Page 242 of Enemies

My heart accelerates, a horrid thudding that sounds like my past and my future colliding.

If he laid a hand on her, I would drive to him this second and rip every limb from his body.

“Did he touch?—“

“Just my hair. I wanted to get the owner to turn on Mischa. But we were too late, if we ever had a chance at all. He’s selling.” She takes a slow breath. “The only thing I could think is Mischa saw me play at Debajo, and rather than turning him off, it made him…”

“Angry?”

“I was going to say jealous.”

Mischa pursued Eva because she was mine. Eva was beautiful and ambitious, though I now see she was a glittering facsimile of a gem.

Raegan is a different kind of jewel. The real kind. The rare kind.

Mischa is ruthless and arrogant, but he’s not stupid.

I knew he wanted to hurt Raegan in order to hurt me. But if there’s a chance that’s changed, and he wants her…

That’s a million times more dangerous.

I reach for the pins holding her hair in place. “You told him no?”

I finish unpinning her hair and drop the blond wig on the table with the pile of pins. I want to burn the wig. If Mischa breathed on it, I want it gone.

I turn back to the woman I love. I thread my fingers into her thick, silky hair, spreading it over her shoulders.

Still, she doesn’t answer.

The hairs on my arms lift. “Tell me you didn’t say yes.”

“This club is my dream.”

I grab her arms hard enough she flinches. “He’s doing it to fuck with me.”

“Not everything is about you.” The edge in her voice sets me back.

“This is,” I insist, thinking of the boy who hated me in school, the one who failed to recruit me to his cause, the man who’s never forgotten it. “You’re not playing for him.”

Her brows pull together, but she doesn’t try to move away. “What happened to you not making unilateral decisions?”

My laugh is humorless. “You’ve got to be kidding. I assumed you’d see the reason in not playing for a madman. One who knows you’re with me.”

“It’s the world’s most famous club, Harrison. I’ll be on stage. There’s nowhere safer.” Her chin juts out at me.

My abs clench, and the next breath I take is ragged. “I won’t sit idly by and watch you risk yourself for your career,” I whisper against her throat.

Raegan pulls back to look in my eyes. “You do it every day.”

That’s a low blow. A reminder there’s a double standard.

But I inherited this rivalry—she didn’t.

Last year, she was never in danger. Now, not only is she in Ibiza and playing for a monster, but he knows she’s mine. And there’s nothing the man lives for more than taking away what’s mine.

Minutes ago, I was handing this off to law enforcement and looking at our future. But I need to finish this first, and our timeline just shortened. I won’t let Rae play La Mer, not as long as that man owns it.

I can’t change her mind. I see it in the tilt of her chin, the warning in her eyes.

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