Page 38 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part Two
“No,” I whisper, shaking my head. “No, no, no?—”
I look up, but Storm is already moving closer, crowding my space. His face is grim, hard, the look of a man ready to go to war.
“I’m not here to play with you, Shae.” His voice is low, brutal. “They’re going to use you. Your name. Your company. And then, when they have you where they want you, they’re going to make sure you go down for all this shit.”
The words hit like body blows.
“Zane and I would know if something like this were connected with Keystone,” I whisper.
Storm jerks when I mention my business partner’s name, his face going hard for a second before smoothing out.
“Not with the technology and people they have encasing all of this.”
I grip the edge of the conference table to steady myself. My knees threaten to give out. My stomach roils.
I want to scream. I want to tear the tablet in half.
I want to believe he’s lying.
But the sick truth is right there in front of me, coded in the same numbers and finance-speak I’ve built my entire life around.
I shove the iPad away from me like it burns. “I don’t believe this.”
“Yes, you do,” Storm says quietly.
I snap my head up to glare at him. The room tilts for a second, but I plant my feet harder against the ground, forcing myself upright.
“What the fuck do you want from me?” I bite out, my voice trembling with the effort to keep from losing it completely.
“I want to help you,” he says, stepping closer. “I want to protect you.”
“Fuck you,” I spit, shoving against his chest, but he doesn’t move an inch.
“Shae,” he says, low and guttural, like he’s physically pained. “This is real. You’re about to step into the middle of this if you sign. And if you try to fight them on your own, it will cost you your life.”
I let out a shaky breath. My hands ball into fists at my sides.
I should hit him again. Iwantto hit him again.
Instead, I move back to the table and take up the chair Storm vacated. When he sits at the head of the table, I ask, “So you want me to back out of the Keystone deal. That’s impossible at this point. It’s not just me. I have a business partner.”
He looks grim.
“Zane would have to agree to this, too. He won’t—not without a good reason,” I say. Storm lifts an eyebrow.
“Proof of crimes against humanity isn’t good enough?” he grates out.
I open my mouth to reply, but no sound comes out for a long moment.
“We have five-hundred million tied up in this already,” I whisper, my voice weakening.
“I know, Shae.” He grunts, and it’s a frustrated sound, as if grasping at ideas to convince me. “I’ll give you the money. Once we’re on the other side of this, I’ll give it back to you from my personal accounts.”
He looks so fierce, so determined, an unwanted flash of us together in the past crops up.
If you knew the depths of my feelings, it would terrify you.
I shake my head at the lie he told me long ago.
