Page 110 of Mine

“I’m not thinking straight? You haven’t had a single straight thought in years. Your incompetence as a mother is the reason Chloe is dead.”

At the sound of my daughter’s name, I snap. “Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on here?!”

Carlos tilts his head to the side. “You know exactly what’s going on here. You set this up. Last week, you offered me a swap—Valerie’s body for Sabine. And here I am, ready to collect.”

Oh shit.

Sabine’s eyes widen with shock, with pain.

The betrayal she must feel, the foolishness.

No, no, I did it before, I want to scream. Before I fell in love with you.

My stomach curdles, and suddenly I feel like I’m losing control.

“Stone,” Carlos says. “You and I go way back. You’re the one who started everything when you went behind my back and fucked Valerie, my first girlfriend, my first love. Then you went and married her just to put the final nail in the coffin.”

Oh God. I look again at Sabine.

I lied to her and told her I didn’t know Valerie before our “one-night stand.” I said it because I didn’t want her to think there were real feelings between Valerie and me. Because there weren’t. There never was.

Sabine’s lips part, and her face pales.

Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit.

Carlos continues, his gritty voice like a goddamn hammer to my eardrums. “But it doesn’t stop there, does it, Stone? As if that wasn’t enough, your mother killed my brother. She’s the reason he’s dead. Honestly, I should have done this back then.”

A mad chuckle bubbles out of him. His eyes grow wild.

“And even then, you still don’t leave me alone. You go and destroy my most profitable real estate venture, costing me almost everything I’d worked for.”

“Money can be replaced.”

“My brother can’t.”

“Neither can my daughter.”

“I didn’t kill her, Stone. You know that. I’ve done a lot of shit in my life, but I don’t kill kids. Trust me, I’d happily admit to it at this point if I did.”

Valerie hangs her head, sobbing uncontrollably.

Carlos glances at her. “You have a way with women, don’t you, Astor. Every woman who enters your life meets a tragic end, don’t they? Your mother, in a plane crash, Valerie loses her daughter, and now Sabine, standing here with a knife to her throat. And Pri? Look at her. You made her hate you so badly, she’s willing to do anything to get out of your clutches.”

“How much is he paying you, Pri?”

“More than you ever would, Stone.” She glares back. “Enough to go away and start a new life somewhere.”

“In fairness, our partnership is new,” Carlos says to clarify, like I give a shit. “When you took Sabine, I staged my men outside your penthouse in New York. There, they confronted Prishna on her way to meet you in the Tahoe. Using her was a backup plan in case you’d already killed Sabine. We struck a deal rather quickly. Her job was to deliver me both you and Sabine—if she was alive—and in return, I give her freedom from you. So, here we are. You get Valerie, I get Sabine, and we all walk out of here and never see each other again. Rivalry over.”

“You think I’m a fucking idiot? You’ll kill Sabine the second you get her. She’s a liability to you now.”

“Hey, I’m trying to be civil here. Technically, I could have just taken both women the moment Prishna showed up with Sabine, but I wanted to give you a fair chance to hold up your end of the deal.”

“Liar. You have me here because you want to see me squirm.”

“Fine, you got me. Now, I’m done with all this chitchat. I’m going to take Sabine and give you your wife, and if you interject, I’ll kill both Valerie and Sabine right now and make you watch.”

The second Carlos reaches for Sabine, I lunge forward.

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