Anders
Emily’s laughter fills the stuffy office.
“It’s the only way. Or at least, it’s the only way we can think of for now.
You marry him, and Thayer will let us help dismantle his father’s empire from the inside.
Once his father’s been eliminated one way or another, you can get a divorce.
” I take her hand because she’s going to like the next part even less.
Her blue eyes hold mine before turning to Thayer. “I will not marry you. And what the hell? Doesn’t your father have like a half-dozen ex-wives, some of whom died under mysterious circumstances? No?”
“It’s true. The wife between my mother and Darius’s disappeared after the divorce. But perhaps she went underground,” Thayer says.
“Or is in the ground.”
“Likely. That’s why you have to become pregnant.”
Her eyes widen. “I’m not having your baby.”
“I know. It just has to look like you’re pregnant. I’ve found a private doctor who, for a price, is willing to leak false information to my father’s team.”
I blink at him, then turn to each of the guys. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I wish I was,” Thayer says.
“I’m not sleeping with you.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
And it’s hard to forget the few nights we had together, exploring each other back in Miami.
“I didn’t say you had to.”
She turns to me. “I . . . I kissed Ryder and did things with Oliver.”
“I know. I didn’t say we had to be exclusive. I haven’t . . .” I’m crazy about her, but I know my best friend is too. I’d give up anything for her, but my life is so complicated with my dad right now.
“Oh.” She turns her face away from me, and her hair curtains the side of her face. I reach up and tuck it behind her ear like she does. I need to see her eyes. At least she’s glaring at Thayer, not me. “I’m not staying here.”
“For your safety you have to. You can bring your three boyfriends.” His tone drops deep. “Are there any others?”
“Uh, no? No. Just the three.” Emily bites her lip.
“Well, that’s good to know.” Thayer glares at Ryder and me before turning to Oliver. “You sure you want to be mixed up in all this?”
“I’m not leaving Emily here with you.”
There’s a realization that hits me in the gut, and I’m going to have some questions for Oliver when we’re alone.
“You would need to get out now.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Oliver says and crosses his arms over his chest. “Except maybe to the kitchen. I’m famished.
” He takes off down the corridor, turning right without hesitation.
I don’t think all manor houses are laid out the same, so he’s been here before, which gives me even more trepidation about him staying.
He went through hell after the raft; his family and the media were less than kind, calling him the pauper prince.
Thayer trails after him. “Oliver, don’t go pissing off Esmeralda—”
“Hey.” I take Emily’s hand. Ryder steps up behind her.
“I’m not marrying him.” Her eyes go wide and she turns to Ryder. “I’m not.”
“Okay, I can see why you wouldn’t want to.” Ryder moves to Thayer’s desk and sits in his chair. He pulls open a desk drawer.
Emily jumps away from me. “Is there a knife in there? Anything sharp?”
“You planning on stabbing someone, Em? Other than Thayer?”
“Stabbing him? No . . . but do you think I could? I read in a book once . . . or maybe it was one of the murder shows I was watching . . . It’s actually really hard to do, stabbing someone to death.
You have to have the correct angle and miss the ribs.
And you have to push really hard.” She shoves her hand out in front of her.
“What?” Her head cocks to the side as she looks at me.
“You’re cute when you’re scary.”
“Thanks? I think. No, I wasn’t planning on stabbing him.
I can’t even kill ants. I want to get this monitor off!
” She shakes her leg, and it wobbles around her ankle.
And I fucking hate it, but Thayer’s right.
It must show on my face. “Oh, no, no, no, no. You’re buying it.
” She turns to Ryder. “You too. Oh, for Pete’s sake.
You can’t be serious? Thayer’s dad isn’t the god of the Old Testament.
He can’t smite me down. He doesn’t own every inch of the earth. ”
“He doesn’t have to. There’s enough people out there who are willing to do things for not that much. You can’t risk it. What if someone does hurt you?” Ryder asks.
She pinches the bridge of her nose, then turns to me and jabs me in the chest with her pointer finger. “And you feel the same way?”
Damn it, I want to tell her no. That I’ll take her away and keep her safe.
But after Easton and the crew from the other raft came back and we found out the whole story, I did some digging.
We all did. As good as Thayer’s dad’s lawyers were, they couldn’t keep his name out of the press.
The guy’s like poison ivy roots. If you don’t kill every last inch of them, they come back. “I do.”
“You think James Zambrano is going to buy it? That his son just magically fell back in love with me? And that I’m dumb enough to let his super sperm win the ring toss with my egg?”
Now I’m the one biting my lip. Because she’s really not going to like what I have to say. “Emily, remember when we were on the raft and you said you had the comic lead in As You Like It?” I place my hands on her shoulders.
“Yes? I was Rosalind. That doesn’t mean I want to act in real life. I’m a horrible liar.” She tilts her head back.
“I think you can do whatever you set out to do. But you’re going to have to sell this performance. Like your life depends upon it. Because it does.”
“I—”
“Do you need more proof?” Ryder asks.
“Yes.” Emily nods, her body twisting against my chest to look at him.
“Here. It’s an article about a list of people who went missing after having dealings with the Zambrano Corporation in Canada. A pipeline project.” He passes his phone to her, and she sinks onto the sofa to read it.
“This was dangerous work. Not to defend Thayer’s dad, but they might have died out in the fields and been eaten by an animal.”
“The reporter who wrote that article went missing two weeks later.” Ryder takes his phone back. “The guy has a way of doing things that don’t get him in hot water. It’s impressively ominous. You don’t want to mess around with him. He’s already got a chip on his shoulder about your family.”
“True.” She scrunches up her nose. “Marry him?” Her face falls. “You guys have to get out of here. James doesn’t care about the two of you, but if you stay here and become associated with me? It’s not safe for you.”
I laugh. I shouldn’t, but it comes out. “I don’t know about Ryder, but I’m not going anywhere. We should talk about your trip to New York.”
“You mean, when I asked you to be my date and you said you don’t fit in and couldn’t go?”
I hold her blue eyes. “Yes. But you know there’s more to it than that. We hadn’t put a label on what we were doing, and I knew this guy . . .” I chuck my thumb at Ryder. “He likes you too. It makes things—”
“Complicated,” she finishes for me.
We should probably—no, definitely—be having this conversation in private. But I don’t think private with Em will happen anytime soon, so no time like the present. “I really like you. And I don’t want this thing between us to end.”
“But you’re okay if I marry another guy?”
“Fuck no, but I’m also not okay with you being murdered.”
“Same,” Ryder says, his head cocked to the side. “The world wouldn’t be okay without you in it, Emily. It’s insane, what we’re proposing. But like Oliver, I’m not going to leave you alone with Thayer. We’ll come up with some public excuse to keep us with you. Not to speak for you, Anders.”
“No, I was going to say the same thing.” I give Emily’s arm a tug, and she moves between my legs. “You are special, Emily, and I don’t know if you know it.”
She blinks at me and kisses my cheek, then while holding my hand, she kisses Ryder’s cheek. “This is a lot . . . a whole lot, and I’m going to need more than a minute to process it all. But in the meantime, let’s go looking for a knife.”
“As long as there’s no stabbing,” I say.
“No promises. I bet there are knives in the kitchen, but it’s always been locked.” She races out of the room with Ryder, and I’m right behind her.