15
TYLER
STELLA LEAPT FROM THE VEHICLE before I’d even pulled to a stop.
I climbed out, tossing my keys to a waiting valet, and jogged to catch up
with her.
“Stella.”
She ignored me and kept on walking toward her great-aunt’s absolutely monstrous brick manor house. Thank god there wasn’t anyone out here to witness this scene but the valets. From the number of cars lining the driveway, we must have been some of the last guests to arrive.
“Stella,” I said again, louder. She picked up speed, almost running.
Fucking hell, this was not the way we should be walking in, but I had no one to blame but myself. Talking about my childhood always left me so angry, and Stella was such an easy target. Not just because of her proximity to Richard, but because she had become something akin to the embodiment of everything wrong with the wealthy. So I’d lashed out and gone too far.
And while I wouldn’t say I was sorry for what I’d done, I wasn’t entirely immune to regret.
Why couldn’t I remember that in order to pull this off, Stella had to be willing to work with me? Hell, if she were telling the truth, that’s what she’d been trying to do tonight. And I’d gone and fucked it up because I couldn’t keep a lid on my goddamn temper.
I put on a final burst of speed and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her off her feet and hauling her toward a screen of evergreen shrubs.
“Let me go!” she yelled, thrashing.
One of the valets stepped forward.
I pointed a finger at him in warning. “A hundred bucks to each of you who minds their fucking business.”
He stepped back, miming zipping his lips shut. The others followed suit.
I shook my head and stalked into the shadows, disgusted that that had worked so easily. They didn’t know me. There was nothing to say I wasn’t about to assault the woman in my arms. And yet all it had taken was money to corrupt them.
We rounded the side of the house, where I dropped Stella to her feet, pinning her to the wall by her shoulders before she could escape. “What do you mean, you weren’t driving? You were the only one at the scene.”
Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. She shook her head. “I’m not doing this with you. I don’t owe you shit.”
“I’ll become an even bigger bastard if you don’t tell me.”
“Do it,” she spat. “What do I care?” Her lower lip trembled, and she bit it like she was trying to keep me from noticing.
My heart kicked against my ribcage. I hated this. Hated seeing her vulnerability. I’d much rather she were still screaming at me. I dropped my voice. “No. Tell me what you mean. From all the documents I read, it was clear you were driving.”
“How?” she asked, voice cracking. “My fingerprints were nowhere on
the driver’s side of the car.”
“You wiped them off.”
“Then why were Maddie’s still there?”
I blinked. “That wasn’t in the court transcripts.”
“Yeah, thanks to her lawyers.”
I loosened my hold on her shoulders. Was she … telling the truth? Had Stella really not been driving? Goddamn it, I was going to ream out my private detective. I paid him too much for him to miss shit like this. He was supposed to dig until all the bodies were unearthed, and then keep on digging until he found the ones no one else knew about. He’d never failed me before, but if Stella was being truthful, clearly he’d fucked up.
She must have sensed my distraction, because she managed to duck out of my grip before I realized she was moving. This time when I rushed after her, there was an older couple ambling up the driveway, so I couldn’t drag her back into the shadows.
Stella nodded toward them. “Mr. and Mrs. Ashley. Nice to see you
again.”
“Miss McCormick,” the man replied.
The woman said nothing, and I shot her a censorious look before catching up with Stella, careful not to touch her this time because she looked about ready to scream.
“Don’t do anything to ruin this,” I warned, my voice low as we
approached the front door.
“I won’t,” she snapped.
And then we were inside, accepting glasses of champagne from a server posted up in the entryway. My gaze rose to the grand, spiraling staircase, which climbed several stories up to a stained-glass skylight high overhead.
The hanging art looked like it belonged under bulletproof glass, and I didn’t even want to know the cost of the ancient statue currently operating as a coat rack.
Had she truly not been driving the car? I wondered, my mind stuck in a
loop.
“Stella?”
We turned, and there were her parents marching toward us with twin looks of surprise.
“I didn’t know you would be here,” her mother said.
“You invited me,” Stella said, her tone sharp.
Georgie raised her brows. “And you’re what? Here to make me regret
it?”
Stella sighed. “Sorry. Long day.”
I grinned, forcing levity into my voice. “It’s my fault we’re late.
Couldn’t find my cufflinks.” I lifted my wrists in demonstration.
Her father shook his head. “You should have called. I would have let you
borrow a pair of mine.”
“Next time,” I said.
Georgie stepped closer to Stella and dropped her voice. “How was Runa when you visited?”
I had to work to keep myself from reacting. Runa was the name of the woman Stella—or Maddie?—hit with the car.
