Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CONSTANCE
The attic feels smaller once Miles is fully inside it.
Abi is still vibrating with anger, but Miles’ presence reins her in without a word—his calm more suffocating than her craziness.
Miles stares at me the way someone gazes upon a problem they believe they’ve already solved.
“Constance.” My name slips from his lips. “I hope my associates didn’t hurt you too badly.”
Like he fucking cares. I’m too pissed to even give him a response. Why should I?
“Aww, come on. Don’t go all mute on me now. This isn’t personal,” he says it like a reassurance, which makes it worse.
“Sure feels fucking personal to me. Since, you know, I was the one dragged from a parking garage, and am now tied up in a creepy attic.”
“Morgan has always been a hard nut to crack. Things have to be his way or no way at all. He doesn’t understand that other people can have ideas that are just as beneficial as his.
So, I did what I had to do.” His tongue glides across his lower lip as he moves across the room toward me.
“Everything was going according to plan. Until you.”
I don’t say anything in response. Somehow, I think silence is the best option at the moment. I need to get out of here. Chance needs me, and I need to warn Morgan about this snake.
“Your attention to detail, reading what you shouldn’t have and redirecting that letter to Morgan caused quite a hiccup in my plan. But you also provided me with some newfound leverage to pressure Morgan into doing what I want.”
His words make me nauseous, but they also clarify something important.
I’m not here because of some sick sexual attraction or petty revenge scheme by a scorned employee.
I’m here to garner a specific response from Morgan.
Because this idiot thinks I mean something more to him than a sexual hookup or assistant.
Miles thinks Morgan cares about me, and that it will get him what he wants.
“You messed up,” I tell him coldly.
He laughs, and she copies him, stepping up beside him, her manicured hand gliding across his shoulder. “But you’re wrong. I haven’t made a mistake.”
“I’m nothing to Morgan Creed. He doesn’t care about me. My absence is inconsequential. He’ll have another assistant replacing me before the end of the day. Fucking her in my absence, because all I am is a fuck to him. Nothing more.”
He waves his pointer finger back and forth, tsking at me. “That’s where you’re wrong. Morgan has never slept with an assistant. He never mixes work and his personal life.”
“Let’s just fucking kill her,” Abi snaps. “She ruined everything. If it wasn’t for her, he’d never have suspected anything. We’d still be on schedule.”
I laugh. “You took the letter from me and hand-delivered it to him,” I remind her.
“Fuck you, bitch. “I had to. Miles said it would look wrong if I didn’t. He would’ve been suspicious.”
“Shut the hell up, Abi,” he barks. She instantly falls silent, eyes flicking to him for approval before crossing her arms, pouting like a reprimanded child.
I clock it instantly. Abi thinks she’s a partner, but she isn’t.
Miles merely sees her as a tool to use to get what he wants.
Once he’s done with her, he’ll toss her to the side and place all the blame on her.
Because no one would doubt what he says.
I never would have guessed he’d be behind something like this. No one else will, either.
“You’re wrong, Constance. I’ve seen the way he watches you.
How protective he is of you. I know the women that Morgan gives his time to,” he says.
“And you’re not them. There’s never been a chubby, single mom on his roster.
He doesn’t do domestic. Yet, he picked up your son from school, he took you to a public event, and he stayed the night with you. ”
“That proves nothing,” I spit at him.
“Come on, Constance. You’re not that stupid.” His voice makes me sick, and I’m slowly wondering if I’m going to make it out of this attic alive.
So I ask Miles the only question that matters.
“What’s going to happen to me?”
Miles doesn’t threaten me, but what he says doesn’t promise any security or safety either.
“You’ll be set free. I’ll have you taken back to your car, and you’ll go home to your son. But only if Morgan signs the papers I need him to.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Well, then you become a liability that needs to be eradicated.”
It’s clear my continued well-being depends on how useful I remain to him and if he can get Morgan to do what he wants.
Fear courses through me, but beneath it, something solid forms.
Miles needs me alive because he needs Morgan to believe I can be returned to him intact. That knowledge becomes my anchor. What I need to keep my sanity, so I can escape. I need to be ready for any mistake they make so that I can guarantee my freedom.
I don’t say anything else. I don’t even react to Abi’s taunts. I need to conserve all my energy.
Miles continues to talk, but I tune him out. He believes Morgan is weak, and that he has control of the situation.
What he doesn’t understand is that Morgan Creed doesn’t bargain over what he considers his responsibility.
And Chance—my son, waiting for me—has already made this personal in a way Miles can’t understand.
Miles’s phone vibrates in his pocket. He doesn’t answer it.
“You should hope Morgan chooses wisely.” With that, he and Abi turn and head toward the door.
I close my eyes and make a promise, not to Miles or Morgan, but to Chance.
Whatever comes next, I’ll still be here when it’s over. Chance will still have his mother. And I’ll make sure he always knows how much I love him.