Page 138 of Threaded Lies

“We’re in the middle of something. Do you mind?” Chad chimes in.

Funny how all those years ago, I never expected him to turn out to be the pussy in all of this.

“Must be awesome to be Rhett’s little bitch, huh? But then again.” I shrug as the tendons in their necks grow taut. “You probably know where the other has buried the bodies so, little bitch, big bitch—neither matters so long as no one spills the other’s secrets, right?”

“What’s your fucking point?” Rhett barks.

“Nothing really. Just cruising around my company to get a feel for what everyone is working on.” I offer a smug smile. “So what are we in the middle of? Plotting my demise so soon? And I thought we were all getting along so well.”

“We’re on a deadline here. We don’t have time for this,” Chad says.

“We. We. We. Such a cute couple.” I purse my lips. “I’ll have you know I don’t look too highly on employees using company time to do their own business. Shit, Rhett. You need to up your game. You’re on shaky fucking ground considering all the new suppliers your sister has brought in. She’s running circles around you. I can understand why that might make you feel a tad bit inferior.”

“You’d be the one to know what she is and isn’t doing, right? Since she jumped in the sack with—”

“Careful.” My voice is a low, charged warning. “That’s a line I wouldn’t dare fucking cross if I were you.”

“No. That’s a line you weren’t supposed to cross,” Chad says.

I hold his glare, can even appreciate the fact that he grew a pair and said it, but now, I’m going to fuck with them even further. Drumroll, please. “Check your watchdog, Rhett. You wouldn’t want him scaring away your number-one campaign contributor.”

“No thanks,” Rhett says arrogantly.

“You’re going to turn down my $1 million donation?” That got your fucking attention, didn’t it? “I figure you might need a little help pushing you over that threshold to win.”

“Blood money, huh?” Rhett asks.

“Spoken like a true entitled prick.” My smile is lethal. “I offer you a million dollars and you look a gift horse in the mouth. Didn’t your parents teach you anything?”

“Don’t talk about my parents.”

I laugh and hold my hands up. “Fine. Don’t take the donation. No fucking skin off my back.”

But you’re going to need it, Rhett. You and pretty boy Chad are going to need it.

The question is, what are you going to do with it?

“You fuck my sister. You steal my company. And now you’re offering me a million-dollar donation because you realized neither of those things got you where you needed to be. So now you’re trying to kiss my ass because you need me. Because you’ll need me to help you when I’m on the city council. You’ll know what it feels like when the tables are turned.”

I plant both hands on the conference table so that I’m up close and fucking personal to the prick. “Let’s get one thing straight, Rothschild. You gave your company away. You gave it away because you’ve fucked up so many other things in your and your family’s lives that you don’t have a fucking choice.” His eyes widen. Yeah. Ask me what I know, fucker, because you’ll be shocked. I lean in closer. “I had a thing with your sister. It’s over. And rest assured, I don’t want anything from you that I don’t already have. If I did, I’d take it, and there’s not a goddamn thing you’d be able to do to stop me.”

FIFTY-EIGHT

Rowan

I’ve spent the better part of the week holed up here.

Gran’s study. What now seems to be my go-to place.

Sure, I’ve ventured out to visit my dad. Polite conversations that end with him saying he’s tired and me saying I’ve got to go now, but that’s about it.

I’ve worked steadily but remotely. I oversaw a big contract with a regional distributor that secured a deal to put TinSpirits in a larger demographic of stores. And I hired a commercial real estate agent to contact the owner of the property the Sanctuary is on to see if I can negotiate.

If your own world is falling apart, you might as well try to make others’ a better place to be.

And to top it off, my desire to stick my head in the sand and remove myself from any and all things that will remind me of, make me miss, make me think of Holden, has allowed me to make such massive progress in going through Gran’s things. It’s been my mission. And once this is clean, then I’ll force myself to go back to my reality.

The one where Holden is the liar I initially pegged him to be and my heart is still shattered.