A week ago I would have been all over this, even with the shitty reality that I’d have to run and hide my entire life, but now…
I would be leaving my guys. I would be leaving Beck.
Like Richard had heard that thought, or at least read the resistance on my face, he leaned forward. “You can’t trust him, Riley. You can’t trust any of them.”
I blanched, sucking in a deep breath. “What … why?”
“Delta, the company, it controls them, and whatever is happening with you and the successors right now, that’s all part of the plan.”
A denial sprang to my lips, because there was no way those guys were faking emotions with me. Except … I knew they were highly trained and intelligent. If they needed to pretend, to gain my trust for some reason, then I had no doubt they could do it. But could Beck really fake that shit when he was buried inside of me?
Was I being played in the greatest con that had ever crossed my path?
“I don’t believe you,” I whispered, pushing the folder back toward him. “I appreciate you looking out for me, I really do. I haven’t had many people in my corner since my parents. But I know these guys. We’re a team.”
He looked at me like I was either stupid or naive, but he didn’t push it again. “I’ll keep this in the drawer here,” he said, showing me exactly where it would be. “You can take it and run at any time. If you need to get out.”
I felt queasy now, whatever good mood I’d had from Beck last night and this morning gone. Richard had instilled the smallest sliver of distrust inside me, and while I was nowhere near close to believing him, I did start to wonder if I’d been a little too quick to trust the guys.
Standing, I took a few steps back. “You can’t fake the bond,” I whispered, smoothing down my skirt. “They’re a lot of things, dangerous and violent, but they don’t lie. They made their dislike obvious at the start, but things changed between us. When we were fighting for our lives … it shifted the dynamics.”
Richard didn’t argue, he just nodded, lips flattening. “I hope you’re right, Riley. I’ve seen what happens when Delta puts its power to use, demands the successors fall into line. Bond or no bond, I’m not sure they could deny the order.”
“For me they would,” I whispered, hoping I wasn’t as fucking naive as he clearly thought I was.
Spinning on my heel, I rushed from the room, and hurried back through the house.
I wasn’t watching where I was going, still upset from the conversation with Richard, and I missed the fact that Beck was waiting for me right in the middle of the foyer. I let out a huff of air as I crashed into him, and his arms went around me to steady us both.
“You okay, baby?” he said, in his low rumble of a voice.
My head shot up, and I drank in the perfect dark planes of his face, and those eyes which were lighter and more silvery today. My heart did that lurching thing that always happened around him, and my stomach went all swirly. “Uh, yeah, just a weird conversation.”
Concern tilted his eyes down, and he examined me closely. My breathing got a little faster, and then he stilled before slowly lifting his gaze from my face. Turning, I saw Richard. Beck and he exchanged a long look, and it wasn’t one filled with any warm or fuzzy emotions. Richard actually backed up, and I was surprised to see what looked like fear crease his face as Beck stared him down.
“Come on, Butterfly,” Beck finally said, wrapping an arm around me, and half lifting me toward the door. “We’re going to be late for school.”
A dark energy radiated off him as he opened the door and buckled me into the Bugatti. Secretly I was glad this gorgeous ride was back in action, and I was going to make a conscious effort not to vomit in it again.
“What did Richard say?”
Beck’s words were low and thrumming with anger. I hadn’t quite realized, until this moment, but he was majorly pissed.
“Just … I don’t even really know. He was warning me about Delta. The amount of power and control they have.”
For some reason I didn’t tell Beck about the new identity waiting for me in that folder. Because there was now a small part of me unsure in this new life, in the bond and relationship. A part of me wanted to keep an out, just in case.
“He needs to be careful,” Beck said. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
Not so veiled threat there. “Can you really blame him?” I said angrily, feeling somewhat protective of my birth father. “He doesn’t want to be part of this world any longer, but he can’t get out. I mean, it cost him a son.”
Beck’s hands flexed on the wheel, and he must have called ahead for the gate out of the compound, because it was open and waiting for us to just fly through without pause.
“There is no point fighting against things you can’t change.”
That almost sounded resigned, even though the anger was still underlying each word.
“Delta is and always will be. It’s different for their generation of inheritors. They’re … not family like we are. Not bonded. They have no loyalty.”
