“Like you’ll believe me,” she said, her tone laced with acid.
I eyed her for a moment. “There’s no record. So, what’d you do, Sunshine? Settle it in a private civil suit?”
She clenched her jaw and looked away, confirming my suspicions.
“You did, didn’t you? You admitted guilt.” I frowned. “Why? You’d already been cleared in the criminal case.”
She tried to yank her wrists from my grip, but I kept them pinned to the door.
“Why?” I repeated.
“Because Runa couldn’t pay,” she said, voice low, eyes looking everywhere but at me.
“And you could.”
It wasn’t a question, but she nodded.
“Do you really hate these people as much as you claim?” I asked, wanting to see her answer from up close, where she couldn’t hide.
“Most of them, yes. With every fiber of my being. Why do you think I spent so much of my life numbing myself with drugs and alcohol and acting so stupid and reckless? I was lashing out. Being a self-obsessed, rebellious child because it was either that or cut myself off completely from this world.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I worried it meant I’d lose my family, too.”
I stared into her eyes, looking for lies, but I saw none. Only fear, anger, regret.
“Why doyouhate them so much?” she asked.
I forced a smile, rubbing my thumb over her lower lip, marveling at the way the color stayed perfectly in place. Had she learned her lesson from our first two encounters and switched to something that wouldn’t smear if we kissed again? Did that mean shewantedme to kiss her again?
I shook my head, clearing those thoughts. “Let’s just say I pay attention to what goes on in this city, and I don’t appreciate that there are rules for me but not for thee. There’s no way Bradley Bluhm is the only monster hiding in these circles, and if our justice system won’t deal with them, then someone else should.”
“And that someone is you?”
“I don’t see anyone else stepping up to the plate.”
Her gaze swept over my face, sharp, observant. I kept my expression carefully neutral, because it was clear we were approaching a critical moment, one in which Stella finally made up her mind about what she wanted: Help me take these people down, or stay on my bad side.
“Come on,” I crooned. “You know you want to ruin them.”
“I do,” she admitted. “But only financially. I don’t want to be complicit in people being harmed in any other way.”
“I’ll only hurt them if they make me,” I said, repeating the line I’d already said to her.
She rolled her eyes, the soft overhead light catching the golden flecks in her irises. People who claimed brown eyes were boring had never seen them close enough to realize their true beauty.
“What are you doing?” she said, her voice low and raspy.
I stopped, my lips an inch from hers. What the fuckwasI doing?
Losing my goddamn mind, apparently.
I forced a grin. “Trying to seduce you into going along with my plans. Is it working?”
She tore free from my grip. “Oh my god, you are so obnoxious! I don’t even know why I told you any of that.”
By the time I spun around, she was halfway across the room. “It’s because you care deeply about my personal opinion of you.”
