“And in the intervening period, you will keep away from her and keep those other bastards away from her,” Kai adds.
“You have my word,” he says, and I smother a snort. He’s so full of shit. No one is buying this, and it’s the most ridiculous charade, but at least it buys us some time to implement our plan.
“Fine. We have a deal,” Kai confirms, and I know he’s deliberately letting Father think he’s weak by not arguing the point further.
“Abigail will have to act as Charlie’s wife in public until then. I don’t care what you do behind closed doors, but there can be no indication the marriage isn’t real.”
“I’m not the one you must convince,” I say, turning around in Kai’s arms. I can barely tolerate looking at him, but I fake it, schooling my lips into a neutral line. “Charlie doesn’t want anything to do with me now.”
“You leave Charlie to me.” An evil grin spreads across his mouth, and my stomach twists painfully.
“You won’t hurt him, Elizabeth, or Lillian,” I say. “They get the same protection as me.”
He shakes his head slowly. “To think I was actually proud of you last night over how well you defended yourself,” he says, tut-tutting. “And then you have to go and let emotions get in the way.”
“It’s called compassion, not that I expect you to understand because I doubt you’ve experienced any normal human emotion ever in your life.”
He looks through me, not even dignifying that with an answer.
“And I have one other condition,” I say.
“That’s not how negotiations work.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck how your usual negotiations work,” I hiss. “This is how this one is going down unless you want us to out you as the cold-blooded murdering, sadistic bastard you are.”
Drew shoots me a warning look, and I force myself to calm down. “Alessandra publicly embarrassed Drew last night. You will arrange it so Trent and Alessandra are engaged, and Shandra will become Drew’s new fiancée.”
Shock splays across Drew’s face. I knew he’d never ask for himself, and while we have the bastard by the balls, we might as well squeeze as much out of him as we can.
“It’s not that simple,” he replies.
“Oh, please. Of course, it is. The elite have no regard for women. We’re interchangeable, so this should be a cakewalk.” He purses his lips, and I enjoy watching him squirm. “I don’t care what you have to do or say to make it happen, just make it happen. That bitch is poison, and I want her a million miles away from my brother.”
His wry smile rubs me up the wrong way, and I’ve had enough of his toxic energy polluting our airspace. “And this conversation is officially over, so get the fuck out of our house.”
Oh, he doesn’t like being spoken to like that. Not one little bit. My inner minx is throwing a party.
He’s fuming, but he’s doing a good job of hiding it. “Drew,” he tosses over his shoulder. “I’ll wait for you in the car. Don’t be long.”
He gives Kai and me the evil eye as he walks out of the room, followed by Rick, who is quick to chaperone him to the door.
“Thanks for that,” Drew says, standing and smiling. “At least Shandra is pleasant to be around.”
“And she’s very easy on the eye,” Jackson adds, grinning.
“I wouldn’t know,” Drew says, completely serious. “I only have eyes for one woman, and it’s not her.”
My heart aches for Drew, and thoughts of Jane enter my mind again. When all this is over, I’m going to track her down, because I hate seeing my brother so miserable.
“What’s going on?” Kai asks, directing his question to my twin.
“We’ve been summoned to Parkhurst to explain how Denton Mathers got shot,” he replies.
What a fucking joke. He gets to almost rape me without consequence, but they’re making a big deal out of the fact he got shot? Typical elite bullshit.
“Will this be a black mark against Father’s campaign?” I inquire.
Drew shakes his head. “He’ll wriggle his way out of it. He’ll blackmail Denton into withdrawing his complaint, and it’ll get buried.”
