Page 14 of Coerced

“I’m not doing it,” I told him. “I can’t do this. Not knowingly, not willingly. Not only could we face some serious legal ramifications if this is ever found out, but it’s wrong. Morally. This isn’t who I am. This isn’t who you are.”

Or, at least, it wasn’t anywhere close to the image I’d had in my mind of him.

His shoulders fell. “Aria, this is never going to come back on you. I promise, I’ll make sure that happens. But we can’t just stop and walk away. That’s not how this works.”

“So, you think I can just continue? I feel like nothing but a fraud. How could I even dream of painting anything good?”

“Don’t you understand? It doesn’t need to be good. It just needs to exist for this to work. They don’t care what you paint as long as it can be passed off as an original.”

It was like a knife had been lodged in my heart. How could he be so callous about it? How could he not understand the hurt he’d just inflicted?

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. It was obvious we weren’t going to see eye to eye on this.

He must have realized I was struggling, because he said, “I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear. I wish you could just stop, but we can’t. There’s a process, and I need to find a way to get us out of it. Plus, I need to figure out another source of income in the meantime. You have to give me time, Aria. Please, I’m begging you.”

I held his pleading stare for several long moments.

Why did I feel an obligation to continue? Was it for my mom? My sister? Hell, was it for my dad?

I’d heard that conversation in the back. I didn’t think these people messed around or made idle threats. Maybe I needed to give my dad the time he needed to get us out of this.

I stepped forward, placed the paintings on the counter between us. “Get us out of this,” I demanded. “I will not continue this forever.”

“I will, Aria. I promise.”

Without another word, I turned and walked out of the shop. My body was tense, my heart broken as I made my way back to my car.

If I thought I felt despair before, I’d been wrong. That didn’t compare to this.

All I could do was vow to never step foot in that store again and give this a deadline. One year. My dad had one year to get us out of this.

But he never did.

And I wished I would have known when I left the store that morning that Vic had never left the parking lot. He was still there, watching to see what my dad was going to do, and he wasn’t alone.

FOUR

Paxton

Present Day

“Everyone in position?”

I held myself steady, barely breathing, as I waited for confirmation from my team that they were all ready to go. We were in the middle of a rescue, and I refused to be the lead guy who screwed it up by not being absolutely certain of the state of each member on my team.

Once I received confirmation from everyone—Damon, Magnus, Banks, Hart, and Nixon—that they were prepared for what was ahead of us, I said, “We’ve got one shot, boys. Stay focused on your targets.”

“It’s not our first rodeo, Pax,” Hart pointed out. “We’re good. Let’s get this done.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Of course,he wasn’t.

And I knew I could count on the guys to do what they needed to do, but there was that one small part of me that was compelled to take additional precautions. I needed to be sure, because this case required that extra level of sensitivity.

No matter how badly I wanted to dive in quickly like Hart had suggested, I had one more thing I needed to confirm. “Are you sure you’re good to go, Nixon? You can get the kid if you think it’d be better.”

“Unless you think you can’t handle it, I’m good with my role,” he fired back, his tone lethal.