by Lily White
Looking back at her one more time, I pause before opening the door. She flashes me a soft smile, her eyes meeting mine as she waves me off to go deal with Tanner.
Something is bothering her, though, and it worries me to see it. “This will only take a second.”
“Go,” she insists.
“I’ll kill Tanner quickly and then be right back,” I say before yanking the door open hard enough that it slams against the wall.
Several sets of eyes look at me in surprise as I turn to storm down the hall leading to Tanner’s office, my pissed off stride warning people to move the hell out of my way.
Slamming my hand down on the handle of Tanner’s door, I throw that open to see him staring at me, his feet kicked up on the desk, his chair leaned back and his hands folded behind his head.
“This better be important,” I say, rushing forward, “because if it’s some bullshit like you can’t find a paperclip, I’m going to kick your fucking-“
My foot slips out from under me suddenly, the floor slick as shit when I land with a hard thud on my back and slide sideways into Tanner’s sideboard. The entire thing jostles so hard that a pitcher rocks on its base and tips my direction, its contents spilling over the side of the furniture to splash down on top of me.
My teeth slam together and I lift my hands to notice that instead of water, the pitcher was filled with red liquid, my suit now fucking ruined as the red shit soaks into the fabric.
Head rolling over the floor, I stare up at the asshole who hasn’t budged an inch except for the slight tilt at the corner of his mouth.
“You okay?” he asks, his voice absent of actual concern. “Hope that suit wasn’t expensive.”
“There’s no emergency, is there?” I ask through clenched teeth.
“Nope,” he answers, his lips popping on the word.
“I’m going to fucking kill you.”
Tanner grins and tosses a pen onto the surface of his desk before pulling his feet down to stand up from his chair. Grabbing the strap of his bag, he keeps his eyes trained on me while settling it over his shoulder.
“I took a page from your girl’s playbook. Sex lube is slick as shit, isn’t it? You really should watch where you’re going. You might get hurt one of these days.”
Laughter shakes his shoulders, and he grins like he’s won the war. Walking my direction, Tanner steps over me rather than offering a hand to help me up, his foot sliding just a bit in the lube as he heads out of his office.
“Payback’s a bitch, Gabe. Remember that next time you want to fuck with me.”
He pauses. “Oh, and that was ink I added to the water that spilled. Also a touch of glitter since I remember how much you loved it in high school. Good luck scrubbing it off your skin.”
Chuckling again, he leaves his office as the back of my head lowers to the floor. The sound of the elevator dinging open is faint a few seconds later.
Closing my eyes, I lick my tongue against my top teeth and silently vow to teach Tanner a valuable lesson in the next few days.
. . .
My hand tightens over the steering wheel at the soft laughter coming from the passenger seat.
Casting her a narrow-eyed glare, I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling at the way Ivy fights the urge to laugh harder, her gaze sneaking peeks at my hands as she rolls her lips into a tight line.
“Don’t even say it,” I warn, barely hiding the humor in my voice.
“I’m sorry,” she breathes, her words strained. Laughter bleeds over her lips, the sound reminiscent of a leaky balloon. “It just looks like you fistfucked a unicorn.”
Her face is red from fighting the fucking giggles.
It didn’t matter that I’d scrubbed my skin for over an hour, the red ink and bullshit glitter stuck.
After scrubbing, the red dulled to a pink, the glitter catching light every time I move my hand a certain way. It only makes the staining look worse.
“Tanner is a dead man as soon as we’re done with your dad. The son of a bitch has declared a war I refuse to let him win.”
Ivy wipes a tear from her eye. “Technically, I started it.”
“Yeah, well, now I’m your ally, so we’re fighting on the same team for once.”
Her eyes snap my direction. “You mean that?”
Yeah, I think, I do.
It only took eighteen years for me to pull my head out of ass to figure out that beneath the hatred I’d felt for Ivy - beneath the need I had to destroy her - she truly was the only person who could distract me from the bullshit in my life.
That not only counts for something, in many ways, it counts for everything.
Reaching over, I tangle my fingers with hers. “We kept each other breathing, right?”
Her expression softens, the giggles gone and replaced by shock. “Careful with that. The sky might open up and strike us down with another storm for joining forces.”
“We are the storm, love. There’s not much the world can do to us now,” I say as I turn the wheel to take us off the main highway en route to her father’s house.
A few seconds of silence pass before she sighs and looks out the side window.
“Maybe we should postpone seeing my dad. I mean, number one, it’s not good that you’re walking in there looking like you just strangled an entire village of pink marshmallow Peeps...”
My lips curl at that.
“...but I also worry that there’s more to what’s going on that we don’t understand.”
“You’re worried about your dad, I assume.”
“Yeah.” Her head turns my direction, the manicured lawns of the affluent neighborhood all blending into one another as we drive past expensive houses. “I know you don’t have a good relationship with Warbucks, but my dad has never done anything to me. I don’t want to hurt him.”
Keeping my voice intentionally soft, I swipe my thumb over hers and ask, “Even if he’s hurting other people?”
