Blood Ties (Dinero de Sangre #2) - Lana Sky Page 0,53

would be a little concerned about what might be happening in Terra Rodea.”

I sit straighter, trying to disguise as much of my interest as I can. She’s hinting at something, dancing around it. But what?

I’m tempted to ask her outright and drop the caution. Damn Domino and his mind games, I need answers. The only thing holding me back is the knowledge that Alexi would never give me something I wanted. I’d have to trick her into revealing it.

“Why should I care about the big bad world?” I ask with a shrug. “I’m safe here with Domino. If there’s something I need to know, he’ll tell me.”

She smirks, an eyebrow raised. “You really are that fucking gullible.”

I get the sense that statement slipped out unbidden, though she does her best to cover the break in composure with a forced laugh.

“I think I’d feel a bit differently. Then again, I always was a bit less self-centered than you.”

It’s my turn to smirk. “Oh? I agree. You’ve been so selfless you’ve been fucking anyone who so much as looks at me. Like Tristan.”

She scoffs. “Oh, come off it, Ada. Like you actually gave a damn about Two-second Tristan. For what it’s worth, I couldn’t stand him. Not only was he bad in the sack, but he had horrible taste in women. I had to practically drool, or he’d lose interest. No wonder he liked you so much. I’ll let you in on a little secret, Adie—” She leans across the table, and the breeze carries the scent of her cheap perfume to my nose. “He didn’t even tell me he had a girlfriend when he started fucking me—though I already knew, of course. When I finally asked about you, do you know what he said? That he was humoring you out of respect for your powerful daddy. Fancy that.”

My brain goes blank. I don’t know how to process her nasty digs all at once. Instead, I try to ignore them, looking past the hateful rhetoric to the truth lurking beneath.

“If you didn’t like him so much, why fuck him at all? At least I actually had some interest in him.” I nearly choke on the lie, not that Alexi seems to notice it.

She’s practically lunging across the table, blue eyes blazing. “Why? Don’t be such a dumb cunt, Ada. You know. I’m sure Domino told you all about his little scheme. To have me get close to Tristan and suss out all of his bad-boy plots. I know you’ve made a name for yourself based on being a dumb, blond bitch, but Jesus Christ, you can’t even drop the act here?”

“D-Domino had you get close to Tristan?” I croak.

Her raised eyebrow quirks even higher. “He didn’t tell you.” A shadow falls over her expression as her beautiful features rearrange into a blank mask. She sits back, putting space between us that feels less like a retreat and more like she’s hiding something. Or she said too much. “Maybe Domino hasn’t been quite as talkative as I thought; what in between all those hot and heavy rounds of screwing.”

I don’t miss the note of jealousy in her voice then, but I’m too distracted to pounce on it like I should.

Domino manipulated Alexi into sleeping with Tristan. Though, of course, he did. It makes so much sense it should have been evident from the start. He took those pictures of them. He had Tristan’s home outfitted with a camera to make secret recordings. He even threw as much in my face, leaving me to put the pieces together on my own.

And yet, it somehow feels ten times more violating to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. Not only was Alexi in on his scheme, toying with Tristan for a reason beyond just getting back at me. She was doing it for Domino.

And he trusted her enough to have her enact his scheming for him.

Suddenly, I don’t want to play this game anymore. I don’t want to know what else I’ve been so fucking oblivious to. More and more, it’s starting to feel like, once again, I’m the butt of a joke everyone else is in on but me. I’m the pawn being manipulated across the gameboard.

Alexi alluded to the chaos unfolding in Terra Rodea. With my mother dead and my father in the hospital, I can only imagine. What the hell has Domino unleashed?

And what does he really have in mind for me?

I start to push back from the table, too overwhelmed to