Page 166 of Knot So Fast
But maybe, just maybe, I can use that. If I'm already lost, already the villain, already beyond redemption, then what's left to lose? They want me to ensure Lachlan loses the championship. They want their million-dollar bet to pay off. They want to own a piece of Formula One through me.
What if I give them exactly what they want—and more?
The idea forms slowly, pieces clicking together like a puzzle made of broken glass. It's dangerous, probably suicidal, definitely stupid. But it might be the only way to save her. To save all of them.
I stand, steadier now despite the whiskey, and walk to my bedroom. In the safe behind the terrible modern art painting I've never liked, there's a USB drive I've been filling for three years. Every conversation recorded, every transaction documented, every piece of evidence I could gather while playing their game.
It was supposed to be insurance, a dead man's switch in case they decided I was more liability than asset. But now it might be something else—a weapon, a bargaining chip, a way to flip the board when everyone expects me to play by the rules.
The Grand Sphynx is in five days. The biggest race of the season, watched by millions, where any drama will be amplified a thousandfold. They want to use it as their stage for the ultimate fix, the bet that will make them millions.
But stages work both ways. And if I'm going to burn, I might as well make it spectacular enough that everyone sees who lit the match.
I pull out my backup phone—the one they don't know about, the one I bought with cash and keep turned off except for emergencies. This qualifies.
I type out a message, short and cryptic, to the one person who might understand what I'm trying to do. Not Lachlan—he'd try to save me, and that would get everyone killed. Not Auren—she'd fight for me, and that's the last thing I need.
Dimitri Volkov.
The man who sacrificed his career to save Auren. The man who understands that sometimes the only way to protect someone is to take yourself off the board. The man who might just be crazy enough to help me turn disaster into opportunity.
"Need to talk. About the race. About who's really behind this."
I hit send before I can second-guess myself, then turn the phone off and remove the battery. They might be listening to everything else, but this one secret, this one desperate plan, is mine alone.
Five days until the Grand Sphynx. Five days to figure out how to lose everything in a way that saves everyone. Five days to become the villain they need me to be while secretly playing hero one last time.
I pour another whiskey, raising it to the city lights in a mock toast.
"Here's to collateral damage," I tell the empty room. "And to making sure I'm the only one who pays."
The glass catches the light, amber and gold and dangerous, before I drink it down in one burning swallow.
Five days.
The countdown begins now.
GOD, I HATE YOU…
~AUREN~
The glass shattersagainst the wall inches from my face, exploding into a thousand glittering fragments that catch the light like deadly confetti.
The sound reverberates through my bones, sharp and violent, as shards rain down around my feet like crystalline tears.
My heart hammers against my ribs so hard I swear it's going to crack them. I stand frozen in this moment, watching Lucius Wolfe's fury-blazed eyes slowly detour from mine—breaking that intense, suffocating stare that always makes my knees weak and my Omega purr in the most inconvenient fucking moments.
The stare that strips me bare and rebuilds me in the same breath. The one that makes me want to either kill him or kiss him, and I'm never sure which urge will win.
His gaze drops to my cheek, and I feel it then—the beginning pulses of pain, sharp and stinging like ice and fire combined. The warmth spreading across my skin. The slow, telltale descent of something wet trailing down toward my jaw.
Blood.
The metallic scent hits the air between us, and I watch his nostrils flare.
Watch the exact moment the Alpha in him registers what he's done.
Whatwe'vedone.
