Page 95 of So Close

My hands go to my hips. I teeter a bit on my heels and step out of them, even though I know that will make it more uncomfortable to put them back on. Ramin’s gaze darkens.

“Lily tells me there’s an exit clause.”

His eyes slit, and he comes toward me. “Lily read the agreement?”

“That seems obvious.” I roll my eyes. “Is she telling the truth?”

“Kane’s given her access to everything then,” he says, his barefooted stride fluid and graceful.

I wish I’d kept my shoes on because now I feel petite and vulnerable. “You’re not answering the question.”

“You already know the answer.”

“The fuck I do!”

His face flushes with anger. “We’ve discussed it a dozen times! I’ve been telling you to get out for over a year.”

I stare at him for a long moment, chilled by the weight of a heavy fog that squeezes me from all sides. My tongue is thick and dry in my mouth. My heart is hammering against my rib cage. As Ramin comes up to me, I skirt him and head to the island. Snatching up his drink, I take a deep swallow. The iced heat slithers down my throat, and I lean heavily into the counter. I feel sick. I haven’t eaten since lunch. Bile flavors the back of my throat, threatening to spread into my mouth.

When Ramin wraps himself around me from behind, I don’t even twitch. His nose and mouth nuzzle my hair. “I’ve missed you, baby. Whatever I did to piss you off, I’m sorry.”

It suddenly hits me: they’re all gaslighting me.

It’s a concerted effort. Kane, Aliyah, Darius, Ramin. Maybe even Clarice. She’s been a good little soldier for Baharan for years now. Is Lily in on it? She’s the only one who’s told me the truth. Or maybe it’s lies.

Why? What’s the point? What’s their endgame?

My breath catches as another possibility enters my mind. What if Lily’s a victim, too? Maybe Kane drove her crazy. What if her dissociative amnesia was brought on by him screwing with her head? Not just with his champion ability to mindfuck but maybe with some chemical formula of his dad’s that he pulled out of a dusty shoebox.

Maybe I’m unknowingly participating in some clinical trial for a new drug. Something for the mind. Alzheimer’s. Dementia. Schizophrenia. What if I’m just a guinea pig?

How do we get away? Lily already managed to once, but Kane found her. She wasn’t dead. He knew he’d track her down eventually. That’s why he kept all her clothes. And once he found her again, he had guards at the hospital and penthouse so that she couldn’t get away a second time.

How did she get out tonight? They must have wanted her to. Maybe they’re testing me to see if I’m trying to escape. I’ll have to be careful until I know for sure.

Ramin’s hands are trespassing everywhere, rubbing between my legs, kneading my breasts. He’s lapsed into porn star mode. His dick is so hard. He’s dying to fuck me. He needs my hot little cunt wrapped around his dick. He can’t wait to blow his load inside me.

Perversely, the nipples he’s tugging so well are hard little points, and a trickle of warm arousal is sliding through my pussy. I don’t think about it or how good Ramin smells. How do all the Armand men smell so deliciously, seductively male? Another sinister use of Baharan R&D? Some sort of aromatic roofie? My eyelids and limbs grow heavy.

I can’t let them know I’m on to them. I’ve got to play along until I know enough to take them all under. With that in mind, I sway in a sinuous half-circle to face Ramin and close my eyes as he kisses me with bruising force.

45

ALIYAH

“Thank you,”I tell the liveried attendant as he seats me at a small grouping of upholstered chairs between two arched windows. Sheers afford privacy while heavy red drapes with gold tassels frame the views of the city beyond. It’s midday, but massive chandeliers draped in strings of crystals light the enormous room. Ornate cornices and molding adorn the walls, windows, ceiling and doorways. There’s a sense of age, wealth and prestige.

The private club has been an institution since the mid-1800s. Less than a thousand men can claim membership in a city of over nine million people. Likely, I will never revisit the clubhouse, and I’m astonished and horrified that Lily’s fake identity doesn’t bar her from such rarefied establishments. Who is the man who allowed her in as a guest?

Around the room, I recognize several people I’ve only ever seen on the news or in films. I attempt to sit with the same leisure and ease, but my back is up, and fury simmers in my blood. I always dress well but took special care today, knowing this meeting with Lily lay ahead. My white belted jumpsuit has wide legs and half-length sleeves. The bodice is ruched to accentuate my breasts and rests right at my collarbone while my back is exposed to the waist. Classy, elegant, sexy. I can hold my own with any woman in the room.

When the server comes by, I order a champagne service for two and check the time. Another three minutes and Lily will be late.

If I’d had a choice, I would’ve preferred to meet in my office. The ideal battleground is always the most familiar and has a tactical advantage. But Kane would hear of it, and I’m not prepared to fight them together. Not yet. I want to suss her out first, alone. Let her see what she’s up against. My second choice would’ve been to meet at a neutral-ground hotel, but she gave me this address instead. I didn’t know where I was going until I arrived.

The whisper of a disturbance shifts my attention to the lounge entrance as Lily walks in. The attendant is smiling and chatting with her. Though she walks with a purposeful stride, she’s attentive to what he’s saying.

Her red silk skirt skims from waist to shins, then flares slightly around the ankles as she walks. She’s taken one of Kane’s white dress shirts, wrapped the two halves across each other, and knotted the ends at the small of her back. Rubies dangle from her ears and encircle her throat and wrists, yet they somehow don’t seem like too much. It’s a daytime look very few women could pull off.

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