Fraud

Ivy

Gabriel is a dead man.

Oh, sure, he walked off smiling and laughing about what he’d done. And I’m sure he’s confident in his thinking that he’s wi

But I know it now, and I’m willing to play just as much.

Apparently, it’s true that when you think of the devil, he appears, Fraud gliding through the door with his smooth peacock strut as my eyes lift to stare at him.

His hands are tucked causally in his pockets as he leans back against the wall opposite me, his emerald green gaze sliding down my body and back up again because he likes what he sees.

“You look good like that. Although I’m sure it would be a prettier picture without any clothes on.”

His heated stare lifts to mine.

“I surrender,” I lie.

He laughs. “And I believe that about as much as I do that you weren’t the person who burned down the memorial pavilion your father had just finished dedicating to the city that afternoon.”

Stilling at what he said, my thoughts race back to the mistake I’d made in high school. The same one that sent me ru

Gabriel grins to see the expression on my face. He’s Fraud when he speaks to me next, his voice smooth as silk and soft as satin.

“What would your father’s reaction be to find out that the symbol he’d planted in the middle of the city to commemorate his fight to clean up crime was burned to the ground by his very own daughter?”

Smiling at my silence, he asks, “Why did you do it again? I forget the details.”

I’m not surprised at all that Gabriel knows what I did. What does surprise me is that he finally admitted it.

I refuse to break a sweat over it, though. I don’t panic until I have to.

“Probably because I was set up,” I answer in my saccharine voice.

“By who?”

“That, I don’t know.” Gri

“I wish it was, but I can’t take credit for that.”

“Liar.”

The truth is written all over the crooked line of his grin.

In our last year in high school, my father won his election bid for Mayor. It was a step up for the family, but mostly my father’s official entry into the world of politics. In celebration, he vowed to curb the crime that went on in the city and spent several million dollars on a large pavilion to stand as a symbol of his promise.

The only problem with that was that almost every family of our social circle was involved in the crime he swore to expose. I was ostracized at school for a week after the pavilion was built, a rumor spreading that I was a snitch just like my father. I became a pariah, and the only people who didn’t treat me differently were Ava and Emily.

No matter how hard they dug, they couldn’t find the source of the rumors ruining my life.

As we approached the day of his official commemoration, the rumors got worse, but one floated above the rest that if I were to destroy what my father built, I would be accepted into the fold again, and the rumors would end.

It was stupid of me to go through with it.

I know that.

But I was young and still trapped in the belief that my social life was my entire world.

Plus, I’d been challenged, practically called a coward for not following through.

I burned the place down eight hours after my father’s commemoration ceremony.

It was the following morning that I received the video proof of what I’d done.

Worried that it would leak before I had the chance to make the next step, I’d run to Ta

The only issue remaining was the price I owed Ta

I knew I was set up. And now the person who did it is smiling at me from across the small room, his green eyes glimmering with triumph for setting that trap.

Smiling back at him, I refuse to let it affect me.

Shifting my posture to relax as much as possible with the position I’m in, I let out a sigh.

“That was a lot of effort on your part to trap me, Gabe. Did I really mean so much that you did all that just to get me to owe the Inferno something?”

He looks so proud of himself. And he should. As far as games go, that was expert level. I might have sunk his car afterward on the last day I saw him, but the Inferno had me under thumb, and he knew it.

And judging by the look on his face now, he has every intention of playing this until the bitter end.

“Like I said before, this is just the begi

I rattle my chains. “Is that so?”

He pushes away from the wall to march toward me, his powerful swagger so insanely sexy that it strips me of the ability to be angry with him.

But then, I’ve never been angry.

Only challenged.

Only bold.

Only alive.

Just like he is when I strike back.

We’re two opposing forces, strong enough when we’re together that lightning cracks the pristine skies, and the earth shakes beneath our feet.

We’re destructive.

Disastrous.

The blinding chaos of a tempest storm.

And we face each other now. Him with his signature smirk and me with my eyes narrowed in promise that this may be the begi

Gabe stands within a hair’s breadth of me, his eyes tipped down to remind me who stands taller.

“I’ll get you for that, too,” I promise him.

He clasps my chin between his fingers, his eyes locking to mine with challenge.

“Would you like to discuss the new rules of the game we’re playing?”

I lick my lips, and his gaze drops down to them, hunger burning behind the green.

“Sure. It’s not like I can run away.” I rattle the chains again.

Gabriel’s fingers tighten on my chin, his head lowering so that his mouth brushes against mine when he speaks.

“You’re going to behave. For me and everybody else. No more pranks. No more talking back. No more starting wars. You truly will surrender.”

Our eyes dance together, confusion flooding me. Why would he want that? The only thing that has kept us going is the battles we’ve fought.

“Why?”

“Because that’s the way I want you from now on.”

Muted, I thought. My colors fading.

My heart shatters a little more.

“Is that all?” I snap, the razor edge of the question tugging his mouth up at the corners.

“Not quite. I also want you to talk to your father about his relationship with Jerry Thornton.”

Brows tugging together, I tilt my chin. “I’ve already agreed to do that.”

“Yes,” he says, his thumb sweeping across my bottom lip, “but I also need you to get me inside your father’s office, so I can dig through his records to make sure he’s honest.”

My heart thumps painfully, tension driving through the muscles of my shoulders and neck. “I never agreed to that.”

I won’t give him proof. Not to use against my dad. Words are one thing, just secrets whispered. But physical proof? No. It would only hurt my father.

How dare he? After everything that’s happened. How fucking dare he demand this?

“I told you I would help you in the only way I could.”

That silver-tongue of his finally tells the truth. I should have known better than to trust him.

“And I’m telling you that unless you give us what we want, a certain video will somehow leak online. You asked me if the price had been paid when we were at my office, and I told you no.”