Page 18 of Sinful Attraction

That makes my ears prick up. “Oh?”

“Yeah, and whoever it is helped someone steal that money from us in turn.”

What?I stare at him. “Say that again?”

“Someone stole the money that I stole from you. Which you stole from—”

“Yes, okay, I got that part.” It sinks in as I look at him. And suddenly, I’m laughing. I’m fuckinglaughing. His crestfallen look only makes me laugh louder.

“You lost the money? Someone fucking grabbed it from you?” I can’t keep the giggle out of my voice. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Seriously.

He rolls his eyes and smiles, but this time, it’s a tense, awkward line instead of his usual smirk. “Yep. They had skill, too. Snatched it during a transfer, just like I did from you. At first, I thought it was you, but I quickly realized you’d have done it sooner than instead of yelling at me.” He takes a deep breath. “I know you want to call it karma—”

“Oh, you fucking bet I do.” Now, I’m the one smirking. “After the hell I caught, the humiliation... shit, I’m in a hotel right now because I can’t take anymore. And they still won’t fucking stop. You want to listen to my damn phone messages? My mother’s being a complete psycho, between this and the fact that I haven’t pushed out any grandchildren for her yet.” I can’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.

He looks genuinely shocked. “What the hell?”

“Exactly like I said. What, did you think that your humiliating me is the worst I suffered? No. They fucking fired me, and now, all they do is either berate me or make demands.” My voice shakes a little. This isn’t good. I should be enjoying gloating over the shit he’s facing. Instead, I’m mired in my feelings and hating it.

He stares at me for a long moment. “Fuck. I got the riot act from my father, but I thought that was all of what you’ve been going through.”

“Nope. They’d have to respect me for more than my uterus if that was the case.”

He’s looking at me in a way I don’t like. There’s almost pity in his eyes now. I hate seeing it almost as much as I hate him for what he’s done. “The fuck is wrong with them?” he manages after a few seconds.

I scoff. “You want a list? I only wish getting back in their good graces was as simple as getting the money back. But that, at least, would be a start, and you owe me, Rossi.”

“Yeah. I understand that. Just listen. Now, we’re both facing heat from our families for the same damn reason. The difference is, if we work together, we can get that money back and then some. We can get back into the good graces of our families and go our separate ways, each with our share of the money.”

I stare at him. It’s tempting. Especially if I can find a way to turn it all around on him and take advantage of the situation. That’s the real temptation, and it’s what he deserves exactly.

“I’ll have to think about it,” I say coolly. “You’re not exactly known as the most honest and helpful of guys, you know? And unlike you, I don’t have much chance of winning over my family now.” His fault. I was never going to let him live that down.

“Oh, come on!” He jumps up and paces in a small circle from sheer agitation, startling me. However, he doesn’t raise his voice or make any threats. He just looks frustrated. “What is there to think about?”

“Trusting you!” I roll my eyes as I stare at him. “Did you forget that you’ve given me no reason to believe you’re not setting me up to humiliate me again?”

He stops and holds up his hands like he’s trying to calm me down. “Okay. Okay, you’re right. I get it. You really don’t have any reason to trust me right now. But I can earn it. You just have to give me a chance—”

“You had a chance. All you had to do was not fuck up my life. But you wouldn’t do that. You wanted to make things hard for me.”

“No. My Dad wanted to make things hard for your family. He didn’t want them to have any confidence in the kind of heist you wanted to set up. He wanted them to give it up so we could swoop in instead and use it to enrich ourselves.”

“Yeah, he sounds like he could be related to you. You’re both fucking vultures.” I’m not even trying to hide my bitterness now.

He finally reaches the end of his patience. “What’s it going to take for you to believe me? Whoever is doing this, I need help stopping them. The payoff for this will be around five million. You can bring it back to your family to try and regain their respect... or you can walk off with it and go make a life for yourself well away from them.”

“I don’t need you to make that happen.” I don’t. All I need is to get details on another multi-million-dollar transfer, and I can grab another chunk of money for myself.

And yet...

“I’ll tell you what. Give me the name of the spy on my family’s staff, and I’ll consider your offer and get back to you tomorrow with my decision.”

That stops his agitation cold. He looks at me for a long moment as if he’s trying to figure out how serious I am.

“Look, the only quick decision you can possibly hope for with me is a ‘no.’ Consider yourself fortunate that I’m actually considering your proposal instead of rejecting it outright because it’s you.”

He nods slowly, calms a little, his expression thoughtful.

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