Page 52 of Sweet Lies

I move around my desk, sit on the edge, and lean back as if I don’t have a care in the world.

“Sebastian, what brings you to my establishment?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

“Imagine my surprise when I heard Juliet had left her place of business to an unknown woman. I just needed to see who she trusted enough for that. You’ve changed.”

His beady little eyes move up and down my body. My hand reaches under the desk, feeling for the gun. Lifting it quickly, I aim it at his chest.

He has the nerve to laugh and hold his hands up. “No need for that. Why clean blood out of a perfect rug for no reason? I mean you no harm. What’s done is in the past. Let’s be friends.”

“You’re crazy if you think we could ever be friends,” I hiss, stepping forward.

“I’ve been called worse. Well, there are plenty of other places to gamble. It was nothing personal back then; it was all business. I was hoping if Claire could forgive Alex, you could forgive me as well. But I see now only one female in the family has that in their heart.”

His words knock the breath from me and I feel myself lose my poker face. “What did you say?”

“Oh.” He smiles gleefully. “You mean you didn’t know? That’s just sad. I would have thought you’d have been invited to the wedding.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I yell, racing forward and slamming the gun into his gut.

He bends over, wheezing, before panting, “Alex found Claire; only she goes by a different name now. Surely you know that much, at least. Yes, it was the romance of the year. They’re married now, like nothing ever happened.”

A sharp whistling takes over my brain as I try to make sense of his words.

“Your brother even approved of the match. What is the world coming to? Revenge just isn’t what it used to be.” He laughs.

“Get out!” I order, lifting the gun to his head and shoving him out the door. “Get the fuck out of my building. You’re going to pay. You and all the fucking rest.”

He stumbles back. “Don’t kill the messenger, Rebecca. We can be friends, you and me. We can be of use to each other. We both want them dead. We’d make great business partners.”

I pull the trigger, but he leaps away just in time.

The patrons scream as the gun goes off—Sebastian just smiles as he turns around and runs from the room.

Quickly, I face the others and yell, “Everything is fine. Go about your business.”

I head back into my office and slam the door. Ben enters a moment later with a look of concern.

“I want the guards doubled for the foreseeable future. I also need you to find an address.”

“What’s the name?”

That’s my favorite thing about Ben—he doesn’t ask questions.

“Kevin Lafae. He’s in Chicago.” I’d found out their new names years ago—I had to know—and that Elijah has been working as one of Connor McCarthy’s top men. He must have gotten in through James, an old family friend. I don’t know all the details, but I know what I need to search. Connor will have no clue as to their true identities.

“Consider it done, boss.”

After everything Alex has done to the family as Mike, she marries him? And Elijah lets it happen? I’ll kill them for this.

I shove everything off my desk, then start pacing from one side of the office to the other—I don’t care what papers I’m stepping on. Nothing seems to matter except for the rage burning inside me. Hurt mixes in with the anger, but I push that aside. I only have room for wrath. I won’t dwell on sadness.

I. Will. Not.

Plans need to be made. Revenge. What happened to an eye for an eye? They betrayed my memory as if I was nothing, as if I had never existed.

* * *

Christmas. How I used to love that holiday. The lights. The tree. The smell of pine filling the room; the colorful presents waiting at the bottom. As children, we would pick up every gift and try to guess what each one was. We all had the same amount though, so no one ever felt like they’d got more or less than the others. Then there was the food. My mom would bake twenty different types of cookies. She would have flour and sugar on her for a week afterward, never quite getting it all gone.

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