Page 11 of Dash

“Make no mistake. Iwillreadeverythingyou’ve brought.” The red smirk on her lips reminded me of spilled blood. “I’ll do it with my attorneys present. I expected all kinds of hostile takeover attempts, but I’ll confess, I didn’t expect you.”

Things were going south faster than fast, and Richard Astor’s letter was not among the documents she carried but was rather stowed in my jacket’s pocket.

“I can assure you,” I said. “I’m not here to replace you—”

“My father was right about you.” She gutted me with six words. “You’ve always been an opportunistic SOB, a social climber. If I needed any proof of that, I have it. Right here.”

She lifted the papers in the air and then dropped her hand as if her load was too heavy and her arm had wilted. As gorgeous as she was, she looked brittle. Exhausted. Defeated.

I could handle Thena in battle mode, but seeing her like this?

It killed me.

“Listen to what I have to say,” I pleaded. “I need you to be reasonable.”

“Reasonable?” she choked out. “Or do you mean you need me to be a pushover? Must be the second, because I have no ideawhat you mean by the first, so feel free to stuff your self-serving notion of ‘reasonable’ up your ass.”

“You’re in danger,” I insisted. “I’m the only one you can trust.”

“You wantmeto trustyou?” Her scoff twisted her features. “After what you did?”

“I regret Nix’s death every day of my life.” Pinned under her glower, I felt like a squirming worm. I must’ve told her and her family this a million times before, but they chose not to believe me. “I’ve gone over the scenario millions of times, wondering where I went wrong. If I could give my life to bring Nix back, I would. I’ve taken responsibility for my actions and stayed away as you demanded, but now, I don’t have an option.”

“This isnotabout Nix and you know it,” she spat, even angrier if that was possible. “This is aboutyoubetrayingme.”

“Me betraying you?” I was seriously confused. “That’s not possible.”

She’d always been my star, the sun around which I circled day and night. I’d always treated her like the queen of my heart, a title that belonged to her. When Nix died, I’d tried to be there for her, but she’d been incensed and had sent me away in no uncertain terms.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, completely blindsided. “Explain this to me.”

“I don’t have to explain crap to you.” Her scowl was as formidable as her anger. “I’m sure you didn’t come here to talk about ancient history. You’re here for the money.”

“Fuck the money.” I fought to keep my voice even. “If you’ve got things to tell me, I wanna hear them.”

“It’s too late now.”

“Too late for what?”

“To revisit the past.”

“The past?” What was going on in her head? “I don’tunderstand.”

She gave a listless shrug. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“It matters to me.”

“I don’t believe you.” She resumed her forward progress toward the connecting door.

“Thena.” My voice stopped her again. “Talk to me.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” She whirled on her heels. “Do you think I didn’t know what you were doing behind my back?”

“Excuse me?” Had I been dropped in the middle of the Amazon jungle during a moonless night without a compass I would’ve had a better sense of where I stood than right now.

“Don’t play innocent with me.” She aimed an incinerating look at me. “I’m not the same gullible girl you could manipulate when you pretended to care for me.”

“Pretended?” I forced myself to close my mouth. “You think Ipretendedto care for you all those years?”All my life?

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