Page 26 of His Sacrifice

I nodded. “Swear to freaking god, that is everything. She came to the bookstore and then texted me yesterday. You can have my phone. I don’t want the dang thing. I plan on getting a new one.”

“Probably won’t matter,” Apollo sighed. “She’s probably tapped your line.”

“That means she could hear me even when I’m not making a phone call?” I asked.

Apollo nodded. “With the connections Candace has, I’m sure that is possible.”

Leo stopped pacing and held up his hand. “Don’t get a new phone. Don’t do anything different than what you’ve been doing.”

“What?” Creed asked.

Leo’s eye connected with mine. “You are going to do exactly what Candace wants. You’ll meet, text, and call her whenever she wants. You’re going to tell her what we’re doing. We’re going to give her what she wants. Tell her you’re dating Creed and that Creed is falling in love with you. Tell her what he ate for fucking breakfast. You’re going to tell her everything.”

Apollo pointed at me. “Uh, I’m assuming you mean Jada is going to tell her everything we want her to tell her.”

“Uh, isn’t there something else we can do?” I asked. I had been hoping that once I told the guys about Candace, they would come up with another plan. “If she finds out that I told you guys, she’s going to kill me.”

Leo shook his head. “She’s not going to find out. She’s not going to know what hit her until she’s dead and in the ground. I’m not fucking around with her anymore.” He pointed at Creed. “I don’t care what it fucking takes, but you better make her believe you are in fucking love with Jada. If that means you getting fucking married and popping out a kid, do it. This is the first time we are going to have a leg up on her, and we are going to make it fucking count.”

Uh, what? Did he just say we needed to have a kid if it would bring in Candace? Hopefully, they caught her before it came to that.

Leo turned to me. “You will tell Creed the second Candace contacts you. If you hold back one single bit of information from us, Candace will be the least of your problems.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Creed called. “I think you need to turn that on Candace and not Jada. She didn’t ask for any of this.”

“Yeah, but when it fell at her door, she didn’t tell us,” Leo grunted.

“She threatened not only me but my family. What was I supposed to do?” I cried. “I hadn’t even met any of you when she came to me. I haven’t even told her anything.”

“And the only thing you are going to tell her are the things Creed tells you to.” Leo turned on his heel and headed to the door. “This is our only chance to get Candace, and no one is going to fuck it up for us.” He stormed out and slammed the door shut behind him.

My shoulders slumped, and all I wanted to do was cry. I had tried to do the right thing, and all I had done was piss off Leo.

That was a hell of a first impression.

“I’m gonna go try to calm him down a little bit.” Apollo stood and nodded to Creed. “You good here?”

Creed nodded.

“And I’ll call Princeton to let him know what’s happening.” Apollo glanced at me. “I think you’ve got enough on your plate right now. Don’t be too hard on yourself, Jada. Leo being pissed off is way more about Candace than it is you,” he offered.

I smiled stiffly. “Sure,” I whispered.

Apollo left with less anger than Leo had and softly shut the door behind him.

Creed had his hands in his pockets and just stared at me.

“Please tell me you’re not mad at me,” I whispered. “I’m terrified out of my mind that Candace is going to hurt me the second I walk out this door.”

“If I hadn’t asked you to pretend to be with me, would you have told us about Candace?” he asked.

“I was hoping I would have never met any of you, and I never got any information to give Candace,” I confessed. “I was hoping what little information Tatum gave me wouldn’t be enough for her, and she would find some other way to get to you guys.”

“And Candace would have just let you go scot-free?”

I threw my hands in the air. “I don’t freaking know, Creed. I didn’t ask for any of this. It’s not like I’m the one who went to Candace and offered to rat you guys out to her.”

His eyes dropped to the floor. “Fine.”

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