Page 17 of Fragile Twisted Vows
But I can give her a place to stay while I use her for security and distraction. She can at least not wander the streets or bartend at some sex club downtown.
And when I’m done with her, when I finally get myself far away from here and away from these bastards that are determined to ruin me, I will let her go.
If she’s not ruined in the process.
“Because you’re my reason for the suspicious activity,” I say as I eye her intently, confusion filling her blue gaze.
She really does look nothing like them. Which is why she’s been cast out. Because her real mother isn’t a Fairchild. Because she really isn’t much of family at all.
Which is why my ploy is the perfect, most believable ploy there is.
“Because I wasn’t involved in crime or anything of the sort. I was hiding away because I was having an affair with you,” I smile, my mouth snaking up in a curve as she stares at me in horror.
“No-”
“But yes. Don’t you get it? Megan got suspicious of me as soon as you went away to college. I wasn’t around much. I was always on my phone. A phone she was never allowed to see. I didn’t spend my nights with her. Because you and I were here, in this penthouse, fucking and falling in love,” I say, baiting her like the devil I am.
She shakes her head at me, refusing to go along with this even though this could keep her off the streets.
“I can’t lie to her like that. She wants to be district attorney. If this gets out, it will taint her reputation,” she says.
“And why are you so concerned with her reputation? She wants nothing to do with you. She left you in an alleyway, Lucille. She let your family throw you out and never once took you in. Correct?” I growl, the truth pissing me off as soon as it’s aired out.
“Yes, but…I can’t let her think that I betrayed her like that…” she whispers, and I can’t help but laugh at her.
“She’s betrayed you your entire life. What makes you think she wasn’t fucking around on me? She hated me. This is only hypothetical in our world. It’s just a lie that will serve you and I both,” I say, knowing damn well that I slept around on Megan too.
She just never found out about it.
Because she never knew how often I was in Mexico.
She had no knowledge of my other life.
And even though she got suspicious before the divorce, now I have the perfect fucking reason.
And it’s this little, blue-eyed brunette standing before me, eyes wide with both fear and curiosity.
“And what if I don’t go along with this?” she asks, twisting her hands in a knot in front of that stupid, cropped shirt that I want to set on fire.
“What if I say no?” she asks as she meets my gaze, which doesn’t just turn serious.
It turns deadly.
“Then you die,” I say simply, shrugging my shoulders as if it’s a fact she should already know.
Because she should know this. She knows I’m a careless son of a bitch.
I’m only doing this to save myself and my family.
I don’t give a shit about her or her half family that hates her.
Even if she’s innocent. Even if she’s been abused. I’ve seen much worse.
Lucille Fairchild has zero effect on me.
Then why does the memory of her pain bother me so much?
The distant thought flutters through my mind and I wipe it away as quickly as it appeared. Because I don’t have time to think about another person’s bullshit. It’s got nothing to do with feeling anything for her.
