I shove down the sting that pricks my chest at that. “Yes, you should have known. You nearly destroyed my life with your silly, anonymous article.”
She rests back against my seat and stares at me with those wide blue eyes I’ve seen up close too many times before.
I clear my throat and force myself to say what I came here to say. “I may have dropped the lawsuit against Holt, but let’s not get this twisted. I didn’t do this for your benefit.”
I haven’t been able to let go of the anger I have for Julianna. I would say it’s lingered since she told me the truth three nights ago, at the masquerade ball, but it’s been around long before that. I’ve held a hatred toward Julianna Rosaline Capuleti for as long as I can remember.
Her cheeks heat again, the color turning from pale pink to bright red. Her icy glare turns to fire. “I never thought for once you did do this for my benefit.”
“I figured to save myself the trouble of going to court over defamation, there are better ways to spend my time getting revenge on the Capuletis.”
She inhales sharply but stays silent.
“My revenge would be best served going straight to the source,” I add.
“Me.” The word falls from her disgustingly pretty mouth on a near whisper.
“Yes.” I chuckle. “You honestly didn’t believe your confession the other night would let you and your family off the hook, did you?”
Her delicate neck bobs as she gulps nervously. Then she quirks a brow. “What did you have in mind?”
“Oh, come on.” I smooth my hands over my suit jacket. “You know me better than that, Lark. I never show my hand before the appropriate time.”
She tucks her bottom lip between her teeth, and I think she’s going to bite a chunk right out of it with the pressure she’s applying.
She doesn’t even need to say the words I know she’s thinking. She hates me. Despises me.
Good. Because I feel the same.
“Timing is everything, Lark,” I tell her, lingering on her gaze a second too long.
Then I nod toward Marcus, blinking at him once through the rearview mirror. The clicking sound of the child lock releasing echoes throughout the car. I lean forward, hovering over Julianna the same way I had when I dragged her in here.
“You’ll be hearing from me.”
“When?” She looks up at me with blue doe eyes.
Turning away from her, I pull on the door handle and push it open. It swings open, and the sounds of the city outside quickly return. We’re no longer in our own world.
She surprises me when she doesn’t immediately jump out of the car. Her hands rest on the tops of her legs, tangling the gentle delicate feathers of her skirt. Funny how even snakes can disguise themselves as gentle birds sometimes.
I slowly back away and settle back into my seat, where I wait.
She opens her mouth as if she’s about to argue but doesn’t. Instead, she snaps it shut, blinks several times, then turns her back on me. Once she’s slid out of the backseat, I wait until she’s taken a few feet away from the door before shutting it.
She spins around, turning her back to me, and simply stands beside my car. My lungs burn with every second that passes where she doesn’t move.
Drop the vial of poison or drink every last drop?
“Go, Marcus,” I order before I say or do something I’ll inevitably regret.
“Sir?”
I squeeze my eyes shut and breathe through my nose before turning to shoot him a furious glare in the rearview mirror. “Get us the fuck out of here. Now!”
TWENTY-EIGHT
SELENE
