Page 1 of Ruthless Villain
Chapter 1
Autumn
The moment Zoe’s call came through, I knew something was up.
A bad something. The sort of something that fits right into the I-don’t-need-anything-else-to-go-wrong category.
The confirmation of that was there in the nail-biting, teeth-chattering way she’d said hello.
“What’s going on?” I try to keep the worry out of my tone but fail.
“Maybe you should sit.” The caution rippling through my best friend’s voice contorts my stomach into twisted shards of molten metal.
I grip the phone tighter against my ear.
“Seriously, sit. It’s not good news.”
Christ.What the hell could have happened now?
I make my way over to the bed and sit on the edge, my knees brushing against my suitcase. I’m supposed to be heading to LAX to join Zoe and my family in Canada for tonight’s big ice hockey match.
It’s an important night for the team my father just bought, so he’s summoned everyone—family, friends, and business associates alike.
As Zoe works as an assistant at my mother’s PR company, she traveled with my family days ago.
Hockey is not my thing, but neither is defying my father.
To those who have the Jakobe blood running through their veins—or have business ties to our family—my father is the judge, jury, and executioner of their lives.
“I’m sitting,” I tell her.
“Okay, is your laptop nearby?”
“Always.”I’m a journalist. I nearly came into this world with a laptop nestled in my palms. I cradle the phone against my shoulder and grab the laptop from my desk. “I got it.”
Zoe sighs, and her breath sounds staticky through the phone. “Before I say anything more, I think it’s important that you know your father really tried to do damage control, but it was too late.”
An Arctic chill rolls over my body, filling me with more dread. “Jesus, Zoe, just tell me what happened?”
“Part of it is about Charlotte.”
Charlotte is my sister. At twenty-eight, she’s older than me by four years, a wildly successful entrepreneur, and Miss I’m-so-perfect she believes everyone should fall to their knees and worship her like the queen she thinks she is.
And they do. Any day now I expect her to be crowned Miss Universe.
“What about Charlotte?” My tone sounds sour. With everything my sister has done to me, and gotten away with, it’s hard for me to consider that something bad could have happened to her.
I’m not an evil cold-hearted bitch like her. I’m the civil, level-headed sister, but even I have my limits. That aside, I’m sure that if something bad had happened my parents would be callingme to break the news. Not my best friend. So this is something else.
“Cole proposed to Charlotte last night.” The words spill from her lips, and my heart hammers with the echo of that awful truth I learned long ago when Cole broke up with me.
Theawful painful truththat he wanted my sister from the get-go and used me as a stepping-stone to get closer to her.
He dated me for two years, then her for eleven months. Now they’re engaged.
Two-timing asshole.
“Proposed…” I only speak because I know I should say something.