Page 66 of Ruthless Love

The devilish grin he sports conjures images of knots and ropes, and curtain ties. And my father’s twisted little game of watching me.

The unsettled realization settles over me, but I don’t bring it up. This issue is between my father and me.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

EVIE

At my father’s insistence, I agree to meet him at Dimitri’s the next day, which is fine. It’s time to get this out in the open, once and for all.

Alexei answers the door when I arrive and escorts me to a room I know well. The library, the one room in the entire house that I actually like and could lose myself in. A moment later, Dimitri enters.

“Your father will be here soon,” he says, anticipating the question forming on my lips.

It’s been weeks since I’ve seen Dimitri. The darkness of his eyes and hair always casts him in a role of mystery. Sexiness. Danger. But this time, I’m the one holding high the do not enter sign for everyone—especially him—to see. Squaring my shoulders, I lay it all on the line.

“I can’t marry you, Dimitri. I don’t love you.” I stand in front of him as he leans back in his chair, his lips pursed in a half smile of disbelief. Or maybe desire. I don’t know. “I mean it. Please don’t pursue me.”

He laughs as sudden ringing interrupts, and he picks up an antiquated phone sitting on an ornate side table. “Send him in,” he says into it, the unamused tone of his voice making me suddenly nervous.

No one has ever sent for my father. He’s usually the man doing the sending. Doling out the discomfort. Deciding how much people should squirm in his presence.

The door opens, and I’m surprised to see my father looking like a shadow of the man he normally is—that he was only days ago. The lines in his face have deepened, and the darkness beneath his eyes means he hasn’t slept much lately.

But his posture is rigid, and the air feels heavy. Foreboding. Maybe this is his version of an intervention. Desperate to save me from once again fleeing from a billionaire. Doing whatever it takes to preserve the family name. Taking my hand and talking me off the ledge of the less-privileged life to come.

Wrapping his arms awkwardly around me, Dad presses a dry kiss on my cheek. “Evelyn. With all the mistakes you’ve made, do you really need to add another one to your list?”

My backbone stiffens at his patronizing tone. “I’m turning down the love of a man I don’t love back. I owe it to Dimitri to be honest.” My words are as honest and forthright as they are awkward and unconvincing. Still, I’m rolling the dice on the one tactic I haven’t tried—making my refusal for Dimitri’s benefit.

My father turns to Dimitri. “Looks like Evelyn doesn’t love you. Do you need to be loved in this arrangement?”

Dimitri shakes his head with a smirk. “No. I hadn’t planned on loving your daughter anytime soon, but I’m happy to keep up appearances, for publicity’s sake.”

With no way to comprehend what’s just been said, I stare blankly, my gaze moving between the two men. “I’m confused.” And outraged. “Why the fuck did you propose to me if you didn’t love me?”

Dimitri says nothing to me, and instead addresses my father. “Garrett? Here’s your chance to get your little girl in line.”

That comment catapults me from irate to full-blown losing my shit. “In line?”

My eyes narrow on my father. I don’t know if I’m more pissed off at Dimitri for speaking about me like I’m a petulant child and not six feet from him, or at my father, who’s determined to keep me locked in a loveless engagement, for what I now realize is some bullshit scheme that, no doubt, involves his personal fortune.

“Evelyn, this is as hard for me as it will be for you. But your family is counting on you to make this work.”

“Who? Not Mom. Or Alan. Right?”

“Right,” Dad says slowly, swallowing so hard, his Adam’s apple bobs like it’s just dislodged the last hunk of his pride. And perhaps his soul.

“So it’s all for you. A conniving man who has used every opportunity to manipulate me.”

“I raised you,” he says in a steady, even tone. “Gave you everything. You would let Banks Multimedia fail?”

“How could I let it fail? It’s not my company. It never was. You made that clear when you handed the reins over to Alan. I’ve been my brother’s keeper my entire life. How about you take a shot at it? Actually look after him for once, instead of being his dealer or his pimp. He needs help, not heroin and hand jobs.”

“Goddammit, Evelyn, I didn’t want to have to do it, but if we fall, then you, my dear, will fall too.”

The veins throb in his forehead to the point where I wonder just how big a grave he’s dug for the precious Banks fortune, and why he needs Dimitri to hoist him out.

Still, his words disturb me. “What’s that supposed to mean? I have no connections to Banks Multimedia. You’ve made damn sure of that.”

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