Beside me, Stella stiffened, very carefully keeping her eyes trained on her mother as she responded. “She was good.”
“Do we know if the surgery was successful?” Phil asked.
“It’s still too early to tell,” Stella said. “Can we please talk about something else?”
Georgie frowned. “Darling, I wish you would let us cover some of the
cost.”
“Mom,” Stella bit out. “Not here.”
My head spun. What the fuck were they talking about? Was Stella somehow responsible for Runa’s medical expenses? That couldn’t be right.
She’d been found not guilty on all charges.
I fought to keep the confusion off my face as I stared down at her. Was this why her inheritance was “tied up”?
Movement caught the corner of my eye. People were casting glances toward our group, or more specifically, toward my fake girlfriend. She was easy to spot, standing out like a sore thumb because she was the only one with tattoos and piercings, the only one with such dramatic makeup—full contour, false lashes, matte purple lipstick. Her dress was another focal point: black, diaphanous, with a deep V in the front that was much more suited to a red carpet than this stuffy gathering.
Stella had to notice the extra attention, but from the way she twirled her untouched champagne glass, she appeared completely unaffected. Still, I took a step closer to her and put a hand on her lower back in a silent act of support.
Yeah, I made fun of her style choices, but there weren’t any teeth in my remarks. I did it for the sick thrill of knowing I’d gotten under her skin. But these motherfuckers were vindictive in their criticism. Even though I hated Stella, it pissed me off to see her as the target of their censure.
“Oh, thank god,” a masculine voice said. Richard. My mood plummeted straight to hell.
He stopped next to Stella’s dad. “Phil, this is the last one of these I’m coming to. Dennis is already drunk and won’t shut up about the time he came in under par on the Ocean Course in 2015.”
Phil grinned good-naturedly. “To be fair, if I pulled that off, I’d probably
never shut up about it either.”
Georgie cast the pair a confused look.
“It’s the hardest golf course in the country,” Phil explained.
She rolled her eyes. “Dennis cheats at backgammon and gets winded walking up stairs, so excuse me if I have a hard time believing he didn’t shank his way through all eighteen holes.”
Richard chortled. Phil shook his head, looking both amused by and deeply in love with his wife. Beside me, Stella stood stock-still with almost no expression, as if she hadn’t even heard them.
I followed her gaze toward a familiar-looking petite woman with a button nose and big blue eyes. Her blond hair was curled into loose waves, and paired with her dewy makeup and baby-pink gown, she looked like she was trying to appear younger than she was.
Maddie.
Fuck.
“What is she doing here?” Stella croaked.
“Who?” Phil said, craning his head around. His gaze landed on the woman, and for the first time since I’d met him, his calm, affable demeanor disintegrated, replaced by something raw and angry.
I returned my focus to Maddie and her cute little innocent blond act. It was devious, really, knowing what I already did about her. Even if Stella were lying, and Maddie hadn’t been the one to hit Runa, her list of sins was extensive.
Stella swore and lurched away from our group, beelining toward a side hall. Heads rotated to follow her departure, and that was enough to draw the notice of the very woman she was attempting to avoid.
Maddie caught sight of her through the crowd, a determined expression taking over her face as she excused herself from the people she stood with and headed after Stella. Because of Stella’s angle, she wouldn’t even see Maddie coming.
“Oh, no,” Georgie said, noticing the same thing.
Phil turned to intervene, but I stopped him. “I’ve got it,” I said, following Stella, my strides elongating to catch up to her without appearing like I was rushing. I didn’t want to draw any more attention to their collision course.
Unfortunately, Maddie had no such compunction, rushing straight at Stella. Shit. More people were noticing. Conversations were starting to falter, and heads were twisting toward the pair. These people obviously knew about the women’s history and could sense an impending scene. The hungry looks on their faces turned my stomach, reminded me of a flock of vultures getting ready to descend on a fresh corpse.
I abandoned my attempt to act casual and caught up to Stella with a final burst of speed.
“Go,” I said, my hand on her back to propel her forward.
We cleared the edge of the crowd and reached the mouth of a hallway.
“Stella!” Maddie called from behind us.
“Don’t,” I said, but Stella ignored me.
She stopped short, her face a thundercloud as she turned. “What?”
Maddie stood right behind us, eyes glistening, chin trembling. She took another step forward, and my hackles rose. This emotional display was fake. I could see it in her even breathing, the lack of color in her cheeks, the way her arms hung so loose at her sides, how she looked to the crowd like this was a spectator sport.
“Stella,” I said, my voice low, trying to warn her that this was a trap.
“I just want to talk,” Maddie said.
