Page 63 of Bought

“You’ve got an idea,” Atlas observed.

“Livia,” I said succinctly.

“Oh yes, good plan.” He sat back. “So what? Hit her up and see what she can find out?”

“I’m sure she has some contacts. I’ll see if I can get in touch with her.”

He nodded. “I’ll send out a few feelers. I’ve got some contacts of my own.”

I should have felt better with a plan, but it made no difference to the anger sitting like a large, hot stone in my gut. “I’ll have to keep the girl,” I said. “At least until we know what the Hamiltons are up to for certain. She knows too much.”

Atlas gave me an assessing look. “Really? Who’s going to believe her, though?”

“I’m keeping her,” I repeated flatly. I wasn’t going to argue about it. Zara would have to stay with me until all of this was sorted out. I couldn’t risk her going anywhere with the kind of information she had on me already.

Atlas is right though. She’s a poor little nobody. Who’s going to believe her if she takes it to the media or anywhere else?

I ignored the thought. I couldn’t let her go, the risk that someone would find out was too great. She was staying with me and that was final.

Atlas’s gaze turned speculative. “Is she something to you, Ten?”

I snorted. “Hardly. She’s Isabel’s age.”

“So?”

“What do you mean so? She’s nearly twenty years younger than me.” I was about to say more, but then stopped myself. I’d already invaded Zara’s privacy with a background check, I didn’t need to pass her secrets on to Atlas as well. “The gap between us is too wide,” I continued instead. “I shouldn’t have taken her home in the first place.”

Atlas lifted a shoulder. “If you say so.”

I gave him a glare. “It’s just sex, nothing more.”

“I hear you.”

Except he was radiating skepticism. Not that I was going to waste time arguing with him. “Let me know what you discover,” I said, turning for the door.

“I will. And Zara?”

“She can stay where she is,” I said shortly as I walked out. “In my house.”

23

Zara

Being locked in Fox’s guest room wasn’t the problem — after all, it wasn’t as though I had anywhere else to go. It was having utterly screwed up my mission that was the problem.

He knew. He knew everything, and all without me saying a damn word. The only thing I’d done was text Isabel and from that one text and a glimpse of her name, he’d managed to uncover every single thing.

Asshole man.

I’d failed. And the worst part wasn’t that I’d failed myself, my plans for escaping New York now in ruins. The worst part was the feeling that I’d failed him.

I didn’t understand, because seriously, who was he to me? Why the fuck did I care? This weekend had been only about sex, so why the memory of the anger and disappointment in his eyes when he’d looked at me in his office this morning should make me feel so awful, I didn’t know.

He was a billionaire, a hugely powerful man with a massive company and a ruthless reputation, and I was sure it wasn’t about me in particular. He was angry because I’d played him. Because I’d taken him in. It couldn’t be for any other reason.

Dad used to look at me that way, and with him I didn’t even need to do anything. My mere existence was a disappointment.

I guess Fox couldn’t let me leave, though, not when I knew all about his secret. He was being paranoid — I mean, I could go to the media, but I had no evidence to back me up and no one was going to risk potentially being sued without hard facts. Not that I would go to the media anyway. I didn’t want to share what he and I had done over the past couple of days, not with anyone. It felt private, special. Even if it hadn’t been special to him, it had been special to me, and I wanted to keep it close.