Page 31 of Dangerous

“He’s manipulating you by seeming so reluctant. Trust me, he wants to sell that development-whatever to you really, really bad. And if I were you, I’d be very careful.”

“Gerald’s a family friend—he’s not out to trick me.” I crossed my arms and leaned against the fridge. “And what are you anyway, since you think you know his sinister motives—a damn telepath?”

“I’m a trained psychologist,” she huffed, clearly getting irritated herself. “And I’m very good at reading body language. I’ve been watching them both throughout dinner, and the way Leo is twitching and smirking, it’s obvious something isn’t right about this deal. But suit yourself—if you have forty million and a shipment of automatic weapons to bet on your own ego, then what do I care? I just thought you’d like to know.”

With another huff, she marched over to the fridge and opened the door so I had to step away. She fished out a tray with a chocolaty looking cake and shoved it into my arms. “Here, take this in. The sooner they’re done eating, the sooner they’re out the door, and I’m getting to the end of my rope playing a Stepford wife to your Al Capone.”

“Son of a bitch!”

The development site was as dark as would be expected at four AM on a November morning, but even from my vantage point inside my car on the road next to the muddy field, it was obvious that this wasn’t the multi-million dollar leisure park I’d signed off on.

We’d finished the deal before Gerald and Leo left earlier that evening, but I hadn’t been able to shake Mira’s warning, crazy as it had seemed. It had niggled at me until I’d finally gotten in my car, picked up Louis, and driven all the way to Manchester to look at the damn site with my own eyes.

“Looks like there was some initial plans to turn the area into a hot spot a couple of years ago, but the council shot it down,” Louis said from the passenger seat. He was looking at his iPhone, reading up on what I should have looked into before ever inviting Gerald over. What Iwouldhave looked into, had he not had ties with the family.

“What are you going to do about it? If Dad finds out you got fucked over like this, he’s not going to be pleased.”

“No, and that’s exactly what that bloody bastard is counting on,” I growled as I clutched the steering wheel to ease some of my frustration. “He knows I’d never tell Dad, so he thinks he’s got nothing to fear from the Steels, even after pulling a stunt like this.”

“Our only advantage is that he’s got no way of knowing you already figured out the deal was a scam,” Louis said, a thoughtful frown pulling his ginger eyebrows down. He and Liam were the only ones of my brothers that had inherited our mother’s red hair. “So if we act quickly, before he gets time to hide that contract you signed away, we might just be able to convince him to reconsider.”

“Right. And I have just the shipment of encouragement needed to make him do that, sitting pretty in a container down by the harbor,” I said, flexing my hands against the steering wheel. “Get Liam to call the crew in. We have a little house call to make once we get back to London.”

Sixteen

Mira

I didn’t see Blaine the day after the dinner party. From my room, I heard the front door shut just before midnight and assumed he’d gone out to do whatever it was he did when he was out.

But on Tuesday, just before noon, while I was resting on the bathroom floor after the morning’s final round of dry heaving, thanks to the persistent stomach bug I’d seemingly picked up, a heavy knock on my door announced his return.

I jolted, managing to knock my head against the sink as I scrambled to get up from the floor. He hadn’t knocked on my door since he’d brought me the truce-pizza our first night here, and a spurt of curiosity made its way through my general self-pity. Hopefully, he didn’t want me to put on another dinner party—one day of playing the perfect hostess and housewife to a crime lord was more than enough for me, thank you very much.

When I made it into my bedroom, Blaine was already standing by my bed, leafing through my copy of Sylvia Day’s newest book I’d abandoned on my pillow before rushing to the bathroom.

“Put that down.” I felt my cheeks flush at the thought of him coming across the sex scene I’d earmarked for later return.

To my mild astonishment, he obeyed without comment, throwing the book casually on my bedspread before he turned to look at me. As he did, his dark eyebrows pulled into a frown. “You sick?”

I took that to mean that I looked about as haggard as I felt. “Just a stomach bug.”

“Ah. Does that mean you’re too ill to go out for a few hours?”

I gaped at him as his words sank in. He wanted to take meoutside.As sick as I felt, there was no way I’d pass up an opportunity to get out of the house. Besides, if the last few days were any indicator, I’d be feeling better within an hour or two anyway.

“Nuh-uh, I’m not letting you back out of our deal. Just give me a moment to get dressed. I take it you’re happy with how dinner went, then?”

“Yeah.” He folded his arms across his chest and leaned up against my wardrobe. “You did good.”

So no mention of what I’d said about this Gerald trying to dupe him in some way, then. Ah well, that’d have to be his own problem—as long as I would get a bit more freedom going forward, I was happy.

“I’m glad. Now, where are we going? Is it a jeans or a dress thing?”

The touch of what could have been a genuine smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Jeans and trainers. We’re not going anywhere fancy I’m afraid, love.”

Blaine droveus out of London, where trees and farms slowly took over the cityscape. I rolled down the window of the Jaguar’s passenger side and breathed the fresh air in deeply. It was a rare, sunny November day, and despite still feeling a bit queasy, I couldn’t hold back a beaming smile. How long had it been since I spent any amount of time in the countryside? Even before being forced to marry Blaine, and thus getting stuck in that house, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been outside of the city.

“You look like a golden retriever.” Blaine’s amused voice made me pull my head back in, but even though I gave him a glare for good measure, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I was sure he was pretty spot on, and I didn’t care.

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