Fraud

Gabriel

“You did what? Please tell me you don’t think that will actually work.”

Ta

It wasn’t too long ago that I sat across from him watching him self-destruct after confessing to Luca what he’d done to her, only this time, I’m the one who confessed my crime, but in a different way and with a completely different outcome.

“You wouldn’t really leak the tape,” he correctly assumes. “Not now anyway. A month ago? Maybe. But not now and you know it.”

“No,” I admit, “I wouldn’t. But Ivy doesn’t know that.”

A month ago...hell, over the past ten years...all I wanted was to destroy Ivy Callahan. But the time I’ve spent with her quickly dissolved that idea, the hatred I held onto melting away to reveal what existed beneath it the entire time.

It’s something I could never see when we were young, and I’m still struggling to admit it now.

Ta

“I came here with every intention of raining hell down on her for what she did in my office.”

“I know that, which is part of the reason I tamed her.”

He laughs at that.

“Tamed her, my ass. This is Ivy we’re talking about. You may have tossed down rules, but she’ll find a way around them.”

Outside my office door, the rest of the Inferno waits for the family meeting I called. Luca, Ava and Ivy are with them, and I can’t help wondering if Ta

So far, Ivy has behaved, which honestly, I can’t stand. 

I like her more when she’s painted in bold colors.

I like the way she paints me in them as well.

She wasn’t wrong about that.

But then, it’s only been two hours. How long will she continue her good behavior?

“Why did you really do it?”

A smile creeps over my face. “To get access to her dad’s records-“

“That’s bullshit, and we both know it. Don’t fucking lie to me, asshole. I see through that shit.”

“Fine. My secret is out. She knows I set her up with the pavilion.”

Confusion tugs his brows together, and I settle more in my seat waiting for him to catch up. It only takes a few seconds, the corner of his mouth stretching into a smirk.

“And she didn’t tear you a new asshole for it?”

“Nope. Not when I admitted it while laying down the new rules.”

“You sly son of a bitch. You just snuck that in there with something that pissed her off more so you wouldn’t have to face the wrath like I did with Luca.”

Another quirk of my lips. “Like I said, I’m not a moron like you.”

Ta

I have no idea how he always manages to grab something to fiddle with. A pen. A rubber band. A paperclip. It doesn’t matter. His hands are always moving when he’s thinking.

“What I told Luca was your idea-“

“And you were the idiot who followed through with it, but that’s not what we’re here to discuss.”

My mouth curls more as the pen flips faster. Pissing Ta

“I really do need access to her dad’s office,” I say, changing the subject before he launches that pen at my face. “I highly doubt she’ll be able to get the truth out of him. Ivy’s loyalty to her family is a problem.”

The pen in his hand stops moving as his nostrils flare, and his head turns just a fraction. He grins and taps the pen against the armrest of his chair. “Do you really think she’ll behave?”

“She has so far.”

His grin lifts more, something flickering behind his eyes. “You sure about that?”

Shrugging, I stare at him with suspicion. “She thinks I’ll leak the tape.”

You can tell Ta

“Do you remember how I said she’s not allowed at my house?”

“Yes, why?”

His expression tightens with the restraint it’s taking him not to laugh.

The faint scent of smoke hits me just before my office door pops open and Sawyer peeks his head in.

“Uh, just wanted to let you know the kitchen is on fire.”

The fuck?

My eyes round and shoot to Ta

“That’s why,” he laughs as I shove to my feet and run out of the office. “How did you not smell that?”

Two fucking hours. That’s all it took for her to strike out.

I round the corner into the living room and see the flames, my eyes widening more despite the smoke.

An alarm blasts above my head, the guys all gathered in the kitchen trying to put the small fire out while Ivy, Luca and Ava watch from the living room.

My head snaps Ivy’s direction, and she stares at me with a blank expression.

“We were trying to cook di

Beside her, Ava and Luca cover their mouths and noses as if trying not to breathe in the smoke, but I suspect smiles linger behind their hands.

Eyeing all three of them suspiciously, I realize Ivy managed to secure reinforcements. How did I not see that coming?

When my stare locks with Ivy’s, I make a silent promise there will be hell to pay for this, but I don’t have time to deal with it at the moment.

Hauling ass into the kitchen, I throw the pantry door open and yell, “Move.”

The guys scatter, and I spin with a fire extinguisher in hand, the white substance quickly dousing the flames.

Whispering draws my attention to the right, three women speaking quietly to each other with all their eyes on me.

So this is the new game she wants to play...

She’s pushed it too far.

I turn back to assess the damage, a growl crawling up my chest to hear four of the guys lose the fight against laughing.

Dropping the fire extinguisher to the ground, I march in Ivy’s direction, her smirk calling to me like a damn siren.

She says nothing as my hand wraps over her bicep, and I drag her from the living room, her head turning back to Ava and Luca.

“It was an accident,” they call out to me in unison, but I don’t believe them. Not that I think Luca and Ava are lying, they just don’t know Ivy like I do.

After marching her into the den on the other side of the staircase, I spin her around and press her against a bookshelf, our eyes locking in battle with the metallic clash of swords.

“Exactly how is setting my kitchen on fire behaving?”

I

I scrape my teeth over my bottom lip, my body leaning into hers without meaning to. I can’t help myself, though.

She’s like a magnet that draws me to her. An opponent who has somehow tied her threads to mine, our hatred always tainted with something far more dangerous.

“I was making friends,” she explains, “just like you demanded of me. Grease splashed out of the pan.”

I smile, the cut of it anything but friendly.

Ivy is so full of shit her eyes should be brown.

So fucking pissed that I can’t see straight, I take a breath, pull myself back from the razor-edged precipice and search her face. The i

“You set my house on fire. Pranks are one thing, but that goes beyond being harmless.”

Hurt rolls behind her eyes, denial dancing in behind it. “I didn’t do that on purpose.”

Voice dropping to a rough growl, I argue, “Really? Because you seem to have a thing for fire. Or have you suddenly forgotten the pavilion and my other house-“