Page 154 of The Price of Forever

And Roxie opened up too: she’d met a new guy, but he hated the fact that she was a stripper. He wanted her to quit. He wanted her to dress differently. He kept poking holes in the condoms. It warmed my heart to hear Jordan emphatically tell her friend how fucked up all of that was and to leave him, under no uncertain terms.

Roxie reported that Eli had been coming around the club looking for her, looking a wreck. Healing black eyes, drunk as shit. He’d even gotten himself kicked out of Gemstones once in his hunt for Jordan. That part didn’t exactly placate me, though, since I knew Eli’s pockets were deep and his connections were sinuous. If he wanted Jordan, I worried that he’d make sure to find her. Someday. Somehow. Especially now that we knew about Eli’s involvement with the brothers’ charges.

I decided to move my headquarters for Silva Security elsewhere. The break with the Fairchilds was too painful, and they’d made it clear that I was no longer welcome in their sphere. Part of me wanted to wait it out, to hope for the best, to see them backpedal once the truth came out. But I also knew that I needed to act now. Axel, in particular, was still seething about what I’d allowed Jordan to do while in my care. I didn’t even try to reason with that type of big brotherly protection.

Chico and Liam were still on board with me as I actively recruited new contracts, but it wasn’t the type of sustainable work that would allow me to keep the lights on for very long. Expenses had to be cut.

I went to the office exactly a week after Jordan was released from the hospital to take my last boxes with me and lock up. Trace showed up to receive the key just as I was turning the light off and shutting the door.

“How’s it look?” he asked in lieu of a greeting.

The fact that I’d lost my job in the name of trying to protect him and the others didn’t prevent the humiliation from lapping at my feet. I offered a small smile. “Better than I found it. I cleaned every crevice so you wouldn’t have to.”

Trace stuffed his hands into his pants, his dark hair trim and impeccably styled. He looked like he’d come straight from the office across town. And at eleven a.m. on a Tuesday, he probably had.

“Well, I’m glad it got some use,” he said.

“Yeah. It was great. I would have loved to continue…” I trailed off, not sure how far I wanted to wade into those waters.

We watched each other awkwardly for a moment.

“How are Axel and Damian?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Pretty pissed.”

“They haven’t talked to Jordan too much lately,” I commented.

Almost every night Jordan flirted with the idea of calling Axel and admitting everything. She was dying to begin mending fences, but I always talked her down, because I wanted to do things exactly as Federico laid out. If we had a chance, it would come from following the rules.

“Yeah. Not sure how those relationships are really going to evolve from here, but…” Trace shrugged again. “I guess that’s for them to figure out.”

I nodded. What else could I possibly say to make things better?

“Is Jordan still seeing Eli?” Trace asked abruptly.

I couldn’t school the shock from my face. “No. Not at all. She was never ‘seeing’ him to begin with.”

“Then what was she doing on his arm, kissing him, all of that?” Trace challenged.

I sighed. Backed into the corner again. “Exploiting him. Trying to take him for all he was worth, in whatever way she could.”

I held out the key just as he got a call. He frowned down at his phone, leaving my hand hanging in the air for a moment or two before he remembered and grabbed it from me.

“I need to take this,” he muttered quickly before swiping the phone on. Into the phone, he snapped, “What is it?”

In the near-silent office, I could hear the other end of the conversation. It was Damian.

“We got a call from our lawyer. Something about the investigation being fraudulent? There’s an emergency hearing, and our lawyers are filing a motion to have the case dismissed.”

Did I mishear somehow? Trace looked just as bewildered as I felt.

“Wait, what? You mean our trial? That’s coming up in a couple weeks?” Trace asked.

“Yes. There’s been some type of evidence that was found at the last minute.”

Trace’s eyes went wide, and he looked up at me. I returned the look, hope crackling to life inside me.

There was some faint laughter. “I have no fucking idea. But he thinks someone on the inside was working against us when otherwise they wouldn’t have pursued the charges. Like, someone paid off an agent or something.”

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