Fraud

It’s a pity for him that I’ve been raised beneath men a hell of a lot more terrifying than this.

“You’re not part of this, Gabriel-“

“Actually, that’s exactly where you’re wrong.”

His brows crash together to be interrupted, my smile stretching into place in response.

“I don’t appreciate anybody telling Ivy what to do. And I especially don’t appreciate any person attempting to step between us.”

His reaction doesn’t surprise me. In fact, it’s exactly what I wanted in order to corner him on what we know about Luca’s father.

This entire charade is to piss him off and knock him off balance, to force him to slip and say the wrong thing. Either that, or to force him to believe my relationship with his daughter so he explains or confesses what he knows about the situation we’re in.

Most fathers would warn their daughter about potential trouble. Most who truly love their kids would lay out the exact reasons why they need to avoid disaster.

Apparently, Governor Callahan is not one of them.

That fact is especially clear given the way he stares at me now with an arrogant tilt of his mouth.

This father has other plans.

“I don’t know what you hope to accomplish by coming in my home and accusing me of being a problem.”

He pauses, his dark eyes searching mine as my fingers tighten more with Ivy’s.

“But I have somewhere to be and don’t have time to play around with you.”

Cutting his stare to Ivy, his voice is ice cold. “I gave you an order. You chose not to listen.”

Stepping forward, I tug on her arm to pull her closer to me, my defenses on high alert because I won’t accept the way he’s speaking to her.

“Why don’t you just tell us what the problem is, Governor?”

Refusing to budge an inch from the calm mask I wear, I lock my eyes with his. “Maybe if we understood what concerns you so much, we can work out an agreement.”

Again, I’m trying to trick him into giving us something - fucking anything - that we can use against my family or anybody else.

He refuses, instead flicking a glance in my direction before walking across the room to pick up a small remote.

“Let me show you why this is a problem. And when I get done with this, you’ll understand that nobody comes into my house and makes demands of me or questions my decisions.”

His thumb slams a button to turn on a television that hangs on a far wall, the screen coming to life as he hits another button to play a video that knocks me back a step to recognize what it is.

Ivy gasps when she recognizes the grainy scene, both our eyes locked to a surveillance video taken ten years ago in the middle of the city. 

It’s the dead of night, the image green as if taken with night vision capability, and even though the picture isn’t perfectly clear, it’s obvious not only what we’re seeing, but who it is caught on film.

The time stamp below runs quickly, a younger version of Ivy moving around her father’s pavilion with a gas can in her hands.

“Daddy? What? How? Why did you tell me Gabriel did it if you have this? How long have you known?”

While she rambles off one question after the other, I stand frozen, staring at the image.

How the fuck did he get this? I can’t make sense of why he’s showing us or what he plans to do with it, but dread is a knot in my stomach to find out.

Governor Callahan pauses the recording and looks at his daughter.

“Unlike you, I don’t reveal all my cards until I have to,” he says coldly, “but now that I’ve been pushed to this point, let me explain how this is going to go.”

His eyes cut to me. “If you think I don’t know how you operate, Gabriel, you have a lot to learn. I think you’re forgetting I worked with your father for years before I broke off from that shit. I know how your entire group was trained to act.”

My eyes narrow on him in rage, and he grins.

“Here’s what I’m offering. You leave my daughter, as in walk the fuck off right now, and nothing happens to her.”

“Dad? What the hell?” Ivy snaps.

“Shut up, Ivy, and let the men talk.”

Her outburst means nothing to him, his stare never leaving my face as he barks for her to get in her place.

Let the men talk?

You slimy piece of shit.

It’s right at this moment that I finally see what I should have known all along. This man has no respect for her. Not one damn ounce of it. And the pedestal he’s kept her on has been more to keep her feet off the ground than to be a fucking father and show her how to walk on her own.

It only pisses me off more. Still, I say nothing, my jaw tight, my eyes locked to his as I wait to see just how low this son of a bitch will go.

“If you still want to play off this bullshit engagement, I’ll leak the tape.”

My jaw clenches tighter, but I force a grin that shows nothing of what I’m thinking. “Wouldn’t that only hurt you? Your own daughter committing a crime under your watch.”

His grin matches mine. “You have a lot to learn still, Gabriel, about how those older than you work. And when I can prove that I just now received this and decided to arrest my own damn daughter because I’m tough on crime, nobody will come after me for it. But what will it do to her?”

“You wouldn’t,” I seethe.

His slimy grin stretches wider. “Try me. I’ve been playing this game a lot longer than you. You have no idea what I’ll sacrifice to protect my interests.”

Beside me, Ivy begins yelling at her dad, and while I can hear her voice, my brain isn’t making sense of the words. I’m too busy staring this asshole down, my mind scrambling to figure out a way around what he’s doing.

This is the last fucking thing I expected him to do. Destroy his own daughter? What kind of monster is he?

Apparently, a father just like mine.

And now that I know that, the game has to change again.

Ivy is crying by this point, but neither of us look at her. We’re too busy glaring at each other.

My thumb sweeps across the engagement ring once more, a silent promise screaming in my head that I will fix this situation since I’m the asshole who caused it by setting her up in the first place.

Fuck, this is going to hurt her. It’s going to kill me in the process, but I need time to figure out what to do.

“Fine,” I growl. “I’ll let her go. But only because I actually give a damn about her,  unlike you.”

“What?” Ivy turns to me, her eyes wild in my peripheral vision.

I can’t turn to look at her, can’t drag my stare away from the monster standing in front of me. “Gabriel, no.”

Her eyes shoot back to her dad. “This is insane. You wouldn’t do this to me.”

She might have a problem believing it, but I don’t. Governor Callahan just ripped off his own mask and showed me that whatever he’s involved in is important enough to toss his own daughter under the bus to protect it.

This is a lot bigger than any of us realize.

I shake my hand free of Ivy’s, my eyes finally sliding her way, begging her to see the truth of how I feel, fucking begging her to see beneath my mask like she always has.

She’s always known when I was lying. But judging by the tears in her eyes now, I worry that she won’t know I’m lying now.

“The engagement is off. Don’t call me again. Don’t come to my house or show up at my office. We’re done.”

Her expression falls, tears leaking from her eyes as she searches my face. “No. I’m going with you. He won’t actually do this.”