Page 76 of Merciless Heir
“Sadie.” He says my name as a warning, almost a question. He’s a smart man, he’s cottoning on to what I mean.
I shrug, aware he’s still touching me and though my coat is warm enough, he turns my internal temperature up to high tropics, just from that touch of his hand on my arm.
“It might be the only way. If it is really missing and we can’t get it, then we need plan B. This is it.”
“We pass your fake off as the real deal to my mother and Jenson.”
I nod.
His mouth is grim as he sighs. “Plant B is the last shot, Sadie. I’d prefer to do this above board if we can. Just for myself. But if not? Fuck it. We do that, we save the company with the fake, and then…”
“We part ways.”
His eyes turn blazing. “Fuck no. We work together until I get that thing back. It’s mine.”
Yia-yia’s head is bent down over the photos as she runs reverent fingers over the images. She hasn’t said anything to me since she opened the folder at her worktable.
That suits me fine. Kingston is way too much in my head right now for me to carry on a meaningful conversation. And I know her well enough to leave her be while she’s looking at a job.
He’s not going to be happy. Minutes after he informed me he was coming with me—I think the words were “sticking to you like epoxy”—we hit Avenue A and first miracles of miracles, a yellow cab with a vacant sign headed towards us. I flagged it down and jumped in.
There’s going to be words if I know him. But I need this time. And he’s already invaded so much, I don’t need him in every single aspect of my life.
It feels a little too intimate. Too pervasive. Too permanent.
And he’s right. I’m not for him.
Could you imagine? A billionaire and an ex-criminal who can’t shake her past? Not the past where I was the Raven, but the darker one, the fetid one, that part which is part of me, stretching back to when I landed in my father’s care. If anyone can call it care.
If it hadn’t been for Athena…
Suddenly I look over at the woman in question, the one who saved me. She’s no longer studying the photos. She’s studying me.
And I resist the urge to squirm.
“Well?”
“You know what I think, honey.” She eyes me again and sighs, one bright blue fingernail stroking an image. “I want to know what you think.”
“That you’re not the sweet old lady everyone thinks you are.”
Athena snorts and rises from the chintz chair. “Drop the old and we’ll talk.” But the humor doesn’t reach her eyes. “Not about this. About the man tying you in knots.”
“He’s no one.”
“Not many people would call a billionaire that. Then again, the mold was destroyed when you came along, Sadie.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I don’t. I do. I’m lost and I damn well know it. But soon he’ll be gone and I can forget him. Or pretend to, anyway. Every word I said to him about us never being a thing and me not wanting it to be is true. Doesn’t make the ache inside go away, though.
“I’ve known you were ten. I managed to get you away from him and we formed a good team, dodging the system, so I know you. And your tells. And honey, you’re not even trying to hide anything right now.”
“Because,” I say, “there’s nothing to hide. Nothing’s going on.”
“If you say so.”
I glance at the pictures and then at her. “Can you do it?”
Yia-yia laughs. “I’m not an amateur. I’m the best.”