Page 5 of Unlawful Lies

Daddy wants me to use my body for information. His newest plan and one he believes will be key to their downfall.

Which makes me, instinctively, less inclined to even fantasize about Edward the way I’d started to before that plan was formulated. Fantasize about all the ways he might use those hands of his or the way he might make me scream his name.

“Perhaps the plan is not to lose you but to take you away from the rest of the outside world.” I think I say it low enough for him to miss, but his dark chuckle tells me otherwise.

“What will you do with me once we’ve made our escape?”

“Enjoy the day,” I retort.

“Is that all you want to do?”

A curse falls from my lips. With him? No, sadly.

His gaze shoots arrows through my back. I disappear around a bend, the shade ofa maple tree castling dappled sunlight on lupine, foxglove, and lavender.

Too many things about Edward draw me despite our families’ long-standing feud. How do you erase years of bad blood to actually consider someone a friend, or at the very least, someone to commiserate with?

I stop underneath an arbor bursting with white climbing roses, their scent intoxicating. The stone bench underneath is shaded from the midafternoon sun, and I settle down, patting the empty space beside me once Edward catches up.

He’s windswept and unable to pull himself together from whatever he’d done last night. His skin bears the purple darkness of a night spent doing anything other than sleeping.

He shakes his head, and from this vantage point with the sun at his back, his features are cast in darkness. He looks like a phantom straight out of a wet dream, and my skin tightens uncomfortably.

“I’d rather stand,” he replies.

“Now you sound just like your father. Stiff.”

“Heaven forbid.” Yet he makes no move toward me, and instead of giving in to the power dynamic where he’s the looming shadow and I’m the helpless little bunny, I stand as well and rook a finger toward him.

“It’s okay, Edward,” I murmur. “I’m not going to bite.”

He still refuses to move. “I see what you’re doing, Nicola.”

“What is that?” I question. My breath trembles.

“You’re going to use me to either distract from your alcoholic, abusive father or to make him angrier than he was when we left the office. I refuse to play a part in either of those things. Especially considering the way the Salvatores have trespassed on our shipping routes.”

I cross one leg over the other. “I have nothing to do with what Daddy chooses to do.”

“No doubt one of the first truths you’ve told all day,” Edward replies.

Except the heat in his tone and his eyes tell me a different story, and it’s that narrative I force myself to latch on to. For my family. For the business my father has been desperately trying to build to get us out of poverty.

When you come from nothing, every penny you scrape to save might mean the difference between a night with an empty stomach or a plate of food.

I stand as well and lift my arms overhead, stretching until my fingers graze the arbor overhead. “Come closer.”

Daddy will do it, too; follow through on the beatings he’s only threatened when it comes to the Balestras.

Once he decided on the part I’d play, there was no turning back.

He wants me on my back for this man? Someone on the inside to ferret out secrets to use as weapons, and he doesn’t care if it debases me. Deflowers me. Whatever D comes along with his plan, he’s willing to let me pay the price.

My attraction is my secret. I like looking at Edward.

I like his tone of voice and the rogue glint in his eyes.

Edward refuses to move from his spot, his hands sliding into the pocket of his dark gray slacks. “It’s not you I’m worried about, Nicola. It’s me.”

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