Page 29 of How to Get Even

She was right. What he wanted for Nayak wasn’t here. But hopefully when she saw what he wanted to show her, she’d get it.

‘Grab your stuff. I want to show you something,’ he said.

She hesitated.

‘If you want to see what I want from Nayak, then this is it,’ he said. Now or never. It seemed a tad on the dramatic side, but for some reason it felt that way.

‘Okay,’ she said, rising and leaving his office to get her things. His phone pinged with a message from Mannon explaining that keys had been left with security. The simple act of trust in Mannon’s reply meant a million times more now that he was starting his own gallery.

And frankly, after Annalise, he wasn’t sure that he’d ever be able to trust someone like that ever again.

6

[She] will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

THE ART OF WAR, SUN TZU

Bella followed Chase out of Nayak, wrapping a scarf around her neck to stop the bite of the wind and rubbing her hands together as Chase nodded towards downtown and set off at an unhurried pace. Their breath streamed out like jets of smoke only to be eaten away by the night.

How can I help you if you won’t let me?

She’d nearly said sabotage. How can Isabotageyou, if you won’t let me?

Bella bit her lip.

‘It’s not far. We’ll be out of the cold soon,’ he said as he forged his way through harried commuters and tourists heading to their important destinations.

‘That’s okay, Paris was even colder just before I left,’ she said, choosing to weave through them instead.

‘Did you like it?’ Chase asked.

She blinked. No one had asked her that. Not really. In part because they’d all known that she’d been pretty much exiled by the fallout from the aborted wedding.

‘No,’ she admitted with a rueful laugh. ‘Not really. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful and the food is delicious,’ she said. And there hadn’t been a bunch of reporters hiding behind corners, waiting to judge her for eating all the sweat treats she could before exercising the calories away.

‘But?’

Bella scrunched her nose.

‘Why were you there then?’

‘It was deemed prudent,’ she admitted.

‘For who?’

‘Whom,’ she absently corrected. ‘For my family’s foundation. They didn’t want the negative press attention.’

She felt the heat of his gaze on her.

‘They sent you away? After the…?’

His shock made her uncomfortable. It skated too close to how she’d felt. It nudged at the closed door she’d locked her hurt behind.

‘But who wouldn’t want six months in Paris?’ she said, forcing a smile to her lips.

‘Whom,’ he incorrectly corrected.

‘That’s not the?—’

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