Treachery

“Take me home.”

“You’re angry,” I say as I pull the now empty champagne flute from her hand to place it on a small table beside us, a grin tilting my lips when blue eyes lift to narrow on my face.

It doesn’t surprise me to see the hatred in her expression. I’ve seen it before. Enjoy it immensely, only because I also enjoy wiping it away.

Beneath those red cheeks and the hate stare that is now at full volume, there is a vein of attraction in Luca, like a string that can be plucked just right and made to sing.

Now just happens to be a very bad time to pluck it.

With the way she’s eye stabbing me, she’d be more likely to rip my dick from my body and shove it down my throat than wrap her pretty lips around it.

“Thank you for the news report, Captain Obvious. It’s good to see you’re still able to accurately guess the effect you have on other people. Take me the fuck home. I’m tired of your little party and everybody in your damn circle.”

She moves to scoot around me, but I cage her against the wall tighter, my hips pressing against her stomach, her head snapping up to trap me in a glare so lethal it slices the skin.

“Let me go.”

She’s cute when she’s mad, but also frustrating. “Just take the deal, Luca. Then all of this can go away and-“

Without blinking an eye, she interrupts me. “If you don’t let me go in the next three seconds, I’ll scream.”

“You’ll do no such thing.”

With my hands braced against the wall on either side of her head, I lean down until we’re eye to eye. “Take the deal-“

“Oh, my God! Yes, Ta

Luca’s loud voice echoes through the hall, her words drawing a crowd of curious glances.

I step back from her, wide-eyed and momentarily stu

A few people laugh and whisper as they glance our direction. When I turn to glare back at them, Luca takes the opportunity to sneak around me in her bid to escape.

She marches in the direction of the back doors while I’m fast on her heels, my voice an angry hiss of a whisper. “What the fuck was that?”

People are still staring in our direction, their hands moving up to hide the coy smiles on their faces.

“I figured you wouldn’t give a shit if I screamed like you were murdering me. But making people believe you were fucking me so openly only ruins your chances with every other woman here. So I took my chances and won. I’m leaving, and there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop me.”

We burst through the open doors to step outside just as I grab her arm and spin her back to me.

“Just pay the fucking price.”

This isn’t negotiable. I don’t think she understands that. The truth is, I couldn’t give two fucks about where Everly is. That’s Jase’s problem and one I’m not interested in. But Luca’s father knew something that drove our fathers insane, and I need that information.

She attempts to jerk from my hold, but it only makes me clamp my fingers down harder. Blue eyes pin mine, a fierce determination in them that can only be associated with the aggravating as hell woman glaring up at me.

“You haven’t done me a favor yet, Ta

This is why we never tell the price before performing the favor, and I wouldn’t have done so in this instance if I wasn’t in a rush to get my hands on whatever information she has. Plus, I wanted to see her reaction to being cornered by the entire group. That was my fault and my fuck up, one I need to correct.

Still, Luca can’t be this stupid. Losing the money Clayton owes her will destroy her. Leave her destitute. She needs that money, and I don’t have the time or the patience to sit back and let her figure it out.

Her hate stare turns away from me to narrow on something in the distance.

Twisting to follow the direction of her gaze, I spot Ivy Callahan near the entrance to one of the white tents, her eyes puffy from crying while Gabriel wraps an arm around her in fake comfort.

Only I know he has every intention of destroying her when he gets his chance. Gabriel has hated Ivy since high school, patiently waiting for the day he could get even for the bullshit games she enjoys playing.

“Maybe somebody else needs to hear what I already know.”

My eyes snap back to her. “And that is?”

“That none of you can be trusted.”

Luca moves to walk Ivy’s direction, but I tug her back, that scathing stare locking on my face once again.

“Going over there is not a good idea. Ivy and Gabriel have history. She’s well aware of his bullshit, and I promise you, you don’t want to get involved. Now, back to my issue, since it’s the only one that should matter to you at the moment. Take the fucking deal. You stand to lose everything, Luca. Stop being unreasonable.”

Her eye tics, but then her expression slams down into a blank mask, one I haven’t seen on her yet. It sets me on edge to see it.

“Let me give you a deal you can choose to take or leave. Either you escort me back to your limo and take me home, or I start causing one hell of a scene.”

“Scenes don’t bother me.”

“Really?” She grins, the curve of her lips a lethal edge. “Because you appeared to fall in line when up against Jerome Dane earlier, which makes me wonder just how quickly you’d fall in line again if it’s his attention I draw.”

My stare narrows. She has no fucking idea what she’s suggesting at the moment. Not a single clue.

“Or maybe your father,” she adds. “Is he also in attendance, perhaps?”

Now she really has no idea what she’s suggesting. My father would sooner slit her throat and dump her body in a ditch somewhere than allow her to draw attention to the problem she’s become to our families.

How the fuck does she even know to bring that up?

I stare at her for a few seconds, utterly dumbfounded that she’d picked up on the uneasy tension between Warbucks and me.

This woman misses nothing, and I’d better remember that for the rest of this game. Bringing her to this damn party was a mistake, one I need to remedy before she has a bigger problem on her hands than the money I’m holding over her head.

“I’ll take you home,” I growl, her lips tugging into a satisfied smirk while she has no fucking clue I’m only doing this to keep her from becoming the next smiling face on a missing persons report.

“Thank you.”

Scooting around me to weave her way through the scattered groupings of people in the garden, she leaves me no choice but to follow, a pissed off shadow stalking her direction, irritated to no end that she managed to corner me.

I’ll allow her to hold on to that victory for now, cuddle with it for comfort, become blinded to the fact that she’s not as adept at this game as she likes to believe. If anything, it’ll knock her off the defensive, much like what happened at Yale before she ran.

The entire time Luca believed she’d won against Gabriel by forcing me to behave on the project, the truth was we were setting her up.

I have no problem with teaching her that lesson again.

We reach the front portico and wait in tense silence for the driver to pull the limo around, Luca sliding to the far left of the backseat once it arrives, practically hugging the door in an attempt to place as much room between us as possible.