Page 73 of Merciless Heir
“We need a plan,” I finally say.
“For what? I told you, I don’t want to be with you. Sure, you’re rich, hot, gorgeous. You tick a lot of boxes for a lucky lady out there. I’m not her. I don’t want to be her.”
She doesn’t quite look at me as she says this and she turns back to her desk, continuing to close books and notebooks and tidy up.
I breathe out. I don’t know why, but I can’t shake the feeling I’ve fucked things up.
“I’m talking about a plan for the tiara. I think we should push, see what happens.”
Sadie turns to face me and gives me a curious look. “We have one. And right now we don’t have a castle to storm.”
I go back to my damn mother. I’m positive Sadie’s been employed by her, thrown my way, or would have been if I hadn’t found her first. But while I’d love to know the truth, again it comes to me it doesn’t matter. Unless, of course, my mother is out to… What? Actually destroy the company?
No, it’s not that.
While I keep going back to that, over and over again, just like I do with her involvement with Sadie, Mother’s not going to hurt me. Nor my brothers. And Sadie…yeah, as much as I like to know everything, that ultimate truth isn’t important, either.
Still.
I lean against the sofa’s back in Sadie’s living room, the gray light outside making the colors in here brighter. “You asked me a question about my mother.”
“We talked about that.”
“I know.” I put my hands to either side of me and clench my fingers into the firm and thick top of the sofa’s back. Like it’s going to stop me from going to Sadie. “I keep coming back to it.”
“You and your mommy issues aren’t mine.”
I grin. There’s the Sadie I like. All sharp-edged sass and snark. It soothes the soul. It riles. “She’s not about to hurt me.”
“She does know you,” Sadie says.
I nod. “In spite of that.”
She gives a short burst of laughter, then pulls her scowl back in place. “I’ll overlook that fault.”
“My mother’s not about to hurt me, but I think I want to find out what Faye’s involvement in all this is.”
Sadie’s scowl melts as excitement takes its place. “Are you thinking if she is involved she might know of the tiara’s whereabouts?”
“It’s worth a try.”
She rubs a hand over her face and comes up to me. “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. You’re the criminal.”
“Your diabolical, twisted mind gives mine a run for the money.”
I laugh softly. “A test. You’re telling me you think it’ll turn up soon. There’ll be some kind of event if we don’t find it first?”
“Ye-es.” She stares at me hard. “But I’m hoping to find the damn thing first.”
“Why don’t you put word out that you’re on the trail or you have it? I don’t know?”
“How will that work? I think we need more.”
I straighten up now and step a little closer to her and if I breathe in her smoke and jasmine then it’s just there, not because I crave that tiny taste of her. “Like what, Sadie?”
“You want to get word back to your mother—if she’s deeply involved—and see what happens?”