on fire behaving?”
Innocent eyes stare up at me, this woman’s halo held up by her horns.
I scrape my teeth over my bottom lip, my body leaning into hers without meaning to. I can’t help myself, though.
She’s like a magnet that draws me to her. An opponent who has somehow tied her threads to mine, our hatred always tainted with something far more dangerous.
“I was making friends,” she explains, “just like you demanded of me. Grease splashed out of the pan.”
I smile, the cut of it anything but friendly.
Ivy is so full of shit her eyes should be brown.
So fucking pissed that I can’t see straight, I take a breath, pull myself back from the razor-edged precipice and search her face. The innocence never wobbles, but this is Ivy. She’s had plenty of practice.
“You set my house on fire. Pranks are one thing, but that goes beyond being harmless.”
Hurt rolls behind her eyes, denial dancing in behind it. “I didn’t do that on purpose.”
Voice dropping to a rough growl, I argue, “Really? Because you seem to have a thing for fire. Or have you suddenly forgotten the pavilion and my other house-“
“I didn’t do that!”
My eyes narrow on her.
“I mean your house. You and I both know I didn’t start that fire. And the pavilion? Are you seriously going to bring that up when you’re the one who set me up to do it?”
Her hands shove against my chest, but I’m too big for her to move. It doesn’t stop her, though. Ivy’s face twists in anger, her palms slamming into my chest over and over.
“You’re seriously fucked up. You know that, Gabe? All your damn life you’ve been wearing a mask and taking your crap out on me like I had anything to do with it. You’re so busy lying t
o people and making them believe the fraud you are that you can’t see anything real in other people. What just happened in your kitchen was an accident. I wouldn’t set your damn house on fire.”
I grip her chin in my hand, my fingertips a bruising grip on her jaw. Rage drives though me, not just about the fire, but about all of it.
My entire life.
Her part in it.
Any other person would shut up, would back down as the mask falls and they see what’s hidden beneath it, but not Ivy.
She just keeps fighting.
Like she always has.
Like I know she’ll always do when faced with the truth of who I am.
It only makes me believe she’s somehow seen me our whole lives regardless of who I pretended to be.
And the sad truth is, I don’t know whether to hate her for it, or whether I should love that she’s known the truth and never let go regardless of how cruel I could be.
“Why can’t you just be real? Huh? Are you afraid of what people will think? Do you honestly believe anybody will judge you for something that wasn’t your fault? You were a kid, Gabe. A kid! Most grown adults don’t stand a chance against your families, so what chance does a child have to fight them? And all that anger, all that pain, you shove it down and strike out at me because you have no other target. It’s always been that way.”
My face lowers to hers. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She grins, but the expression is tight.
“Okay, Fraud. Keep lying. I won’t believe you. I never have. You might be able to fool everyone else, but you never fooled me. And that’s why you’re fighting me so much. Why you refuse to believe me now. You were real at the cabin. I saw you, not some forgery you pretend to be when the world gets too heavy for your damn shoulders. You were real! But as soon as you saw your father again, the mask was back on. You did the same thing you always do. Swallowed down your rage and tried to strike out at me for it. So fine. You want me muted? You want me to behave? Fine! I’ll give you what you want for once just so you can see how much you don’t actually want it.”
It doesn’t matter that my face is inches from hers, Ivy is practically screaming.
I shove away from her, our eyes locked as I step back and look at the woman who has been driving me crazy since the day we met.
Tears shimmer in her blue eyes, not from sorrow, but from anger. The only thing is, I don’t think the anger is directed at me.