Page 90 of Pin-up Girl

“Nothing else. Just consider the offer. My attorney and accountants are standing by to review any proposal and negotiate.” Milo pushed the folder back to him.

Edward picked up the folder and tapped it on the table. “There’s a lesson in this for you too, Emmett. Women aren’t playthings to be treated like nothing but worthless baubles. One day, you’re going to find a woman who changes your mind. And I hope to hell she hasn’t experienced anything like this.” He waved the pictures in the air.

I grimaced, sometimes my actions were too much like Infinity for my comfort. “I already have. And she’s endured much worse than this.”

He started to get up, then paused. “Then you should be ashamed of yourself.”

Fuck, this was it. Our chance to stick it to the organization was disappearing fast, because I did what anyone in the organization would do, blackmail and manipulate to get what I wanted. Then he touched Milo’s shoulder as he passed.

“I’ll think about it. If it seems like a good opportunity, I’ll reach out to your attorney.”

Milo immediately handed him Mr. Thornton’s card. “That’s my lead attorney. If you have any questions, he’ll route them to me.”

“My stipulation ishe,” Edward stabbed a finger in my direction, “is never involved with this company in any capacity.”

I couldn’t stop the smirk his comment pulled out of me. Apparently, Milo couldn’t contain his mirth either because he laughed.

“That’s a deal. You would never have to see him again.” That was a tiny lie. If Milo got involved in any capacity at any point, there was a good chance Jules and I would be right there with him.

He walked away mumbling about idiots with too much money.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Elise

One week passed and everything seemed almost back to normal. If you didn’t count the therapist the guys were making me go see. I hadn’t even tried to get out of it. Honestly, I was more fucked up over the lack of guilt than anything else. At first, I was in shock, but only because of what I didn’t feel. You hear in school, from the media, and society in general that killing takes a toll on a person’s soul. Stained it in a way that was irrevocable.

I hadn’t felt that. If anything, I was liberated. Justin wasn’t the person that stole my life or bought my virginity. He wasn’t even the fucker who killed my sister. But he was a bad man. Someone who had orchestrated my entrance into the guys’ lives as a tool to hurt them, especially Jules.

So he deserved it. And I didn’t feel even an ounce of regret.

And Jules, I was pretty sure he felt even less. There had been something dangerous burning in his eyes when he fired the gun at Derek. He had tried to attack me, just like Jules told Emmett and Milo, but if I had to bet my life on it, Jules didn’t want any witnesses to my crime.

So I was attending counseling like a good little Pin-up, and coming to terms with the fact that I wasn’t like other human beings. I never really had been, so I was sinking into my reality with unsurprising ease.

There was one other little hiccup in my world. Emmett.

He was the one dirty blot on my increasingly bright week, and there was a rigid determination in him that wasn’t going to disappear. I wasn’t even mad at him anymore. Not when they filled me in on why he framed CarterfuckingKensington. Okay, maybe a little residual rage lived within me.

Fuck it. He had a purpose—he wasn’t merely fucking around for the fun of it. But with Carter, it still felt like cheating. Like he crossed a line that shouldn’t have been crossed. So what if it was a blurred line instead of the clear black and white I thought it was?

Emmett tried to corner me at every opportunity, but I was a slick bitch. I knew how to escape the public when I wanted to. And he was too easy to slip away from, because hordes of horny sorority girls still motherfucking vied for his attention.

I took a deep breath as I finished painting my toenails bright red. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to paint a red streak on my foot.

The door to Jules’ room opened, and—speak of the devil—there stood Emmett.

“Elise,” he said, like I was some unruly troublemaker he was forced to greet.

“Emmett.” I swiped the final stroke on my pinky, then screwed the cap back onto the nail polish. Executing some weird kind of duck walk with my toes lifted from the floor, I headed toward the bathroom.

“How long are you going to keep up this attitude? I explained myself. I apologized. I promised to never do anything like that again.”

I spun on a heel. “You said you would be faithful until this thing between us was over!” It felt good to get that off my chest.

He threw his hands up in the air, kicking the door shut behind him. “Iwasfaithful, damn it! I didn’t let her touch me outside of the kiss on the cheek. We needed leverage! This could change everything if the deal goes through. You know that!”

Marching back toward him, I shoved his shoulder. “You were groping her right in front of me. Iwatchedyou. It hurt like I’ve never been hurt before. You know why? Because you actually mean something to me! I loved you, and you took my heart and crushed it into nothing. I don’t care if it wasn’t real, or if it was to save our asses. It fuckinghurt. If you did it once, you could do it again, and I don’t like the power that gives you.”

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