Page 24 of Sweetheart: Part One

“No.” His answer was a whole lot less assured than I’d come to expect.

“Then it’s simple. In a week, we’ll send her packing.”

He didn't move.

“She’s actually staying?”

“Yes.” Though, that was a bit of a mystery to me. I'd seen obsessed fans and could believe this sort of behaviour of them, but Vex didn’t fit the bill. She hadn’t looked star-struck. She'd been exactly like I might expect of a woman attacked: distraught and shaken.

Except for her decision to stay.

Ebony’s bond cracked a little, and I wondered if it was because what he was feeling was so foreign he hadn't noticed it slip out until too late. And what hewasfeeling when I said that, unnerved me.

It was a collision of fear, anticipation and... want.

A chill crept up my spine.

Want?

ForVex?

I realised I might have read this all wrong.

“Make her leave,” he said, cutting me from my thoughts.

I raised an eyebrow. As if it were that simple. “Youmade sure those contracts were solid. Only she gets to decide if she leaves before the week’s up.”

“I don't give ashitabout the contract.”

I breathed a laugh. “Break the contract and the NDA goes poof too, and since you just strangled her—”

“She was asking for it,” he snarled.

I shoved down the little flare of rage, rechecking my end of the bond. He’d dodged my bait, and he was dangling some of his own. He was good at clocking trigger statements from society so he could throw them in our faces for a reaction, prodding us for more weak points. I doubted Vex had beenaskingfor anything, but more than that, I doubted Ebony believed she was. His reaction to her had been so far out of left field, if it were true that she’dsomehowprovoked him into it, he’d never admit that to me.

“How?” I asked, not giving him an inch.

He clamped his mouth shut, a scowl on his face. It was clear he’d keep his thoughts on Vex to himself.

But he knew I was right about the contract. Sometimes I thought he might be frustrated enough to burn it all down, but he never did. He liked what we’d built for ourselves; he liked our wealth and fame. I thought sometimes he even found joy in the face we demanded he put on in public, because it gave a thrill. He liked power and control, and from this vantage, he could deceive the whole world. I didn’t think he was willing to give up that power—not even for this Sweetheart who so clearly irked him.

“One week, and she’s gone. I’m sure she’ll be avoiding you.” I dared not tell him to stay away from her, or he might just take it as a challenge.

Ebony lifted the batons again: an obvious dismissal.

I didn't like the predatory glint in his eyes as I stepped away.

He wouldn’t let this lie. That meant she wasn’t safe—not unless the rest of us intervened.

This Sweetheart was much more trouble than she was worth.

DRAKE

“Hey, wait up!” Rook hurried down the hallway after me as I closed the door on the Sweetheart’s quarters. I glanced at him, knowing there was a blush on my cheeks. “Details mate,” he demanded. “Come on. What’s going on?”

I knew how odd the others must think it was that I’d spent the whole day with her. I’d not been this comfortable around someone for a long time. But Vex was down to earth, funny—even when she was anxious—and when she looked at me, it was like she was really seeing me.

She was… special.

---