Page 62 of Sugar Coated

“Ooh, sounds like little miss has been scheming already. Sexy. I don’t normally enjoy taking down women, but there are a certain few who deserve nothing less than what I give the terrible men of this world. Tessa has joined the ranks of the few, unluckily for her. Give me some time to get in touch with my guy, and I’ll call you back.”

“Sounds good.” I ended the call and returned to my men, who hadn’t moved a muscle, though their eyes had followed me and watched as I spoke with Lola. I sat down on the couch next to Fang and told them of my idea.

They listened intently, asking no questions. It was a pretty straightforward plan. We were fortunate that Tessa had a routine. During the week, while my dad was at work, would be the perfect time to strike. Kieran knew what gym she went to. It’d be easy enough to have Mike follow her, and when she was walking out, tell her there’d been a terrible accident involving my dad. Mike’s car would already be there, so he’d tell her to hop in and he’d get her to the hospital as quickly as he could.

Only he wouldn’t go to the hospital.

Truly, the hardest part would be for Mike to be convincing; I had faith in him, however. I knew he wouldn’t let me down.

Fang finally asked, “And Lola is finding a place?”

“She said she knew a guy who owns some club that’s only open at night.”

“Why can’t we just do this at home?” Kieran questioned. “Why does it have to be at somewhere else?”

I said, “To throw her off. A third-party location where she doesn’t feel at ease, somewhere we, and maybe a few of Lola’s men, can control every square inch of it. To someone who’s always in control, it’ll annoy her. Hopefully I can piss her off enough.”

“Piss her off?” Kieran smirked, dimples appearing in his cheeks. “Is that all you plan on doing?”

“Oh, no. We’re going to have a conversation. A long one, probably. I want to hear her admit to it all.” I looked from Kieran to Fang to Mike. “She won’t leave that club until she confesses all of her sins to me.”

Mike’s brow creased. “And why would she confess anything to you?”

“She will.” Her hatred of me, her annoyance and fury at being brought to a new location… I knew what she desired most, and I’d play on it. We’d have only one shot at doing it right, so I’d be damned if I let Tessa leave that club before she confessed.

“If this is your plan, then it’ll be done,” Fang said.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Kieran got off the couch arm and waved his hands in the air. “This is a little silly, isn’t it? You want to take my sister down by having aconversationwith her? When has having a conversation ever done shit? She needs to be put in her place. If you won’t do it, I will.”

I could appreciate his lust for violence against his sister, the woman who had wronged us both. As much as his willingness to harm her made me all warm and fuzzy inside, killing her wasn’t going to be our first attempt.

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “You’ll be there—and you will have a very important role.”

Oh, this was devious. So devious I felt a little giddy when I told him and the others about the second part of the plan. Getting her there, egging her on to confess… those were only steps one and two. There was a step three, and this step was the most crucial.

A confession meant so much more when it was caught on video.

Chapter Thirteen – Laina

Lola got the club. It was called Gilded Rose or something like that. A guy named Newton owned it. I guess he and Lola went way back. All I had to do was pick a day, and Newton would make sure he’d be there and his club would be unlocked for us. Lola would send some of her guys to back us up.

Wednesday was the day I decided on. A trivial day; any day of the week would’ve worked, but it gave me some time to have an appointment at the hair salon and freshen up the color. Plus, it let me hang out with Kelly.

She came over Monday night after her classes were finished, and we hunkered down in my bedroom and ate pizza rolls like we used to.

She lay on my bed, on her stomach, while I sat with my back against the headboard. The plate of pizza rolls was between us, and she was in the process of tearing one in half and letting it cool before plopping that half into her mouth. Me? I liked to bite the two top corners off, then stick the entire thing in my mouth in one go.

“To be honest,” she was busy saying, “you ran from the party so fast after going upstairs with that guy, and then you didn’t message me back for days. I thought… well, part of me was worried you got taken again, for some stupid reason.” She paused, thoughtfully chewing on the other half of the pizza roll. “But another part of me really thought you’d decided you didn’t want to talk to me at all anymore.”

Kelly might’ve led me astray every now and then, but wasn’t that what friends were for? She’d never been one to be insecure about anything; as far back as I could remember, she’d always been proud of herself and never regretted any choice she made, so hearing her say that stunned me.

“Why would you think that?” I asked, going for another delicious, pepperoni-filled roll.We’d had a similar conversation before, and I’d thought that was that—having her bring it up now must’ve meant it really did bother her.

She shrugged, her green eyes staring hard at the comforter below us. “I don’t know. I mean, besides being in college now, I feel like I’m the same person I was two years ago. You’re not.”

This went back to theWho’s the real Laina Hawkins?question. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t get me wrong. A lot of stuff is the same. You still love pink, but… I don’t know. You really are different. With what you’ve been through, I can’t blame you at all—and I’m not saying I want you to change back. It’s just… you’re more serious now. You never joke around.”

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