I expected Stella to explode, scream at Maddie like she’d screamed at me in the car, but her voice came out deathly calm. “About what, Maddie?
How you’re ready to go to the police and confess everything?”
Maddie’s face shifted into the picture of innocence. “Stella, please.”
“If not that,” Stella went on, “then you must be here to offer to pay me back for Runa’s medical bills.”
“Why would I pay you back?” Maddie pleaded. “I didn’t do anything.”
Stella snarled and tried to move forward, but I snagged her around the waist.
Maddie let out a scared little bleat and took a half step back as angry whispers rose from the crowd. Shit. If Stella took the bait and punched this woman, I doubted we’d be invited to more parties, and then my plans would be ruined.
I dropped my lips to the side of Stella’s head, just above her ear, and lowered my voice so only she could hear it. “She’s baiting you. Be smart.”
Stella jerked her head up, finally noticing our crowd of onlookers.
Maddie wiped away a tear. “I just thought that after everything you did to me and my family, we could finally talk.”
Stella was a heartbeat away from violence. I sensed it in the way her body practically vibrated with the need to lunge at the other woman.
Surreptitiously, I tightened my hold on her.
“Look,” Maddie said in a stage whisper. “I know a lot of what happened was because of your addiction, but I thought that now you’re sober, you
might be ready to apologize.”
“You fu—”
I yanked on Stella’s waist, using my body to shield her from the onlookers. My hands quickly rose to her face, forcing her to look up at me.
“Go,” I said, my voice a whispered command. “I’ll find you when I’m done with her.”
Stella’s eyes were furious as they searched mine, but she must have heard something in my tone that swayed her, because she dipped a nod and pulled out of my grip. Turning on her heel, she strode down the hall without
a backward glance.
Time to fix this problem.
I forced my expression into concern as I faced Maddie. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head, blubbering. “No. Did you hear what she almost called me?”
Raise your voice a little louder, sweetheart, I snarled inwardly. I don’t think the people in the back heard you.
“I did. Let’s go over here and take a minute to collect ourselves,” I said, leading her away from the crowd, toward the entryway. “Here.” I handed her the handkerchief from my suit pocket.
“Thank you,” Maddie said, making a show of dabbing her cheeks.
Rage crawled up from the pit of my stomach, but I managed to train my face into a look of concerned empathy. People were still surveilling us, their eyes sharp, hungry for a scandal.
I stopped us just shy of the front door, my back to the crowd. A glance over my shoulder confirmed that no one was close enough to overhear me before I spoke again. “If you ever do anything to upset my girlfriend again, I’ll make sure everyone finds out what a vile little bitch you really are.”
Maddie yanked her head up, eyes narrowed, fake tears forgotten.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” I smiled at her, letting the silence drag out, holding her gaze until she broke eye contact.
She opened her mouth, clearly about to make a scene.
“La Mer,” I said.
Her teeth clicked shut.
I chuckled. “That was the name of the boat, wasn’t it? I’ll give it to your parents; they did a good job covering your tracks with your previous crimes. But let’s just say they weren’t as thorough with that incident in Turks and Caicos.”
She sniffed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, no,” I said, my voice deceptively soft. “I’m not Stella or any of the other idiots you’re used to dealing with. You’re not going to bait me with this innocent act. I know all about what you did that night.” I leaned closer.
“So you’re going to walk out of this door and go take a couple months off
from being sociable.”
“My parents—”
“Emily,” I said, raising my voice loud enough to carry.
She shut up, peeking past me to see if anyone had heard.
I lowered my voice again. “That was her name, right? The girl who kissed your boyfriend. The one who ‘slipped and fell,’” I said, lifting my hands to put the last words into air quotes. “Buying off a coroner is risky business, because if they’ll falsify a report for money, they’ll do a lot of other things for cash, too. Like answer questions.”
Maddie’s face paled. “Who are you?”
“You can call me Mr. Strickland,” I said. “Now leave.”
Anger swept over her face. She’d been a spoiled brat her entire life, coddled, enabled—and she wasn’t used to being told what to do.
“And just so we’re clear, I don’t give a fuck who you are,” I said. “I don’t care that you’re wealthy. I don’t care that you’re a woman. If you say anything to anyone about this, I’ll make what you did to Emily look like child’s play. And I’ll laugh while doing it.”
I grinned, mimicking a look I’d once seen Josh’s father wear, showing too many teeth, my eyes empty and out of focus, like I was staring through her to the gristle and bone beneath. Like I couldn’t wait to hear how loud I
could make her scream.
Maddie turned and fled out the door.
