Pretty little liar.
Sasha has hardly uttered a word of truth from the moment she walked into my office. She stares at me now, with wide eyes, tinged with fear. Good.
She is beautiful with her dark brown straight hair and those large gray-green eyes. Her features are beautifully arrayed, her lips the sort of pale pink that could make a man ache.
Not that I ached for her. And even if I did, I would never let a little attraction distract me from the path I’ve taken great pains to create.
My fists clench. If I’m honest, I might be doing some aching. But I’m not a man whose feelings ever get in the way. I have iron control and the perfect opportunity.
And Sasha, she doesn’t know it yet, but she’s just become the next tool I’ll use to reach my goals.
“Secret?” she whispered, one of her hands wrapping around the delicate column of her throat.
I know I’ve caught her in a trap. I don’t know Dimitri very well, but I’d guess he’d not be happy to discover that his sister had snuck out, attempted to steal on an epic level.
And I’d guess Sasha would do almost anything to avoid being returned to her father.
And prison…that was a threat that didn’t require explanation.
I trapped a little songbird in a gilded cage, and she is sure to sing so beautifully.
My body thrums with the victory even as Sasha’s finger begins to tap on the pulsing vein of her neck.
Bum, ba dum, dum, bum, bum, dum. Same rhythm over and over. I look into her wide eyes, the fear that had been there the entire time, shining bright.
I find myself shifting closer, drawing in a bit of her rich scent. She smelled of snow, mixed with cinnamon and pine. It was fresh and…free.
Filling my lungs, I look down at her as her chin dips, shifting her glossy dark hair over her shoulder. I nearly brushed it back, wishing to know how it feels.
Sasha, for so many reasons, is much better suited to my plan than her sister had ever been.
My role within my family has always been research and development.
I do all the digging required to find the perfect properties, the right deals. I don’t get to make them, don’t run any of the company, I only do the leg work.
I grimace as my fists tighten under my arms. There was a hierarchy in my family that was subtle enough, no one seemed to notice.
Or maybe people outside the family just didn’t have the right information.
Me and my brother Killian, we’re not core parts of the Smith operation, we are treated like outliers.
Likely because we are. Me and Killian are the products of an affair our mother had when her husband had all but abandoned her to his drinking and his whoring.
We even looked different from our other three brothers, Gris, Tris, and Win. Where the three of them had fine, classic looks, me and Killian were much rougher in appearance. What was more, we were treated differently. We aren’t part of the public façade, we don’t own any of the real estate, we hold less shares.
But not any longer.
I don’t want to hurt my family, exactly, but I am taking my fair piece of the pie. It’s my time.
That was the thing about being the pipeline of information. I controlled it.
And what I’d learned, this time, for once, I’d use to my advantage.
Dimitri had chosen Katarina as my bride. It was a choice that I hadn’t been all that… enthusiastic…about. Katarina was harder, stronger, more volatile than Sasha.
But I didn’t have the leverage to make a change before tonight. A reason that would make sense as to why Dimitri might make a different choice.
But now…thanks to Sasha’s little visit this evening, now I have the perfect idea. And Sasha, she has no choice but to play along.
