“Glad you could finally make it, Miss Ellis.”
I stop dead in my tracks and my heart races painfully as I feel the blood drain from my face.
Too late, I realize what the setup is.
Dylan’s not the one waiting for me.
Jameson Angelle is.
31
“You look surprised to see me,” Mr. Angelle drawls, and once again, I’m reminded of where Saint inherited his trademark smirk from. The only difference is that Jameson has dark hair instead of blond. And I want to slap that smug look right off his murderous, rapey, child-abusing face.
“You could say that,” I murmur, still too stunned by his appearance to move from where I’m rooted in place. “What are you doing here?”
Is he here to kill me? The thought seems ridiculous, but it crosses my mind, nonetheless. He’d be an idiot to try it here, but then again, this building is pretty much empty and he has the world in the palm of his hands.
As if he can read my thoughts, he sneers. “I’m not here to hurt you, Mallory. I just want to talk.”
Doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to hurt me, which is an important distinction.
“Where’s Dylan?” I’ll kill that rat bastard with my own two hands.
“Georgia,” Mr. Angelle answers, leaning back and folding his arms. “He received a very generous bonus for his troubles and a little incentive to stay away for the time being.”
Fucking coward.
“What you ever saw in that spineless piece of shit, I’ll never understand. Guess, it’s a habit of yours.”
A burst of anger burns through my fear, and I manage to shake off my temporary paralysis and slowly step further into the room. “What is it that you want?”
He tilts his head and studies me intently for several long moments before steepling his fingers against his lips. “You’ve proven yourself a stubborn problem, you know that? I never anticipated I’d have to work this hard just to get rid of one little girl.”
“You’re a piece of shit.”
The corner of his lips twitch. “You’ve got a mouth on you, don’t you? It’s a shame it’s wasted on my son.”
My skin crawls, and I back towards the rows of desks, anxious to put some space between us. “You’re disgusting, but you already know that. Everything bad that’s happened in my life is your fault. You killed my father, tried to kill my mother, and your actions pushed my aunt over the edge so hard she can barely function. You’ve tried to pit your son against me, sent two psychopaths after me, and brought Dylan here just to make my life miserable. And for what? To protect your precious company?”
“And yet, you’ve stayed. My idiot son is so fooled by you, he’s letting his cock ruin his life, and the two psychopaths are both dead.”
“Only one is dead,” I say, and he gives me a knowing look.
“You paint me as a monster, Mallory, but have you ever stopped to take stock of all the misery you’ve caused?”
I gape at him in disbelief. This sonofabitch is trying to justify his bullshit by turning everything on me. Thankfully, I’m smarter than he appears to give me credit for, and I’m not about to fall for it. “Eat a dick,” I spit out. “That manipulative bullshit may work on everyone else around you, but I promise it won’t work on me.”
He chuckles, this deep, dark sound that chills me to my bones. “You are smart, aren’t you? Saint always said you were, but I didn’t believe him.”
“Happy to have proved your son right,” I say through gritted teeth. “What do you want from me, Mr. Angelle? The money I’m supposed to inherit? I’m sure it’s nothing to you, so why are you trying so hard to get rid of me?”
He looks almost impressed by my questions. “Like I said, smart. All right, I’ll tell you the truth. Doesn’t appear to be any reason to try and bullshit you. I need you gone from here so you don’t get access to that trust your father left you. If you don’t graduate from Angelview, that money is absorbed back into my company.”
I gape at him. “That’s the reason you’ve been so willing to hurt me, or worse, to get rid of me? It’s all just about money? You just gave Saint a billion-dollar-fucking trust, you idiot.”
“He exaggerates,” he says. “But you? You’ve got enough in that trust to make you the wealthiest person in this goddamn state. It’s more than you could ever hope to spend in your lifetime.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I hiss. “Are you afraid I’ll just be that much more determined to make it through to graduation and ruin your plans? If there’s really that much money for the taking, how in the world do you think you can get me to leave?”
He smirks at me, and his expression is so patronizing, I want to claw his eyes out.
“Little girl, there’s something you’ll learn soon enough. Everyone has their price, and everyone has their limits. I’ll admit, you’re tougher than I anticipated, but I’ll break you. I’ll find where your line is, and when I threaten to push you over it, you’ll leave here of your own free will. That I guarantee you.”
That’s enough. I don’t need to stand here and listen to him a moment longer.
I turn, intent on leaving the room without another word.
“I don’t think so,” he growls, and the next thing I know, his fingers are wrapped around my arm in a painful grip and he’s yanking me around to slam me against the wall next to the board. My breath is knocked from my lungs and he holds he still with a hard hand on my shoulder.
“What are you doing?” I gasp.
“We’re not done talking,” he snarls. “It’s rude to walk out mid-way through a conversation.”
When I go for my phone, he snatches it from me.
I open my mouth to scream for help, but he slaps his palm over my lips to silence me.
“I know she’s alive,” he murmurs. “And if you promise to give her a message from me, I won’t hurt you.”
I nod behind his hand, because really, what do I have to lose?
He slowly lowers his hand and I keep my lips sealed tightly shut.
“Good girl. Tell Nora that I’ll give her one hundred to drop this whole thing and go away. Easy, right?”
“You want to give her a hundred million so she’ll forget how you killed her whole family?” My head jerks back in disbelief. “That you tried to kill her?”
His expression darkens. “She wasn’t supposed to be there that day.”
“What does that mean?”
His nostrils flare and he looks agitated. “Ben was the only one who was supposed to be in that house. Nora told me that’s where he’d be. She never said she and the others would be there, too.”
What. The. Fuck.
“Nora … Nora told you where my father was?” I whisper, horrified. “Did she know what you wanted to do?”
He levels me with a look that chills me to my core. “We made a deal. She’d get a generous payout from me and his stake in the company. You, of course, inherited the life insurance policy.”
He’s lying. He has to be. Nora’s awful, but she couldn’t be that conniving and greedy, could she? She loved my father. It’s why she’s so focused on her revenge against Angelle.