Page 71 of Betrayal (Corrupt Empire 1)

“What exactly is on this?”

“You’ll know soon enough.”

I got up, giving him a cold smile.

“Don’t disappoint me, Anthony.”

I left the cafe, turning back once to find him reading the instructions I’d given him. Gamble. Huge gamble. Had to be this way so she’d stay mine. Mine. A part of me wished I’d never laid eyes on her and the other, the fucking other wanted to bow to the connection between us. Give in.

I wouldn’t. All my fucking plans would go up in fucking flames. How could I make her do what she needed to if I let her in? Hardening myself, I got back in the car and drove home. The journey did nothing to calm the storm. I hadn’t allowed myself to think how she might feel about what I’d left for her to look at. As strong as she was, I kept breaking her further. Telling her the truth was a necessary evil.

I let myself in the front door, kicked off my shoes, hung up my coat and prowled through the flat. I fired off a quick text to Chuck to let him know I had the information he wanted.

Avery wasn’t in the kitchen or bathroom. In the living room, the laptop was left out on the coffee table. Had she seen it? Seen the evidence of her family fortune and the lies it had been built on?

When I opened the door to the bedroom, I stood in the doorway for the longest moment. Paper littered the room, covering the bed and almost every available inch of floor space. I looked at the nearest piece. A drawing of a man sitting at a desk, a sick smile on his face with piles of money surrounding him. The desk was sitting on top of a pile of bodies. Dead bodies.

The next drawing was of angels falling from the sky, their wings disintegrating around them. I picked up another one. A girl tied up with a black eye and cuts across her body.

What the fuck?

The last one I dared to look at almost fucking broke me. A man, tattoos snaking up his arms, staring down at a girl at his feet. She’d ripped her heart out of her chest and was offering it up to him. They looked distinctly like me and her. I had no fucking clue what the hell it meant until I read the caption she’d written in neat handwriting below it.

I’ve torn my soul out to fight by your side.

Did she really want to destroy her family with me? Had it been enough? She still didn’t have the full story.

It cut me. I wasn’t here to help her deal with it. Those drawings. They were her way of letting out her emotions.

I approached the bed and pulled the covers off her head. She looked so fucking innocent and small. So fucking precious.

“Avery?”

I brushed her hair from her face. She didn’t stir.

“Avery, wake up.”

I shook her, careful to be gentle. Her eyes fluttered open. She blinked.

“Aiden,” she whispered.

Her hand clamped around my arm.

“You saw.”

“I’m sorry about the mess.”

I sat down on the bed.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing. Are you okay?”

For once I didn’t fucking care about how untidy the room was. Normally it’d have bothered me, but she was my main concern.

“No, I’m not.”

“Come here.”

I put my arms out to her. Before she had a chance to move, I heard the buzzer for my door. Who the fuck was that? Her eyes darted toward the bedroom door. I wanted to fucking hold her, but it’d have to wait now.

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