Page 37 of Taming Her Temptations

Dean gets down on Daisy’s level. “Nice to see you again, Miss Daisy.” He shakes her hand, and she sticks out her belly and sways shyly.

My brother gives them a head nod in acknowledgment and I just bite my nails, trying to figure out what they’re doing here and how obvious it is that I’m overwhelmed to see all three of them together after yesterday.

“What’s up?” I ask nervously. “Everything okay?”

“Ugh, yeah.” Levi looks awkwardly at my brother and my dad. “You just weren’t responding to our messages, and we wanted to make sure everything is okay with you.”

I see my dad’s ears practically perk up. Oh god. Levi looks and sounds as guilty as a fox slinking around a henhouse. In this case, I suppose I’d be the hen he wants to eat. Which actually summarizes pretty well how I feel.

“Because we got invited to a gala on Wednesday night,” Asher tries to save face. “Something called the Millennium Gala? We were invited by the Collins, and you had mentioned their daughter is worth talking to. So we figured we should let you know before we get a table.”

Right. A part of our original plan. Petra Collins is one of the primary people I suggested they try to get close to as her dad partners with Steven often. I don’t like that the idea now makes me feel like my heart just fell into my stomach.

“Yeah, of course. Thanks for coming over. I agree it’s a good idea to go.” I find myself making a little less eye contact than normal. Do they know about Levi and were all actually coming to confront me? What would they do if I was at this cottage all alone? Scold me? I don’t let myself think about what the exact opposite of scolding might be…

“The gala is the least of your concerns right now,” Ryan chimes in from the table.

Dean cocks an eyebrow at me and I usher them over to the table.

“I went through all my past planning and guest lists and estimated an amount we should have donated to the honored non-profits. Then I called, pretending to need the donation confirmations for taxes.” I take a deep sigh. “The numbers don’t make sense at all. I just had Ryan check them to make sure I’m not losing my mind.”

“You’re not losing your mind,” Ryan says darkly. “It turns out that shithead Steve is an even bigger shithead than we thought.”

My heart races and nausea roils in my stomach. I am so sick of being blindsided by this man.

“So the charities never got the money?” My voice has a tremor in it.

“It looks like he handed over about fifteen percent of the actual total every time. The numbers are so consistently close to fifteen percent that I have to think that it was a conscious choice to hand over that amount and take the rest.”

I feel my body shaking as I sit down at the table to steady myself.

“This is only the last five events we hosted. How many more are there? How much money that was meant to go to these charities instead went to buy something I benefited from?” My cheeks grow hot and I feel a tear draw a thick wet line down my face.

“Ruby, don’t do that,” Levi sits next to me at the table. He grabs my hand. “Don’t blame yourself.”

I take a shaky hand up to my face to clear the tears falling in more volume now. I’m not even crying because I’m sad. My body is just so overcome with adrenaline and anger. I feel like I’ve been living a life that I knew nothing about.

“I don’t think the money went to your living, Ruby,” Asher says. “It doesn’t make sense. From everything we know, the man has family money and a hefty income from his company. Something else is going on to make him this desperate for money.”

“Gambling?” Dean offers.

I shake my head. “He couldn’t even play poker. Had no interest in it.”

“What about your sister?” Ryan says, and I don’t miss the hint of accusation in his tone. He might like Levi’s music, but he’s still my older brother.

Levi glances sideways at me. I realize his hand is still on mine and my brother seems to notice it, too. I slowly pull my hand away and cross my arms. I’m not in the right head space to understand why I want to leave my hand there for eternity, so it’s better just to remove myself from the situation completely. But Levi’s eyes meet mine and I swear I see a hint of disappointment in them.

“She feels like he’s hiding something,” Levi finally says. “I don’t want to stress her out, though. That’s why we’re working on it with Ruby.”

“Sure, so you can stress Ruby out instead.” Ryan counters.

Levi shakes his head. “No, that’s not our intention. Ruby said she wanted to help.”

“I do, Ryan. Once I figured out what they were actually up to, I decided to help.”

“Okay,” Ryan eyes Levi and glances again to where his hand was on mine. I’m not sure why I feel like a teenager who was just caught making out at the front door.

“Listen, it’s impossible to know what Steven is actually up to right now. Secret family in Iowa? Colonizing the moon? At this point, I wouldn’t put anything past him.” I sigh. “We’ll just have to keep digging. The Millennium Gala is a good start.”

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