Had fallen for it before.
If my father had been a master-manipulator, she’d been the queen.
My voice dropped to a growl. “You want to stay with me? When I hate you?” It was true. I hated her. Hated her for how much I still loved her.
That she still held the power to fuck me up.
She pinned the fakest smile on her face, like this was a win-win. “You won me, Logan. Let’s show him what that means. What he gambled with. When my father realizes what Jarek has done? What he’s been doing? He’ll set me free.”
She sat forward a fraction. “I think Jarek has turned, Logan. I know it.” On a ragged breath, she touched her chest. “I know it. I just have to find a way to prove it, and I need a place to stay while I do.”
“And when they come for me? Like you said?”
“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. My father…he owes me this.” Her knee was bouncing so hard I knew she was trying to convince herself.
“What does he owe you?”
Crestfallen hope singed her expression. “A chance.”
Without giving her a warning, I dragged her to her feet, spun her around, and pressed her back to the desk.
I pinned her to the hard, unforgiving metal.
Shock filled her gasp, and those fire-agate eyes flashed with flames that could sear me through.
She’d ruin me.
She’d ruin me.
I already felt myself coming apart.
I couldn’t let her go there. Couldn’t let her get under my skin.
Still, the words wheezed from my lungs when I bit them out. “How can I trust you?”
She stared up at me, dark chocolate hair spread out on my desk. Her face so goddamn pretty she made my chest feel like it was going to cave.
Her heart ran at an erratic, frenzied rhythm. Her spirit a wail. “I give you my word.”
My eyes squeezed tight.
Her word? She’d given me a million of them.
Promises that had slayed.
I needed to toss her lying ass out onto the street. Let her fend for herself because there was no time in history when she’d actually needed me. Still, the question gritted out, “What do I get out of it?”
“Anything you want. Everything I have.” I saw the flash of grief before she squeezed her eyes closed, as if she were searching around in herself for resolve. For a way to take it back.
Because I think we both knew this wasn’t going to end well for either of us.
Then her lids fluttered open, and I had to stop myself from falling all the way down into their hidden depths.
I shifted to plant my hands on either side of her head, and I angled down, so close our lips nearly touched. The words were quiet threats. “And what if I don’t want anything you have?”
Her hand curled in my shirt, a plea, poison, I didn’t know, I just knew I could feel her sinking her nails right back into my soul. She lifted herself an inch and brought us chest to chest.
“You said you loved me once. If it was true? If it was real? Then do this one thing for me. Let Jarek’s debt become mine, and I will be the one who makes him pay.”