Page 7 of Reckless Promises

My grip tenses. This is disgusting.

I tuck the piece of paper back in the envelope and clench it in my grip. Looking around the room, men are already foaming at the mouth, and it makes me sick to be standing here among them. I might have no intention of bidding, but due to my association, I’m only fractionally better.

I planned on staying for Mom’s sake, thinking I could ignore the auction and focus on business, but I can’t be in this room any longer.

Straightening my tie, I eye the door.

“Please welcome to the stage, Odette Bardot.”

My attention snaps back to the center of the room.

Bardot.

A name that has every nerve in my body on edge.

Scanning the crowd, I’m not sure how I missed Gabriel Bardot, but he’s seated at a table in the front. He’s a hard man to get alone, especially when he’s been avoiding me as he’s the reason my father is dead.

After Gabriel sold out my father, I learned everything there is to know about him. What property he owns, how he funds his businesses. I’ve studied every detail as I’ve planned my revenge.

And here he is, thirty feet away from me, grinning without a care in the world.

My fingers itch to grab my gun when he wouldn’t even see me coming. He’d be dead before anyone could stop me. Clenching my fists, I’m tempted to show everyone in this room what to expect when you turn against my family.

But a bullet would be too easy when he deserves to suffer.

A figure steps out of the shadows and onto the stage, and Gabriel sneers up at her proudly.

Odette Bardot.

I’ve memorized everything there is to know about Gabriel’s family, from the dogs he locks out back, to his daughters—his two most prized possessions. No one gets close to them, so the fact that she’s standing onstage meanssomething.

Odette stops in the center with her shoulders rolled back and her chin held high. There’s a fire in her eyes compared to the last girl who was up there. One look and I know she’s trouble, which will draw the interest of all the men in this room who enjoy taming wild things.

“One hundred thousand.” A man in the front holds up his hand.

Sascha Rochefort, Gabriel’s business partner. I’ve heard the rumors, and as I watch Odette’s eyes glaze over at the bid, pieces click into place.

Gabriel’s always kept a tight leash on his family, which means she’s only up there to settle something. And rumor has it his last shipment with Sascha went sideways.

“One fifty.” Another man calls out from the back.

“Two hundred,” Sascha counters, unaffected.

“Three.”

The two of them go back and forth in fifty-thousand-dollar increments, and I pull out my phone, dialing Mark.

“Boss.”

“I need information. Fast.” I tuck the black envelope in my suit jacket.

“Ready.”

“Sascha Rochefort’s Pembrooke account. How much is in it?”

The only way to bid on these auctions is to have a certain dollar amount set aside before the bidding begins. It ensures everyone here can financially back their bid, while also making sure no one can recant once it’sdone. Control of those assets is temporally held by the Pembrooke Trust, which handles all the transfers.

“Nine hundred thousand.”

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