I fold my hands in my lap, trying to appear as unaffected by my current situation as I can. I don’t have the same experience with masking my feelings that Storm and Rayne have developed over the years, but I can’t allow the Russos to know they’ve scared me.
Angelo surveys me, as if waiting for me to crack under the pressure of his gaze, but it’s not going to happen. I will never allow myself to be fragile in front of them, even if it means falling apart the moment I’m out of their eye line. “I understand you and my nephew have formed something of a relationship,” he finally says.
I shrug. It kills me to undermine what Everett and I have, but I realize the kind of danger I’m in as a result of our relationship, especially from the men who are sitting across the desk at me. All three of them seem calm, considering they’re in enemy territory without enough backup. “We’ve had some fun,” I tell him nonchalantly.
Angelo chuckles, his head shaking from side to side. “I think you’d call it more than that from what I’ve been hearing. By the sounds of it, the two of you are inseparable.” He doesn’t give me any time to reply before he goes on. “There’s no sense lying to me, Wynter. I have eyes and ears everywhere, but I’m sure you’ve realized that by now.”
I take a deep breath and let out a bored sigh. “Are we getting to the point soon?”
“Of course, dear.” Angelo shuffles some papers across my desk I hadn’t noticed until now, and I focus on what I think may be photos. I don’t want to hazard a guess at what he’s going to show me, because there’s every chance my stomach isn’t going to be able to handle it. I can handle death, and blood, and drugs. All of that is a necessary evil in our business. What I can’t handle is the shit the Russos deal in. The darkest sides of Chicago I wish didn’t exist, the sides that will be abolished the moment we take over their operations.
“Isn’t it funny how we have been one step ahead of you every step of the way? We knew how to grab Emerson. We knew where your parents would be and when. We knew the nickname my nephew so affectionately uses for you, and that awful thing that happened to you in college. And we knew the precise night and time you would be coming for the warehouse.”
“We are well aware you have a rat within our operation, and we’ve already figured out who it is,” I lie. There’s no reason he needs to know that we’ve been in complete lockdown for the last few days, or that we sent all our men on different operations and hired an entire new team to guard the house just in case. None of that seems pertinent right now, so I’m going to keep it to myself.
“Have you though, Wynter?” he asks, a wicked smirk tugging at his too-thin lips. “Only someone close to you would know all of that. Someone who the entire family trusts implicitly.”
My eyes drop to a photo he’s placed in front of me. Everett is sitting in a booth at the club with his uncles, a half-dressed woman sitting in his lap and her almost dead gaze perfectly captured in the image. His hand is wrapped around her waist, holding her tightly as he laughs at something one of his uncles says. No.
“I’m sure you’re thinking, this can’t be what it looks like,” Paul says.
“That’s what they always say.” Tony chuckles. “Women always have too much faith in the men in their lives. Always believe they would never lie or cheat. But what you don’t realize is the only way to get ahead in the world is to lie and cheat.”
I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. Instead I pull the image closer and check the date stamp. A few days before the wedding, after Emerson was taken. What the hell was he doing with his uncles after what they did to our family?
“Let me talk you through what’s happening here, shall I?” Angelo’s voice is smug, and I don’t need to look up at his face to know it mirrors it. “That’s your boyfriend with one of our whores on his lap. She’s a real good one too. Knows just how to suck a cock.”
I take a deep breath to settle the nausea bubbling in my belly. Every word out of his mouth sounds like a lie, but I can’t argue with this photo, can I?
“Do you remember when we bought her?” Tony laughs, his head falling back against the headrest. “Her husband swore black and blue she was the lousiest lay to ever walk the earth, but there’s nothing a few good beatings can’t fix.”
“You get real good at following orders when your life depends on it,” Paul agrees.
“Everett got a real good taste of Missy that night. We usually sell them on after we buy them, but there’s something about this bitch’s mouth I just can’t let go of,” Angelo tells me. I’m pretty sure they’re just trying to make me squirm, and it’s working. Every word out of their mouths is more vile than the last, and the carefully constructed mask I’ve mastered over the years is barely holding on.
“She doesn’t want to believe us.” Paul half laughs.
Angelo nods and passes another photo across the desk, this one with what looks like a hundred women, all looking terrified. They’re huddled together, the clothes they’re wearing almost non-existent, and right in the middle of them is Everett. His eyes are watching the women, some so young I’m sure they’re not legal, and this time my stomach can’t handle it.
I dive for the wastebasket beside the desk, the almost non-existent contents of my stomach expelling from my body. Heave after heave until I know there’s nothing left, but my belly still rolls with the need to throw up. I’ve slept with Everett. I’ve let him touch me, let him dominate me, let him cum inside me. I could have any number of fucking diseases, and I never would have been the wiser were it not for this little chat.
“He’s lying, Wynter,” Tommy says immediately before groaning, and by the time I turn around to look at him, his body is hunched over, his arms wrapped around his stomach.
“The proof is in the pudding, as they say.” Angelo shrugs as his eyes lift to the doorway. “But you can ask him for yourself, I’m sure my dear nephew would be more than happy to tell you all the truth of his involvement with the family.”
I look up and meet Everett’s deep blue gaze. I may have been able to rationalize and lie to myself, but it’s the look in his eyes that tells me everything I need to know. He lied to me, to my whole family for that matter. He was an accomplice to my parents’ murder, people who treated him like their own son just the same way they did Storm and Rayne.
He was involved in Emerson’s kidnapping and the car bomb that could have killed me.
There’s no sense trying to lie to myself about what I already know. Everett is the rat, and the reason we couldn’t figure out who it was is because he was one of the few people we never would have suspected.
I force myself to my feet and return to the seat I was sitting in a few moments ago, my hands placed neatly in my lap and my eyes staring at the ruthless men sitting across from me. “Is there anything else I can do to help you, gentleman? If not, I would really appreciate if you left. I have some work I need to get done.”
Angelo watches me for a moment, his eyes burning into my vulnerable flesh before moving to look at the doorway. I can’t bring myself to follow his gaze, not after what I’ve seen.
If I ever have to look Everett Masters in the eye again, it will be too soon.
