Page 82 of Forever Fake

Soon this flash drive will be in Blake’s hands, he’ll be free to do whatever he wants with Yve, as she’ll no longer have any power over him. He can pressure her, or even torture her, into telling him where she hid his mother’s things. He can do whatever he wants. Yve’s reign of terror is over.

CHAPTER 37

Blake

“Gin? I’m home!” I call out again, to a disturbingly quiet house. Where the hell is everyone? Granted it’s late, so the staff are gone, but usually Gin is up and around to greet me when I arrive home from work. So where?—?

I walk into our bedroom, noting the neatly made bed and the envelope sitting in the middle. My chest tightens as I pick it up, dread coiling around my ribcage. Ripping it open, I upend the content onto the duvet. A small, bejeweled flash drive, and a letter. I turn the flash drive over in my fingers as I read the note.

Dear Blake,

I’m pretty sure this is what you’ve been looking for. I took it off Yve’s charm bracelet. I hope this helps you get out from under her thumb.

Since you’ve found this, that means you’re home from work and I’m not there. I’ve decided to spend some timewith my cousin Elena in Italy. I don’t know when I’ll be back.

I hope you get everything you want for your brother and for yourself.

Best, Gin

Her letter doesn’t settle well with me, there’s far too much she’s not saying between every single one of her words. Especially that last line. Guilt eats at me for choosing my brother over her. I just wish she understood that I’ve looked out for him for his entire life, it’s part of who I am. I didn’t mean to offend her, or make her feel less than, or anything like that.

But, obviously she does, because from what I can tell, she just left me. Maybe she just needs some time and space to herself. Or am I being dense again?

I weigh the flash drive in my hand. She can’t be that mad at me since she just gave me the best gift ever. If this contains the blackmail material Yve has been holding over me all these years, then having this in my possession changes everything.

Pulling out my phone, I check the tracking app to locate Gin. She’s telling the truth, the tracker places her over the Atlantic. I locate her flight number so I get notifications for when she lands, just to be sure everything went okay.

In my office, I wake up my laptop and insert the drive. There are only two video files on it. I let them play, confirming thatthisis what I’ve been searching for, for years. Yve really did have this on her every single day.

How did I not bother to look closer at her charm bracelet? It’s so fucking obvious. Too obvious, that’s the problem.

I bring up Niall Bane’s contact and press the call button, putting it on speaker phone. He’s the only decent Bane brother,the black sheep from the rest of that brood, and he owes me a favor.

“What do you want, Baron?” he answers.

I appreciate the way he cuts to the chase. “I’m sending you a couple of files. I need you to hack into Yve’s computer, and her other devices, and find any duplicates of these.”

Niall sighs. “I don’t do that kind of work anymore.”

“You do for me. Get off your good boy soapbox and get your hands dirty. I’ll call us even after this.”

That catches his attention. “Okay. I see the files you sent. I’ll get back to you when it’s done.”

“Good.” I hang up, leaning back in my office chair. My gaze lands on the paint chips hanging on the wall. We’ve narrowed it down to fifteen shades of blue. Progress.

Fuck, I hope Gin’s not gone for too long. I already miss her.

Everyone empties out of the elevator when they see me coming. I push the button for the executive floor and ride up alone. Early this morning Niall called to say that he found two backups of the incriminating evidence against me, and erased them both. Three copies is about the level of duplicates I expected Yve to keep. Now they’re all gone. My trap is prepped and ready to spring.

I had to act quickly, in case Yve caught onto me, so this morning I contacted my acquaintance at the FBI and sent over some choice pieces of evidence of Yve’s illegal doings. People she’s paid to have offed, backroom business deals, the dirt I haveon her will take someone years to dig through, so I just handed over the highlights.

The FBI will be at the office to pick Yve up within the hour, but I can’t resist seeing the look on her face when she realizes our game is finally, thoroughly finished.

Exiting the elevator, I head straight for her office, but find it empty. Her secretary informs me she’s in the boardroom with a client. I burst through the door and immediately halt in my tracks.

Yve’s in here, alone with Oz, her client, who happens to have my step-monster on her knees as she sucks him off. That’s a sight I could have lived the rest of my life without. Now it’s seared into my retinas.

I sneer in disgust. Yve lurches to her feet, and Oz lazily tucks his dick away with a smirk. I can’t wait to knock out his teeth. Finding him here is actually a boon. All of this nonsense ends today.

---