Actually, it was exactly like him. Binding my family to his. Forever in my face.

She exhaled slowly as if calculating her next words as she folded her hands on the table. “I know what you really want,” she said. “You want to know where Damon is. You don’t want to be surprised. And right now, you’re a rat in a maze. You don’t know which way to turn, and you won’t see that you’ve gone the wrong way until you’ve gone too far.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning you’re the prey right now,” she shot back. “And once…you were the hunter.”

I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the table again. “You want me to find him?”

“I couldn’t care less if you tore apart this entire city looking for him,” she retorted. “I’m here to deliver a message. Nothing more.”

“But you must’ve known I’d refuse.”

She nodded once. “Yes.”

“So, why come?”

Now she was the one to hesitate. She reached out and grabbed a piece of notepaper and a pen from the middle of the table, looking down as she began writing and speaking at the same time.

“Because after you refuse,” she started, “I’m going to leave.” She scrawled on the paper, taunting me with her smooth words. “You’ll then go upstairs and out to the open terrace to work on your forms in the evening air. You’re liking it out there more now, I can tell.”

My eyes burned as I glared at her. What?

“The weather is cooling off, so it’s more comfortable to practice outside, isn’t it?” she went on, still not looking at me as she wrote. “And resist as you may, your mind will eventually drift to our discussion tonight. You’ll think about how so very little is in your control anymore. You’ll think, ‘What do I do now?’ and how your life is in a stalemate, and how the small itch under your skin called anger is growing stronger?”

I stopped breathing, and she looked up and met my eyes, complete fucking pleasure pouring out of her gaze and cutting into me.

“It’s building and building and building every day,” she said, slicing even deeper as I sat frozen. “Because your life embarrasses you. It hasn’t even become close to what it was before you were arrested.”

She dropped her eyes and began writing again. “All of your high school friends—well, nearly all of them—moved onto college, prestigious law schools and medical schools, bringing their families pride,” she continued, “and at night, they get to go to clubs and pick up hot, young undergrads who blow them in the car rides back to their penthouse apartments. They’re on top of the world without a care.”

The slow strokes of her pen scratched across the paper, sounding like a blade carving into wood.

“But not you,” she jeered. “You think you’re a joke to them. How far the golden boy did fall. A disgrace to his family. The infamous story they’ll tell at the high school reunion in five years, which, unfortunately, you won’t be attending, because deep down you know they’re right.”

She re-capped the pen and placed it back in the holder at the center of the table.

“Then you’ll come inside after your workout, and you’ll go take another shower. Your third one today. It washes off the self-hate for a little while, doesn’t it?” She folded the paper in half, sharpening the crease as her eyes held me like an anchor. “Then you’ll drive and go to a club and find someone—anyone—to take all that rage out on, so you can at least sleep for a few hours tonight.”

I tightened my fists, pressing them into the table as I rose from my seat. It took everything I had not to grab her by the fucking neck. Walking over, I leaned down, pushing her chair to recline. Her proud eyes stared up, daring me. Where the fuck did she get all that? She’s been watching me?

I didn’t hate my life. I wasn’t angry. I’d served my time. Deed was done, and I wasn’t wallowing in self-pity. I knew how to pick myself up and get on with it.

Or, at least I was trying.

“And when you wake up,” she said low, nearly whispering up at me. “You’ll realize how much everything around you sucks and how it’s time to get in the goddamn game, Kai Mori, and take some chances.”

Goddamn her.

She held up the folded piece of paper between us. “Her inheritance,” she said, handing it to me. “It will make you a very powerful man. More powerful than your friends will ever be.”

She rose from the chair, forcing me back, and my body filled with a sudden unease. She’d gotten under my skin, and she knew it. But I hadn’t affected her in the least.

“I’ll wait until tomorrow to tell Mr. Torrance your answer,” she told me. “Just in case I hear from you tonight.”

I reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her. “I’ve made a lot of bad decisions in my life,” I said, standing at her side. “I won’t be making any more.”

She looked up at me and pulled her arm out of my grip. “I hope not. You’ve made too many.”

She moved to leave, but I blocked her again. Slipping the paper she gave me into her jacket without looking at it, I retrieved the picture instead. I made a show of looking at it.

I needed Damon.

And I needed in that hotel.

But if he wasn’t there…

I looked down into her piercing eyes, remembering the smell of her hair, the sight of her smile, and the feel of her fear and excitement. She was the one thing I’d ever seen him possessive of.

If he wasn’t in the hotel, then she was leverage.

“Tell him we’ve got a deal,” I told her.

She blinked up at me for a split moment, and I knew she hadn’t been expecting that.

But when she reached for the knob, I put my hand on the door, keeping it shut. “But I’ll pay for The Pope,” I clarified. “Instead, my wedding present… will be you.”

She whipped around, and I finally saw some emotion on her face as she glared at me. “I’m not on the table.”

And I couldn’t help but smile down at her, my dirty mind finding the double meaning.

“You work for me until the wedding. That’s the deal. Go and tell him my terms.” I backed away, suddenly very confident. “And you’ll find out that you’re exactly what I said you were. Toy or tool. Nothing more.”

I left her side and walked back around behind my desk. While her position with Gabriel perplexed me, I knew that man would sell his soul to make a buck. There was no chance one little girl was of that much value that he wouldn’t sacrifice her to see me agree to his terms.

“And, Banks,” I said, seeing her yank open the door, a small ember of the fire I remembered in her all those years ago finally showing itself again. “Once he agrees, gather the keys, codes, and blueprints for the hotel and bring them to me. I want in tomorrow.”

She didn’t turn or acknowledge my order, but I saw the little snarl on the side of her face before she left the office, slamming the door behind her.

My chest shook as I let out a quiet laugh. Following her out, I watched her stuff her hands back into her coat pockets and ignore my friends who stood in the lobby. I stopped next to the front desk, seeing her disappear out the doors, and moments later a black SUV charged off.

“What did you do?” Michael walked over.

But I just kept staring out the doors after her, mumbling, “She said ‘tear apart the city, looking for him.’”

“What?”

“She said that she didn’t care if I tore apart the entire city, looking for him,” I said again, louder. “I never told her I thought he was in the city.” And I nodded, now more sure than ever. “He’s here.”

I turned to head back to the office.

“You’re not getting married,” Michael called out after me.

I glanced back. “I’m not getting fucking married.”

Banks

Devil’s Night

Six Years Ago

Maybe I’ll be around?

I’d said that. Why had I said that to him in the confessional? And why had I taunted him on the road earlier? There was no way I’d be around or allowed to go anywhere tonight. Not on Devil’s Night.