Page 77 of Pin-up Girl

Emmett scoffed.

“Yeah, I know. He knows, too. When I declined and said I’d take care of it, he spilled that he knew we were into some shit since it was a test, and obviously knew who she was. Whoever is feeding him information shared that Elise and Cass were working with us behind Infinity’s backs.”

He whistled long and low. “I’m sorry, Milo. If I had any idea all that was going to go down, I would have stayed with you. It was stupid of me to play Carter like that, but the temptation of getting something over her dad was too strong.”

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to Elise.” I let that dangle in the air for a few seconds before asking him the most important question of the night. “Do you still want to do this with Elise? Is she what you want?”

He opened his palms on his lap, momentarily stopping his shaking knee, and stared into them. “I do. I really only pretended to be on the fence the last two days. I started texting Carter the day of the dinner, and she had heard about our little reverse harem going on. She needed proof that I wasn’t with Elise to go off with me. She thought it was funny that Elise would see us together. She was the reason we were right in view of your booth.”

If I could have banged my head on the dash and kept driving, I would have. “Em, surely there was a way to get the leverage you wanted withoutthat. Elise is a tough bitch, and I don’t even know if the fact it wasn’t real will make any difference with her. I also don’t know where that leaves the rest of us if she refuses to forgive you.”

“Leave that up to me. I’ve been working on some things the last couple of days. But first, let me tell you about what started all this.”

I drove us to my Dad’s condo, which was only about a ten or fifteen-minute drive from here. No point going all the way back to the Shack when Jules and Elise were still in Denver. He better be ready in the morning, because tonight was all the time he was going to get.

“Remember that one girl from last year? The hot blonde attached to Stace and Lace’s asses? She was all over me at Freddie’s.” I nodded, but I had no clue who he was talking about. “Otherwise known as Slut Next Door. Her dad is a business partner with Derek’s dad, Justin. Both sit on the elite council with our fathers.”

“I know who sits on the council, Emmett.”

“Yes, but did you know that last year, the council shot down a deal that would have made Derek’s father alotof money? Billions. She goes home on the weekends, and right before I had her, she heard some very interesting things. Derek’s dad was on a rampage, raging about how he was too powerful to bow down to the whims of the council, fuck what the organization did for his company all the years before. He said he would have made it to where he was without them. Her dad’s a weenie, going right along with him, even though he knows he’s slitting his own throat.”

I almost slammed the breaks. “You’ve been holding onto this information for a year?Whatthe fuck, man? That was some serious shit to keep to yourself. The minute you heard it, you should have shared.”

“I knew that part, but I wasn’t sure if I could use it or not. If I thought it was something that would have affected the jobs we were running for ourselves, I would have told you. But that’s not the important part. Slut Next Door called me the day before the big dinner. Her dad is working on a stealth deal with Justin Waterford to merge with Edward Kensington. That would practically give them a monopoly in the market and enough power for him to work on dismantling the companies of the members that opposed him. And he’s not happy to stop there, Justin is on a warpath to destroy everything about them. Even their legacy. Who do you think was his biggest adversary on the deal last year?”

I didn’t even have to take three guesses. “Marsten Kingston.”

He nodded vigorously. “And who do you think has been digging around us, and then sending in plants to take us down?”

“Motherfucker. Infinity started to investigate us because my father killed his deal?” I couldn’t believe it. There was nothing we could have done to hide what we were doing if they were looking at us that closely.

“And where does Kensington fit into all this?” I pulled into the parking garage below the building, finding our reserved spot right by the elevators. Only the best for the Kingstons.

“I’m thinking the deal isn’t going to go through. Who do you think has a company that can slide in and take the deal right from under Justin’s nose?”

“Damn, that would be genius. But even you can’t change legal contracts once they’ve already gotten through that stage.”

“Just leave that to me.” He hopped out, beating me to the elevator button. “I need my phone back, too.”

“Fine, but I want all the secrets you’ve been collecting. Starting with when you thought this would be a good idea.” Not that it wasn’t genius in and of itself, I had just never suspected he was doing anything other than getting his dick wet.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jules

Ikept my hand on her lower back as she climbed the staircase up to the second floor. My room was the first one on the right, and I’d already shared that nice little detail with her. It wasn’t until just now that I wondered what kind of state my room was in.

Margo would make sure the room was clean, that was one of the only things she did for me anymore. But it had been years since I’d been back here. I never wanted to be here, not after theincident. I could probably count on my hand the number of times I’d visited the house after that.

The only reason I knew my parents were out of town was because Gregory texted me every week, to let me know they were thinking about me and wanted to see me. Even going so far as to tell me mundane facts about their lives, like it would entice me to see them.

This week’s text:Hi, son. We’ll be in Thailand for the week on business. Let me know if you want to join, and Margo will make the arrangements.

I had to give him props for trying to stay in touch. If only he’d done something twelve years ago, maybe I’d feel like having some kind of relationship with him.

The last time I’d lived here, I had Power Ranger posters up on the wall—only the nice kind that were framed and autographed. Did that make it less dorky?

She pushed the door open and flipped the light. A sigh of relief slipped past my lips to see that Margo had completely redone the room at some point. With dark mahogany furniture, warm blue and silver bedding, and soft, dove gray walls, it looked like the perfect guest room. They must have realized if I ever did come back, I wouldn’t want to stare at reminders of the childhood I’d lost.

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