I found Stella pacing in a study (these rich-people houses were lousy with them), her hands clenching and unclenching, her eyes red like she was
fighting back furious tears. She didn’t notice me at first, her gaze fixed on the carpet, and it gave me a moment to study her. Watch her long legs kicking at the skirt of her dress with every step. The way loose tendrils of hair brushed over the pale skin of her exposed back.
She hadn’t hurt Runa; Maddie had. Between what Stella said outside, that interaction with her parents, and then the scene with Maddie, I was convinced of that now. And while Stella was far from innocent, I could admit that she probably hadn’t done enough to deserve my treatment of her
thus far.
Fuck, how was I going to fix this?
I closed the door and leaned against it.
Stella’s head snapped up. She caught sight of me, grabbed a paperweight off a nearby desk, and chucked it at my head.
I barely managed to catch it out of the air.
Her face contorted in rage, hands curling into claws as she bore down on me. “You bastard! I’ve been avoiding that bitch for seven years because I knew she would pull some shit like that, and you dragged me right to her.”
I held my ground, ready to block the hit I knew was coming.
“Technically, you chose this party.”
“Oh, fuck you, Theo,” she spat, my fake name sounding foreign on her lips. “You forced me back into this world!”
She lunged, but it was easy to grab her wrist out of the air, snag her other hand before it could connect with my face, block the knee she aimed at my groin. Not wanting to hurt her, I turned and pinned her to the door, trapping her hands overhead and using my body to flatten her against the wood. Her chest heaved into mine. I stared down at eyes gone black with fury. They dropped to my shoulder, and I knew, I knew she was going to try and bite me, yet I did nothing to stop her.
A heartbeat later, she attacked, her teeth sinking into my suit jacket, clamping down hard enough to hurt. I didn’t pull back. I didn’t yell at her.
As fucked-up as it sounded, it felt right to let her hurt me after everything I’d done to her. It was almost … a release. Almost felt good, like she was finally giving me what I’d been asking for.
Brat.
I shook my head, wincing as Stella bit down harder. No. That wasn’t what this was. I’d been a fighter my whole life, didn’t have a submissive
bone in my body. This was just relief that she was so enraged. This kind of anger I was used to, had been harboring inside me for as long as I could remember. I knew how to speak its language, how to use it against her.
“I believe you,” I told her.
Stella released me, the back of her head thumping into the door as she closed her eyes, all the fight drained from her. “Yeah, well, no one else ever will.” A shudder wracked her body. Another. Wetness leaked from beneath her lids, and she bit her lower lip to stop its trembling.
I was probably the last human—besides Maddie—who she’d want to comfort her in this moment, but since I was the only person around, it was either me or no one. Hell, she’d probably prefer no one, but I was feeling just guilty enough for the way I’d been treating her that I felt obligated to do something.
I only needed one hand to keep her wrists pinned, so I let go with the other, wrapping it around the back of her head and drawing her forward until her forehead rested against my chest—a dangerous decision, given her propensity for being bitey.
“You won’t have to see her at another event,” I said. “I got rid of her.”
“How?” Stella murmured into me.
“Let’s just say you’re not the only person I have dirt on.”
She was quiet for a long moment, taking deep, even breaths like she was trying to calm down. “Even after everything she did, even after all the years I’ve spent hating her, I didn’t expect this. What I did to her family? God,
she’s evil.”
“Yes,” I agreed.
“I don’t want to go back out there. All those fucking people.” She took another steadying breath. “I saw their faces. Maddie will always be the innocent little girl to them, and I’m the big bad bitch who tried to ruin her life. I hate her. Hate them.”
I tilted her head up. “Then help me take them down.”
“Why should I?” she asked, her eyes searching mine. “Who’s to say you won’t turn around and stab me in the back when I’m done? Or keep piling on more debt any time I piss you off, so I’m stuck beneath your thumb forever?”
I heaved a sigh. Time to do what it took to make this right. “Fine. It’ll stay at three million flat, like we agreed, even if you constantly piss me
off.”
“Again, why should I believe you? You already told me I’d be an idiot for trusting your false promises.”
“I know. But that was because I thought you were just like them.”
“I am just like them,” she said. “You’ve made that pretty goddamn
clear.”
“Then why are you paying Runa’s bills?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“I can find out with a few phone calls, but I’d rather hear it from you now and save myself the time and money.”
“Like you’ll believe me,” she said, her tone laced with acid.
I eyed her for a moment. “There’s no record. So, what’d you do, Sunshine? Settle it in a private civil suit?”
She clenched her jaw and looked away, confirming my suspicions.
“You did, didn’t you? You admitted guilt.” I frowned. “Why? You’d already been cleared in the criminal case.”
