Page 25 of So Close

She’s watching me, too.

She, and the other members of your family, are eclipsed by your shadow. Things that crawl around in the shadows can never be trusted.

“Let’s plan for dinner,” I say to the room at large. “I look forward to getting to know all of you.”

Your expression is unreadable.

I’m starved for you. The sensation of having you so close feels almost desperate. Or maybe I’m nervy after meeting your family, new participants in this treacherous game. Perhaps it’s a little of both.

I feel your steady gaze on my back as I walk away and hear a weighted silence in my absence.

19

AMY

I crisscrossmy arms and legs to occupy as little space as possible, wedged as I am between Ramin and Darius on the back seat of a hired town car. Both men spread their legs wide, taking up all the legroom. Each is silent, head turned toward their respective window.

Had I really thought I could overshadow Lily simply by changing my hair color and wearing darker clothes? The very idea is laughable now, although the lump in my throat and burning eyes make me feel like I’m about to cry.

I can still feel her nails pressing firmly into my neck as she held me trapped against her. She is slim and delicate in appearance, but that hand was like a claw, and menace laced her high, girlish voice. Fear twisted my guts. I can still smell her perfume –her. I hugged her back in submission. And when she pulled away, I resisted the urge to press my lips to hers as Kane had done, to see if they were as pillowy soft as they looked.

An anxious laugh gets trapped in my throat. Kane’s ability to intimidate me is nothing next to hers.

“Kane will have his hands full with that one,” Ramin says cheerfully. “She’s a smoke show.”

“Too thin,” Darius mutters, and I shoot him a grateful glance.

“Model-thin,” Ramin corrects. “I guarantee she photographs like a dream. We need to get her on board with ECRA+. Create an ad campaign around her and use her on some of the packaging.”

Darius glances at his brother with the same incredulity I feel. “You can’t be serious.”

“She’s got us by the balls. Might as well put her to work and get her invested in the company’s success.”

My hands fist, my nails digging into my palms. Kane’s bitch makes a ten-minute appearance, and Ramin wants to plaster her face on the venture expected to take Baharan to new heights? Using my company, my hard fucking work, to make her the envy and inspiration of women everywhere?

No way.No. Fucking. Way.

“Not the smartest move,” I say tightly. “She’s not right in the head.”

“No shit,” my husband agrees.

“I’m talking about using her picture,” Ramin drawls, “not sending her on an international speaking tour.”

“We don’t even know what the state of their relationship is,” I argue.

“Yeah, we do.” He leers. “You saw them together. You sawher. She’s the mold every other woman has had to fill. Guaranteed, he’s already nailed her against every flat surface in the penthouse. Multiple times.”

I squeeze my eyes shut against the flood of unwelcome mental images, but that only makes them worse. I stare straight ahead instead, watching the crazed weaving of cars and cabs in the lanes in front of us. The ice in my stomach has melted, replaced by boiling fury. I imagine throwing acid into Lily’s face and watching it melt in slabs of smoking flesh and rivulets of blood and crimson lipstick.

I want to picture her screaming and crying, horrified by the loss of that face Kane worships, but the imagined Lily in my mind just stares at me, her eyes a malevolent green in the deep sockets devoid of eyelids. Then she lunges at me with superhuman speed …

I jolt upright in the back seat, my heart pounding.

“He’s been trying to scratch that itch for a long time,” Darius says, patting my knee absently as if that will soothe me. “You remember how he was in his teens, Ramin, always finessing his way into some girl’s panties, then moving on to the next. This one happened to have money he wanted to get his hands on, but he doesn’t need her for that anymore. Soon enough, he’ll get bored with her pussy and switch hers out for someone else’s. It’s about the conquest for him.”

“Brother, we don’t want him to get bored. Her, either. How’d he put it? She’s the foundation of Baharan. We need those two to stay together. Kane will make it work with her if she’s making him and the company look good. If she’s making him money, he’ll definitely keep her around.” Ramin squeezes the bare skin of my knee. “You got that flask on you? I could use a drink.”

I drop my purse in his lap.

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