Ivy’s eyes meet mine, silence falling as the question hangs unanswered between us.
“Damn it, Gabe,” she whispers, returning her attention to the side window as I return mine to the road. “He wouldn’t do that.”
I have my doubts, especially after what she’s told us, but convincing Ivy of it will be next to impossible. Not unless her dad comes right out with it and proves he’s a bastard.
Nothing else is said as we drive the rest of the way, my car pulling to a slow stop once we reach the gates to her father’s estate.
The guard eyes me suspiciously, but then his brows shoot up to see Ivy beside me. He doesn’t look pleased to hit the button to open the gate, his eyes remaining locked on my face until I hit the gas to pull forward.
Ivy’s fingers tighten around mine as we weave along the long driveway, her stare fixed to the gardens that stretch out, the plants painted in vibrant color from the setting sun.
Reaching the house, I park in front, my jaw tense. I step out of the car and round the front to open Ivy’s door to help her out.
As soon as she’s on her feet, she tilts her chin to stare up at me, hesitation obvious in her eyes.
“Always the gentleman,” she whispers, the words now an inside joke between us.
She’s not saying it to tease me this time, though, but more for a connection she can hold onto while walking into a situation that might break her heart.
Ivy is looking for strength in a bond that, although new in the form it takes now, has always existed between us.
I lift her hand and kiss the top, happy to give her whatever she needs. “Only for you.”
Sighing again, she nods her head and rounds her shoulders. “Let’s get this over with.”
Keeping her hand locked in mine, I lead her up the large porch steps, my thumb sweeping over the engagement ring on her finger that I briefly consider may hold more meaning than either of us intended.
Ivy presses the doorbell, her body tense beside mine as their butler answers, the smiles he give
s her fading as soon as his eyes turn my direction.
After giving me a cutting look, he returns his attention to Ivy. “We thought you’d come home a lot earlier, Miss Callahan. And we also assumed without company.”
“Don’t tell me you agree with Dad, Harrison. I have every right to choose what to do. I’m a grown woman now.”
Harrison steps back to let us in. “I’ll tell your father you’re here. It’ll be best if you wait for him in the sitting room.”
“Thank you,” she grumbles, her tone reminding me of a scolded child.
When we step into the sitting room adjacent to the foyer, Ivy glances at me.
“This is already going bad. I never have to wait for him in here.”
I squeeze her hand. “Let me deal with it.”
Governor Callahan steps into the room seconds later, his face twisted with disapproval, his dark clothes and dark hair a stain against the white and cream color scheme surrounding us.
After flicking a cursory glance at his daughter, his eyes slide my direction, anger obvious, despite his attempt not to show it.
He’s still staring at me as he speaks to Ivy.
“I thought we already discussed this.” His stare cuts her direction. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
Ivy attempts to pull her hand from my grasp, but I refuse to release it. I flat out refuse to let go. I did that once when I left to go to college. And when I came back, she was barely a shell of herself. I won’t make the same mistake again.
The mask I wear slips into place, my voice rolling smoothly over my silver tongue. “It’s good to see you again, Governor. My fiancée tells me you have an issue with our engagement. I’m here to address the problem.”
Flipping the corner of his jacket aside, her father slips a hand into his pocket and pins me in place with a glare so seething most men would buckle beneath it.
It’s a pity for him that I’ve been raised beneath men a hell of a lot more terrifying than this.
“You’re not part of this, Gabriel-“
“Actually, that’s exactly where you’re wrong.”
His brows crash together to be interrupted, my smile stretching into place in response.
“I don’t appreciate anybody telling Ivy what to do. And I especially don’t appreciate any person attempting to step between us.”
His reaction doesn’t surprise me. In fact, it’s exactly what I wanted in order to corner him on what we know about Luca’s father.
This entire charade is to piss him off and knock him off balance, to force him to slip and say the wrong thing. Either that, or to force him to believe my relationship with his daughter so he explains or confesses what he knows about the situation we’re in.
Most fathers would warn their daughter about potential trouble. Most who truly love their kids would lay out the exact reasons why they need to avoid disaster.
Apparently, Governor Callahan is not one of them.
That fact is especially clear given the way he stares at me now with an arrogant tilt of his mouth.
This father has other plans.
“I don’t know what you hope to accomplish by coming in my home and accusing me of being a problem.”
He pauses, his dark eyes searching mine as my fingers tighten more with Ivy’s.
“But I have somewhere to be and don’t have time to play around with you.”
Cutting his stare to Ivy, his voice is ice cold. “I gave you an order. You chose not to listen.”
Stepping forward, I tug on her arm to pull her closer to me, my defenses on high alert because I won’t accept the way he’s speaking to her.
“Why don’t you just tell us what the problem is, Governor?”
Refusing to budge an inch from the calm mask I wear, I lock my eyes with his. “Maybe if we understood what concerns you so much, we can work out an agreement.”
Again, I’m trying to trick him into giving us something - fucking anything - that we can use against my family or anybody else.
He refuses, instead flicking a glance in my direction before walking across the room to pick up a small remote.