She tried to yank her wrists from my grip, but I kept them pinned to the
door.
“Why?” I repeated.
“Because Runa couldn’t pay,” she said, voice low, eyes looking
everywhere but at me.
“And you could.”
It wasn’t a question, but she nodded.
“Do you really hate these people as much as you claim?” I asked, wanting to see her answer from up close, where she couldn’t hide.
“Most of them, yes. With every fiber of my being. Why do you think I spent so much of my life numbing myself with drugs and alcohol and acting so stupid and reckless? I was lashing out. Being a self-obsessed, rebellious child because it was either that or cut myself off completely from this
world.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I worried it meant I’d lose my family, too.”
I stared into her eyes, looking for lies, but I saw none. Only fear, anger, regret.
“Why do you hate them so much?” she asked.
I forced a smile, rubbing my thumb over her lower lip, marveling at the way the color stayed perfectly in place. Had she learned her lesson from our first two encounters and switched to something that wouldn’t smear if we kissed again? Did that mean she wanted me to kiss her again?
I shook my head, clearing those thoughts. “Let’s just say I pay attention to what goes on in this city, and I don’t appreciate that there are rules for me but not for thee. There’s no way Bradley Bluhm is the only monster hiding in these circles, and if our justice system won’t deal with them, then
someone else should.”
“And that someone is you?”
“I don’t see anyone else stepping up to the plate.”
Her gaze swept over my face, sharp, observant. I kept my expression carefully neutral, because it was clear we were approaching a critical moment, one in which Stella finally made up her mind about what she wanted: Help me take these people down, or stay on my bad side.
“Come on,” I crooned. “You know you want to ruin them.”
“I do,” she admitted. “But only financially. I don’t want to be complicit in people being harmed in any other way.”
“I’ll only hurt them if they make me,” I said, repeating the line I’d already said to her.
She rolled her eyes, the soft overhead light catching the golden flecks in her irises. People who claimed brown eyes were boring had never seen them close enough to realize their true beauty.
“What are you doing?” she said, her voice low and raspy.
I stopped, my lips an inch from hers. What the fuck was I doing?
Losing my goddamn mind, apparently.
I forced a grin. “Trying to seduce you into going along with my plans. Is it working?”
She tore free from my grip. “Oh my god, you are so obnoxious! I don’t even know why I told you any of that.”
By the time I spun around, she was halfway across the room. “It’s because you care deeply about my personal opinion of you.”
She grabbed a small globe off a bookshelf and threw it at me.
I managed to block it before it connected with my crotch. “Fuck! Truce, okay? We want the same thing. You out of debt, and these assholes in it. We
just need to find a way to work together without killing each other. Should be easy enough.”
“Easy enough?” she parroted. “That’s what I tried to do earlier, and how did you react?” She puffed her chest, arms flexed out wide. Her voice dropped an entire octave in mockery of me. “I’m talking scorched earth, Stella. Nuke you from the orbit, curse your entire bloodline, replace all the flooring in your apartment with Legos.”
Goddamn it, she was not funny. “Can you blame me for not trusting
you?”
“Yes!”
We eyed each other, clearly at an impasse. I’d done most of the damage tonight, and I had the most to lose if she failed to uphold her end of the deal, so it was on me to fix this. To get over my shit and do what I’d set out to do: work with her, even though I couldn’t stand her.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll try to be less of an asshole.”
She paced to the windows and threw open the curtains, staring into the
darkness.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Looking for the flying pigs.”
“Stella,” I ground out.
She turned, smirking, and I realized it was the first time she’d come close to smiling in my presence. The sight was … fine. It was fine. That’s all.
“Oh, no,” she said, tone mocking. “What’s wrong? You don’t like it when someone is mean to you? Does it hurt your feelings? Make you
angry?”
“No. It makes me hard,” I snapped.
That shut her up.
“Are you in or not?” I asked. “This will go a lot faster if we’re on the same team.”
Which means you’ll be rid of me sooner, I didn’t have to add.
She eyed me across the room. “I’m in. But you’re going to have to follow my lead tonight,” she said. “None of the stodgy old assholes here will take an invitation, at least not without immediately outing you and calling the cops. They’re too stuck up.”
I released an aggravated sigh. “Then what the fuck are we doing here?
You said there would be plenty of targets.”
“Their children and grandchildren are who we’re after,” Stella said.
“They’re the ones who are bored and depressed and looking for the kind of thrill you can provide. But first we have to get through dinner. Then we can follow the younger crowd to the afterparty, somewhere else in the house or on the grounds. That’s where the real fun will begin.”
