Page 109 of Point of Contention

I’d cared about her once and, though things ended poorly, I thought she cared about me as well.

Exiting onto the seventy-fifth floor with Stella on my heels, I was relieved to find it empty at this early hour. Our movement triggered the motion sensors and the lights turned on, then I marched quickly past reception and down the hall. When I reached my office and shoved the door open, I pointed to a chair across from mine. “Sit.”

I didn’t have to look to know she would do as she was told.

I loosened my tie and tugged my jacket off. Either it was hot in here or this new information was fuckingsmotheringme.

Standing behind my chair, I gripped the back of it and leveled my gaze at Stella. “Tell me how it happened. Start at the beginning.”

Stella drew a shaky breath, then dropped her head. “Gage asked for my help first.”

The air felt pregnant with what she hadn’t yet said. Breathing deeply, I waited for the other shoe to drop.

“Six months ago,” she finally whispered.

My knuckles went white as I struggled to catch up.

Six months ago.

I cursed under my breath and turned away from Stella to look out over the city as it came to life seventy-five floors below. Down there, people went about their everyday lives, hurrying to and fro. Normal, hard-working people.

How many of them were currently hatching a scheme to fuck over someone who trusted them?

If Gage had approached Stella six months ago, that was before Rylan had entered my life. Which meant that she hadn’t betrayed me at the time because I hadn’t given herreasonto.

Falling in love with Rylan changed that.

Stella lifted her head and met my eyes, then breathed deeply. “He tried to convince me to help him take you down.”

“As in…?” I circled my hand in the air. “Please be specific.”

“He wants you out of the Rabbit Hole.”

My jaw tightened and I breathed deeply through my nose. I knew this, but, “Why?”

“He wants to be Ombudsman.” She lifted one slender shoulder and I focused on it. She’d lost weight since I’d seen her last. Frowning at the way my thoughts strayed to her well-being, which was no longer my concern, I focused on the information I’d learned thus far.

Gage wanted my job at the Rabbit Hole. Fine. But that wasn’t enough to destroy me publicly, especially when doing so could have cost him the very club he wanted to rule over.

Ombudsman brought with it a degree of power, sure, but it wasn’t a hefty paycheck, didn’t allow me much more privilege or freedom within the club than Magnusson already had as one of our longest standing members and head Dominants.

There had to be more to the story.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

Stella blanched and I leaned forward.

“When Roderick approached me…” She dropped her head as her words trailed off.

“Stella.”

She didn’t look up.

“Oh no,” I stated coolly, “You’ll look me in the eyes when you tell me how deeply you betrayed me.”

Stella’s eyes glistened when they lifted to once again meet mine.

“I…” She swallowed hard. “I introduced them.”

---