Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,107

lived with someone else first year at Yale, but a change occurred over the summer, and the only two people switched were Everly and me.”

It’s a good observation, and I’m not surprised Ivy was the one to see it. She has a different view of the entire picture only because she’s not yet wrapped up in it.

She’s also insanely intelligent and attentive. Although you wouldn’t know that now by looking at her.

My gaze skates to her, but rather than adding to the conversation, she stares down at her hands in her lap, her white blond hair falling like a curtain to hide most of her face. A muscle in my jaw jumps, and my fingers tighten down on my drink.

I glance back to Luca, fighting the urge to call Ivy out on just sitting there.

“Warbucks wouldn’t have been able to pull something like that off. Not without Taylor.”

All of us turn to him.

He shrugs and runs a hand through his hair. “What? Don’t look at me. I didn’t do it.”

“My father could have,” Luca says softly. “Or Jerry.”

Thoughts racing back to Yale, I remember that Everly never asked me how she could get in touch with Luca’s dad. She’d simply agreed when I asked her to do it. Was that because she already knew exactly how to reach him?

I keep that question to myself. But I plan to find out what I can about it.

“When did Ivy point this out?”

Tanner is staring directly at Ivy, even if the question is directed at Luca. I can see the gears turning in his head. He still has every intention of confronting Ivy, which means her act that she’s behaving will fall apart. I’m almost thankful for him to do it even though I shouldn’t be. Which is why I need to stop him, even if all I want is for him to keep going.

“In your office.”

“Oh, you mean when Ivy fucked with my-“

“Tanner, drop it,” I warn.

He doesn’t.

“Don’t you have anything to say about that, Ivy?”

All eyes are on her, a few of the guys smirking because they are waiting for her to strike out.

The truth is I’m waiting, too.

“Sorry about that,” she mutters while examining her fingernails like they’re the most interesting thing in the room. “It won’t happen again.”

We all stare at her, Tanner’s brow arching while the rest of the guys look disappointed.

Interestingly, Luca and Ava are the only ones to not openly react, but I can still see the tight line of their mouths.

Luca finally looks up and says, “I happened to think what happened at the office was funny.”

Tanner glares at her.

“And well deserved,” she shrugs, giving him a sweet smile.

The entire scene is uncomfortable and wrong. But it’s what I demanded of Ivy and apparently what she’s giving us. So why the hell is my stomach twisting in my gut to see it?

Tanner runs the knuckle of his finger over his lips, the gears in his head turning again. Before he can say anything else to Ivy, I lead us back to the conversation.

“Warbucks also said we’re on a timeline right now.” My eyes meet Tanner’s in reminder. “Tick tock.”

He grimaces, but let’s go of Ivy’s behavior and returns to the topic we’re here about.

Sadly, I can’t focus on all of what he’s saying because my eyes keep dragging back to Ivy, narrowing on the way she sits demurely in her place, picking at her fingernails or staring out the window.

“Okay, so obviously Warbucks and Daddy Dearest must know the servers are missing and at least have a suspicion of who took them. Their comment that I failed with Luca is telling.”

Nodding, I sip from my drink, Ivy’s behavior driving me fucking mad.

Staring at it while Tanner continues silently working out the details of what needs to be done, I briefly wonder why I drink so much. My gaze lifts to Ivy, my thoughts wandering back to what she said to me in the den.

I don’t think she was wrong to say what she did, and if I had to guess, I would say the drinking is just another mask, another way to numb the bullshit of my life.

Sawyer is worse, obviously, but he tends to be more open about it. Even now he puffs on a joint while waiting for what Tanner will say.

We all have our vices, I guess. And knowing that, I pick up the drink and down the rest of it in a few swallows. It does nothing to ease the annoyance