Bile lifted in my throat.
Jarek would do anything to protect his unstable position. He was also a narcissist who would never admit he was the one who’d gotten himself there.
He’d pin the blame on me.
Pin the blame on Logan.
I pushed to standing. Every part of me was at war as I paced. Finally, I let out the plea, “I think I need your help, Taylor.”
“Anything.”
I hesitated, then whispered, “Are you still seeing Dominic?”
“If you mean getting some of those yummy O’s on the sly? Then why yes, yes I am.”
It was always, always on the sly because our father would kill her if he knew.
Dominicliterally, and not in the way she used it.
“Before he does anything, he needs to get confirmation that Jarek is out of the city and there is no one guarding the house. If it’s clear, then I need him to get something for me out of Jarek’s office. There’s a large safe at the back of the closet.”
Taylor actually squealed. “Like…a covert, ninja mission in the middle of the night?”
She clearly hadn’t fully grasped the severity of what our family did.
“Kind of like that.”
“How do we get into the safe?”
“I think I might be able to figure out the combination.”
Jarek was almost superstitious in the way he used numbers. I prayed it would come out in my favor. I gave her the options of what I thought it might be.
“He’ll have to shut off the alarms to get inside,” I continued, “and no one can know he went in there.”
“What do you need?” Her voice dropped with the scandal, so on board.
It was wrong dragging her into this, but I didn’t have a lot of options. If I was going to do this, I needed evidence, and I was pretty sure I knew where to find it.
“There’s a fake bottom in the safe, and there’s a leather case in there that has a lock.”
I’d seen Jarek bring it in and out of his office many times over the years.
“What’s in it?” she whispered.
I hesitated, then said, “I don’t know exactly, but I’m certain it’s my freedom.”
Taylor sobered, her voice sincere, “We’ll get it. I promise. It’s not right, what Papa does. The way these men treat us. Like we’re objects to be sold. I won’t do it, and I’ll stand beside you when you walk away. It’s time we make a stand. Fuck ’em.”
She was right.
Fuck them.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it away to look at the text that had come in.
Logan: Be ready in an hour. Wear the red dress I bought you.
I didn’t know how he’d gotten my number, or when he’d added his contact information to my phone, but a tremor of anticipation rolled down my spine.