Page 66 of Keeping Score

“Get used to it, because you’re moving in with me.” The feeling of his lips scraping against the shell of my ear almost has me distracted enough to not comprehend his words—almost.

“I’m not moving in with you,” I say firmly.

“Fine, you want the truth, Leah? I’ll give it to you but once I do tell you, you better give up this whole bullshit.”

“What bullshit?” I snap.

“The next time you tell someone we are justfriends,I’ll fuck you right there in front of them just so they know howfriendlywe really are!” His words should piss me off, but all they do is turn me the fuck on. Something is seriously wrong with me.

“You heard that, huh?” I ask, trying my hardest to not laugh.

“I mean it, you’re mine, Leah, and I’m tired of lying to myself and everyone else about it. I let you go once and I won’t be dumb enough to do it a second time.” His words have my heart soaring.

“What about Corvin?”

“He knows how I feel about you and even if he isn’t good with it, I made my choice, Goldie.”

I dart my tongue out to moisten my lips. “What did you choose?” I ask quietly. He wraps his arms around me gently andburies his face into the crook of my neck, where he places an open-mouthed kiss.

“I picked the right sibling this time.” Tears prick the backs of my eyes. “I’ll never make you doubt your importance to me again. You’ll always be my first choice, Leah.”

“Tell me the truth and I’ll give you my answer.” He snorts.

“I’ll just fuck a yes out of you but whatever helps you feel like you’re in control, for now.” I balk at his boldness. “Here we go. Once upon a time.” I can’t stop the laugh that breaks free and immediately regret it when the pain in my side flares to life. “No laughing or I stop.” I nod. “Okay, so you know about my mom and me moving in with you guys.” I nod. “Okay, well I lied to you. I found out who my dad was when I was twelve. My mom let it slip in one of her episodes about him and how he took the good twin. I didn’t believe her at first until I did some digging.”

“Did Corvin know?” I feel him nod behind me.

“Yeah, he knew. He helped me get the records of my birth. I hadn’t planned to do anything at that time, it wasn’t until we met Saint, Crue and Beckett that we came up with a plan.”

“Why?” I ask still unable to piece all the dots together myself.

“Saint would go on about how he hated his father and what he did. He didn’t tell us why until one night we all got drunk. I spilled about who my father was, and that was when Saint came clean. Honestly, the only ones with a vendetta are me and Saint. Crue, Beck and Corvin are doing this to help their families and support us as well, but also set themselves up with a great future.”

“What did Saint say?”

“He said that his dad knew Victor and that they did shady dealings together. He went on to tell us about his dad’s tech company and how he made an app. This app wasn’t like any of the others he had ever made before. To get this app you had to pay a hundred grand.”

“For what exactly?” I can feel this story is about to take a dark turn.

“This app is used to distribute any information. You can post videos that can’t be traced, download illegal content of children.” I gasp, horrified at what he is saying. “You see, Victor is a sick fuck and he used his hotels and resorts to film children. Devon sold the content on his app. This made them both millions. We decided there and then that we would do whatever it took to take down mine and Saint’s father. We worked our asses off, studied the stock market and learned how to invest. We didn’t have the money, so we started out small and truthfully, we got a lucky break that made us the money we needed to expand. We kept expanding until we had enough money to buy Victor’s company that has been in his family for generations–still is, I guess. He has a gambling problem and was in debt up to his eyeballs. He had to either sell or go bankrupt, needless to say when we put in the offer he jumped at it.”

“I don’t know what to say, I had no idea.” I feel so disgusted and heartbroken for those poor children that were used.

“There isn’t anything to say. With Katie helping us now, we are so much closer to being able to take Devon down. Saint is planning a hostile takeover with the board of Devon’s company as soon as he has the proof.”

“Then what?”

“Then Saint is selling the company. He wants nothing to do with his father’s empire. His dad has tried to blackmail him for years and get him to give up his dream of being drafted and go work for him.” I sit here silently for a long moment trying to digest what he’s told me.

“What about Gary suing you?” I ask.

“He can try. We have the money this time and he doesn’t. His daddy is broke. We’ll hold him up in legal paperwork until he runs out of money. This is his last ditched effort to try and oneup me. He’ll never get the upper hand, we made sure of that.” A shiver runs through me at his words, they sound so final.

Darius

I start to get worried when she says nothing for a long time. I know I just laid shit out for her but if telling her the truth means I get my girl, then I have no regrets.

“Gary used me to get to you, didn’t he?”

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