Hewill.
“Good thing you don’t have to worry about that,” he says with a sneer. “Since you’ll be dead.”
“Mr. Brent, please put the gun down.” A voice sounds loudly through... speakers?
My body freezes with shock.I know that voice.How the fuck is he seeing this? How the fuck is he controlling the speakers in the office?
I unfreeze and look around. There are speakers in the ceiling.
Brent is also looking around frantically, and oh boy, he’s scared. I have never been more grateful for—or angrier at—my fucking cousin.
Maybe the gratefulness wins out when Brent slowly lowers his arm. I have no clue what Harry will say next, but I just about dislocate my jaw when the door opens behind Brent and there he is, walking in like he doesn’t have a fucking care in the world.
And he’s not alone.
“Holy shit,” I hear Colby whisper, but it’s low enough that I think I’m the only one who heard him.
I grab his forearm again and pull him behind me.
As Harrison—in the most Harrison move ever—simply holds out his hand for Brent to pass him the gun, I look from face to face.
A short blond guy holding a tablet... two girls, mid-twenties I’d say... two other guys, one slim, one very bulky, also in their twenties... andIris.
My princess shouldn’t fucking be here.
She shouldn’t be staring at me with a blank face, as if she doesn’t know me, as if?—
No, of course that’s how she has to look at me.
Because the seven other adults besides Harrison?
Yeah, they’re not supposed to know that Harrison knowsme.
Except Baron Alton—I’ve never gotten confirmation from Harry whether his attorney knows we’re cousins or not. I don’t know all their names, but I know who they are.
Billionaires, each and every one.
Titans of industry, each and every one.
The people who rule this city—at least the legal side of the city—and their families have for damn near two hundred years.
Brent places the gun in Harry’s hand, and just like I taught him when we were stupid kids one time when he was home on break from college, he expels the cartridge then plucks each bullet out with his thumb so they fall on the hardwood floor with delicate pings. Those are the only sounds in the office as Harry stares right into Brent’s terrified eyes.
How come he’s so terrified of Harry but not of me?
That’s a spectacularly petulant thought to have for a fifty-year-old, I muse.
As that’s happening, I stop feeling Colby’s body behind me, and moving only my eyes downward, I realize he’s on the floor and he’s taking papers out of that damn drawer and sliding them into a folder.
I can’t fucking snap at him and bring more attention to us. All I can do is hold my breath and hope no one realizes what he’s doing.
I send him the most vicious glare I can muster when he stands back up, but then turn back to the doorway when Harry speaks again.
“Tucker, you think you can keep him from running out of here?” The young, bulky guy nods.
“Sure,”Tuckermurmurs and stands right behind Brent, but doesn’t touch him. My guess is he doesn’t need to.
Then Harrison turns and nods at me. He’slooking at me, in front ofall these people.
