The Dirty Series 2(66)

“Oh, I’m not threatening you,” he says, his voice smooth and disgusting. “I’m giving you all the information you need to make a good decision.”

“You’re so kind.”

Charlie’s hand shoots out away from his body at lightning speed, and I jump backward. “See? You’re fucking scared of me. And you should be. Because if you walk away from me right now, it won’t be you who faces the consequences. It’ll be your mother. And your precious brother.”

I bite my lip to force my chin from quivering. “I don’t believe you.”

Charlie whips a phone out from his back pocket, holds it up to my face. “Do you believe this?”

On the screen is a picture of my mom and brother sitting in a corner booth at the only cafe in town. The next image is one of a rough-looking man holding up yesterday’s paper.

I swallow hard.

“I know where they are, and you know what I’ll do. Choose.”

I want to slap his face, I want to kick him in the balls and call 9-1-1, I want to put my own hands around his neck and make him feel like I feel right now—like all the air has gone out of my lungs.

Instead, I hold out my hand, face up.

He drops a new flash drive into it.

“See you in a week.”

And that—that’s not the worst of it, because Jett is waiting for me when I get back to the penthouse, my knees like Jell-O. The outline of him silhouetted against the darkness of the living room is so still that at first I think Charlie has sent someone after me, and they’ve managed to get inside.

“Jett, you scared the shit out of me.”

“What’s going on?” His voice is sleepy, suspicious.

“I had to run out.”

Think fast, Angelica.

“At three in the morning?”

“Two-thirty in the morning, actually.” I hate when other people say that kind of thing, but it’s the first thing that comes to mind.

“Why didn’t you wake me up? Whatever it was, I could have sent someone.”

“Not...really.” I have to tell him at least a partial truth, I have to.... “My brother is having some trouble.”

“He’s in the city?”

This is making me sound unbelievably shady, and there’s nothing I can do about it. “Yeah. He lives here. It’s just—life has always been more difficult for him than it is for me, and he’s going through a rough time.” I want to touch him. I want to put my hands on him, even if he’s the anchor that I’m about to lose. So I go to him, put my hands on his forearm, feeling the warmth of him. Then I kiss the skin between my hands. “I didn’t want to bother you.”

Underneath my touch, Jett relaxes, just a little. Thank Christ.

“It’s all right,” he says, and then kisses the top of my head. “Is your brother going to be okay?”

“For tonight, yeah. I told him things would be better in the morning.”

“Good advice.” He wraps his arm around me and starts moving us back toward the bedroom. Relief floods my veins. “I think we should sleep on it.”

“I agree. So much.”

In the bedroom I ditch my clothes and crawl under the covers, hoping to fall asleep fast. Instead I lie on my side, Jett’s arm wrapped around me, my mind racing.

There has to be a way out.

And I have to find it fast.





Chapter Twenty-Eight





Jett



Connor stands next to me inside the lobby of the Brandon, Inc. building. We’re receiving another deluge of information from Riley, a spritely woman from the PR department who has endless red, curly hair and talks about a mile a minute.

“What we need to make absolutely clear is that none of our resources were benchmarked for their technology needs, so any investments we made in LoveLink were strictly campaign-oriented. At no time did we fund the hosting of any inappropriate materials.”

“Got it,” Connor says, nodding down at the tablet containing his prepared statement. This press conference has been arranged for the sole purpose of putting the LoveLink connection far, far behind Brandon, Inc. I’m going to reassure the public that we’re an upstanding corporation deserving of their trust, and Connor is going to outline our now-defunct financial ties so that there’s no question about our involvement in the future.

There will be questions, of course, but this position statement will be the perfect thing to point people toward.

I can’t wait until this is over.

It’s irrational, I know it, but the more that goes wrong with this fucking acquisition, the more I think it all started with Emerald. If I had been less distracted, if I hadn’t been so quick to think I was in love with her....