Page 33 of Master of Lies

“But nobody’s here, and I didn’t go far, just to—”

“Get inside!” he roared.

I stumbled through the snow as fast as I could manage in those boots, stamping it off once I got into the mudroom. “I’m sorry,” I told him again as he followed me in. “I didn’t go far at all. And I didn’t know you’d, like, freak out about it.”

Jed slammed the door, and slid the locks and bolts into place, his face grim.

I tried again. “I’m really sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just always stretch my legs in the morning, and I looked out the window, and it was so peaceful and pretty outside, so I thought—”

“Don’t think. It’s not safe. Just do what the fuck you’re told, if you want to survive. Never walk out of my sight again without telling me what you’re doing. Not while I’m responsible for you. Understand?”

I didn’t have a leg to stand on, and I knew it. And still, I felt my spine stiffen up as I stared him down. “I did not swear to obey your every command,” I said.

He looked at me thoughtfully, eyes narrowing. I realized, with a sickening shock, that anger had made me slip. That was Freya’s vocal cadence, not Sandee’s. Freya’s clear alto voice, not the raspy, grinding vocal fry I’d learned from various female Instagram influencers, the voice I’d been practicing into my phone for months.

He had stung me into dropping my mask.Shit.

I shrugged off my coat and hung it on a chair, hoping to distract him with my nipple hard-on. He noticed it, but didn’t lose focus.

“Don’t fuck with me,” he said. “Maybe you will eventually get chopped up by these assholes, despite my best efforts, but it won’t be on my watch. So listen up. Do what I say, or you’ll be sorry. Are we clear?”

Be Sandee. Be her right now, idiot.I fought my knee-jerk pride and anger down, and forced myself to stay in character. Sulky. Pouting. Intimidated. Maybe even a little turned on. I let my lips tremble. “I’ll be good,” I said, in a small, cowed voice.

He picked up a duffel bag and flung it at me. “Take this stuff and go get changed.”

“Changed into what?” I opened the bag and rifled through the contents. Men’s winter clothing, heavy in texture, dull in color. “Is this your stuff? I’ll swim in it!”

“Not mine. It was meant for someone else. Bigger than you are, but smaller than me. You could cuff the pants, and I think there’s a belt in there. Just put them on and make them work somehow.”

“But why can’t I just—”

“Fuckingdo it!”

CHAPTER13

Atwinge of sharp pain from her jaw shooting up to her temple reminded Nicole that she was grinding her teeth again. She’d lose some of them if she didn’t stop, and that would be unacceptable. Much of her current power was based on her beauty.

Eventually, beauty faded, of course. But she had a plan. By then, she’d have extreme wealth and power. At that point, beauty and sex were no longer necessary. They were just tools, anyhow. A mirror for men’s lust and ego. She looked forward to leaving that particular part of the whole sweaty, stinking mess behind her.

It had been a bad night. Wex had been furious after last night’s debacle. And since the fuck-ups were frozen corpses scattered across a hotel parking lot, he’d taken it out on her, meaning she was unpleasantly sore in her nether parts. Her stomach was in knots. She kept tasting bile. It happened when she was murderously angry.

Which was to say, fairly often lately.

But she would get through this. This was her pet project, even if Wex thought he was running the show. She was the mastermind, the one who had understood what Ethan Masters was capable of during that internship she’d done with Masters Tech, Inc. a few years ago. She’d snooped into Ethan Masters’s notes and been dazzled. He was a brilliant, exceptional man who needed someone like her at his side, helping him rule the entire fucking world. Since not even a man like him could possibly do it alone.

But he hadn’t seen the potential in the two of them together. When she had tried to seduce him, Ethan Masters had bought her dinner, fucked her very expertly and thoroughly, and blown her off. She’d been tempted to kill him for it, but she’d held back.

He’d die for it eventually. In the meantime, she could plan all the ways she could make him suffer, and slowly devise the perfect punishment. It had been a big shame that Ethan hadn’t been there when they destroyed the Ready Line facility, but he lived and worked hundreds of miles away from Shane and his company. But she hoped it stung, taking his brother away. That it made him suffer. Who knew, if a man like that even had a heart. Anyone’s guess.

She was going to profit from what Ethan had created. She would take it from him. It should have been hers to begin with.Heshould have been hers.

She had finally found her entry point in Wex Boer. He’d served with the Masters brothers in the Rangers, and Ready Line Security had sometimes collaborated with Wex’s security company. Shane knew the codes to open his brother’s algorithms.

Wex was perfect for her purposes. He had funds, a large team of mercenaries at the ready. He was self-centered, amoral, arrogant enough to be ambitious, stupid enough to be manipulated, and he’d been absolutely on board once she’d explained the potential of the SmokeScreen algorithm to him.

Nicole had dreamed up the Ready Line massacre in every detail, but Wex and his team had executed it. She’d made the story airtight, backed up by financial data, bank deposits, forensic evidence, etc. The way it was supposed to look to the cops, Wex had burned to a crisp along with the rest of them. The fall guy was Jed Clearwater. He’d sold them all out and fled, the bastard. Or tried to. That bit was her favorite, the part the press would eat up with a spoon. How Jed had run his car off a bridge and died trying to flee the scene. Karma’s immediate retribution, ka-pow! A story like that would go viral in a heartbeat. People loved when an evil asshole got his comeuppance.

Especially when he looked a fool while he was getting it.

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