Fraud

Ivy

“You’re insane, you know that? Do you have any idea what our fathers are capable of?”

Ta

“When it comes to them, let me and Gabe handle it. I tend to believe your stupid girl act. It’s more fitting of what I know about you.”

Bristling at the accusation and his refusal to see that what I did only helped them in what they’re trying to accomplish, I round my shoulders and snap back.

“Are you telling me nobody besides the two of you have ever stood up against those assholes? That’s pathetic. And you can fuck off thinking I’m stupid.”

Ta

“Who? Because I’d like to shake that person’s hand.”

“Luca,” he says with a laugh. But the humor is only there for a second, love filtering behind his eyes to say her name.

Seeing it shocks me.

Ta

As quickly as it was there, it’s gone, and he’s right back to his usual asshole self.

“But you’re still an idiot.” He grabs my elbow and starts leading me deeper into the office.

Unfortunately, his grip is too strong, and I can’t pull away. My feet are practically tripping over themselves to keep up with his breakneck pace.

“How so?”

Ta

“If you were a smart little girl like you pretend to be, you wouldn’t have fucked up in high school so bad that you needed a favor.”

I smile at that. Not that he can see the expression as he shoves me into a corner office.

Spi

“Does it matter that I happen to think you’re an idiot as well?”

He smirks.

“Not at all. Enjoy the fantasy since you’re miles from the truth. But then that just proves my point that you’re a dumbass.”

Ta

“Watch her. She is not to be trusted. I have to go help Gabe deal with this Lacey thing.”

A feminine laugh drags my attention to a black, leather couch positioned against the wall. Luca’s kind smile greets me. I didn’t even realize she was sitting there.

“I’ll be sure to keep a lookout,” she answers him with a shake of her head.

Ta

“I’m serious. Tackle her, if necessary. Or scream your head off, and we’ll come ru

Saluting him, Luca nods. “I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

Shooting me one last suspicious glare, Ta

“I see the two of you get along just about as well as you did at the cabin.”

Laughter bursts from my lips.

“We have history.”

“You appear to have history with the entire group,” Luca comments, her voice curious. “One of these days, I’ll need you to sit down and tell me all their dirty secrets.”

She’s so sweet. That’s the first thing you notice about her. Beyond that, she seems intelligent, a little shy and quiet maybe, but she’s not like the idiot Ta

“How can you stand being with Ta

The question flies out before I can think better than to ask it. But it doesn’t make sense that someone as nice as Luca would be with the biggest asshole on the planet.

Her shoulders shake with soft laughter.

“It took us some time to get here. I told you what he did to me at first.”

Nodding at that, I cross my arms over my chest and glance around the office.

It’s a gorgeous room. Very large and spacious. The walls are painted a muted grey, and one full wall is floor to ceiling windows looking out over the city. It’s not overly decorated except for a few accent touches on a side table and Ta

All in all, Ta

“He’s also in a bad mood today,” Luca says, pulling my attention back to her.

She settles against the couch. “He pissed off Lacey, and that’s never a good thing. It’s impossible to replace her.”

Curiosity takes hold again. “Who’s Lacey?”

“His secretary. That poor woman has worked for him for the past two and half years, and I honestly have no idea how she does it. She needs to be declared a saint when she dies.”

Interesting. While she tells me about the way Ta

On a side table, a jug of water sits, and I pour myself a glass, sipping from it as I walk over to Ta

Luca smiles across the room at me.

“Anyway, today he was angry because one of the associate attorneys didn’t file a document on time, and he took it out on Lacey like it was somehow her fault. I swear he expects the poor woman to police this place in his absence.”

From what she’s telling me, Ta

Fortunately for Lacey, I’m here and just the girl to do it.

I stare across at Luca and smile, my toes pushing on the ground to rock Ta

“So,” I say, needing her to launch into a longwinded conversation, “Tell me about Everly. I know she’s a big deal, and Jase seems to want to kill her, but nobody told me why.”

Laughing at that, Luca kicks her feet up onto the coffee table in front of the couch and begins the story at the begi

Something about what she says awakens my spidey-senses as being strange, but I ignore it to continue on with my plan to screw with Ta

There’s not much on his desk that I can mess with, but as Luca talks, I run my fingers over his computer keyboard and glance up at the monitor.

A thought comes to mind, and very slowly so that she doesn’t notice what’s happening on his screen, I pull up the settings. Sca

A hundred different choices pop up, and I know I need to go with something out of the ordinary. As part of our prep school education, we learned enough Spanish, French and Italian to be able to have a rudimentary understanding. Choosing one of those would make switching the computer back too easy.

My eyes land on Swahili, and I quickly click on it, biting my cheek to keep from laughing when everything on his screen becomes a mess of indecipherable writing that he’ll never figure out.

Done with that, I glance at Luca again, smile, and keep listening as she continues on about how Everly was the person who dragged her into the first party where she met Ta

I take another look around, rock in the chair some more, and then have a flash of brilliance that is sure to send Ta

Intentionally knocking a cup of pens off the desk to the floor, I say, “Whoops. Damn, I’m such a klutz. Keep talking while I drop down and pick these up.”