“Let me show you why this is a problem. And when I get done with this, you’ll understand that nobody comes into my house and makes demands of me or questions my decisions.”
His thumb slams a button to turn on a television that hangs on a far wall, the screen coming to life as he hits another button to play a video that knocks me back a step to recognize what it is.
Ivy gasps when she recognizes the grainy scene, both our eyes locked to a surveillance video taken ten years ago in the middle of the city.
It’s the dead of night, the image green as if taken with night vision capability, and even though the picture isn’t perfectly clear, it’s obvious not only what we’re seeing, but who it is caught on film.
The time stamp below runs quickly, a younger version of Ivy moving around her father’s pavilion with a gas can in her hands.
“Daddy? What? How? Why did you tell me Gabriel did it if you have this? How long have you known?”
While she rambles off one question after the other, I stand frozen, staring at the image.
How the fuck did he get this? I can’t make sense of why he’s showing us or what he plans to do with it, but dread is a knot in my stomach to find out.
Governor Callahan pauses the recording and looks at his daughter.
“Unlike you, I don’t reveal all my cards until I have to,” he says coldly, “but now that I’ve been pushed to this point, let me explain how this is going to go.”
His eyes cut to me. “If you think I don’t know how you operate, Gabriel, you have a lot to learn. I think you’re forgetting I worked with your father for years before I broke off from that shit. I know how your entire group was trained to act.”
My eyes narrow on him in rage, and he grins.
“Here’s what I’m offering. You leave my daughter, as in walk the fuck off right now, and nothing happens to her.”
“Dad? What the hell?” Ivy snaps.
“Shut up, Ivy, and let the men talk.”
Her outburst means nothing to him, his stare never leaving my face as he barks for her to get in her place.
Let the men talk?
You slimy piece of shit.
It’s right at this moment that I finally see what I should have known all along. This man has no respect for her. Not one damn ounce of it. And the pedestal he’s kept her on has been more to keep her feet off the ground than to be a fucking father and show her how to walk on her own.
It only pisses me off more. Still, I say nothing, my jaw tight, my eyes locked to his as I wait to see just how low this son of a bitch will go.
“If you still want to play off this bullshit engagement, I’ll leak the tape.”
My jaw clenches tighter, but I force a grin that shows nothing of what I’m thinking. “Wouldn’t that only hurt you? Your own daughter committing a crime under your watch.”
His grin matches mine. “You have a lot to learn still, Gabriel, about how those older than you work. And when I can prove that I just now received this and decided to arrest my own damn daughter because I’m tough on crime, nobody will come after me for it. But what will it do to her?”
“You wouldn’t,” I seethe.
His slimy grin stretches wider. “Try me. I’ve been playing this game a lot longer than you. You have no idea what I’ll sacrifice to protect my interests.”
Beside me, Ivy begins yelling at her dad, and while I can hear her voice, my brain isn’t making sense of the words. I’m too busy staring this asshole down, my mind scrambling to figure out a way around what he’s doing.
This is the last fucking thing I expected him to do. Destroy his own daughter? What kind of monster is he?
Apparently, a father just like mine.
And now that I know that, the game has to change again.
Ivy is crying by this point, but neither of us look at her. We’re too busy glaring at each other.
My thumb sweeps across the engagement ring once more, a silent promise screaming in my head that I will fix this situation since I’m the asshole who caused it by setting her up in the first place.
Fuck, this is going to hurt her. It’s going to kill me in the process, but I need time to figure out what to do.
“Fine,” I growl. “I’ll let her go. But only because I actually give a damn about her, unlike you.”
“What?” Ivy turns to me, her eyes wild in my peripheral vision.
I can’t turn to look at her, can’t drag my stare away from the monster standing in front of me. “Gabriel, no.”
Her eyes shoot back to her dad. “This is insane. You wouldn’t do this to me.”
She might have a problem believing it, but I don’t. Governor Callahan just ripped off his own mask and showed me that whatever he’s involved in is important enough to toss his own daughter under the bus to protect it.
This is a lot bigger than any of us realize.
I shake my hand free of Ivy’s, my eyes finally sliding her way, begging her to see the truth of how I feel, fucking begging her to see beneath my mask like she always has.
She’s always known when I was lying. But judging by the tears in her eyes now, I worry that she won’t know I’m lying now.
“The engagement is off. Don’t call me again. Don’t come to my house or show up at my office. We’re done.”
Her expression falls, tears leaking from her eyes as she searches my face. “No. I’m going with you. He won’t actually do this.”
She rushes toward me, and I grab her arm and force her across the room to her dad.
Ivy trips over her own feet walking backwards, her bottom lip trembling when her father wraps an arm around her to hold her still.
I stare at her for a few silent seconds, inwardly promising her that I will find a way to fix this, but until then she needs to see through Fraud and remember Gabriel stares out at her.
My eyes lift to her dad. “You win.”
His expression doesn’t so much as twitch in response to tell me what he’s thinking.
I look at Ivy one last time before spinning on my heel to storm away, her voice a shriek of sound when she calls for me to come back.