Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,108
in me. To silence the question whispering in my head about why Ivy obeying is agitating me so much.
“But how would they know?” Tanner asks, ripping my attention away from a beautiful blonde that is doing exactly as she’s told.
My eyes lift to his in response to the question. “We told him the servers are gone. That’s how we got them off Luca’s ass.”
“Yeah, but we never mentioned Jerry.”
Ivy clears her throat, her blue eyes lifting to Tanner.
“It sounds like they made a lucky guess.“
Tanner scoffs. “If you can’t contribute something constructive to this, just sit there and look pretty.”
He’s fucking with her on purpose, I realize. Intentionally poking her with the hope she’ll snap back.
Oddly, I’m hoping for the same thing.
Ivy sighs. “Fine.”
Luca’s lips thin, her eyes dancing between Ivy and Tanner. “What were you saying, Ivy? You may have had a good point.”
“Nothing. It’s fine. What would I know?” She shakes her head and smiles weakly with the answer before going back to staring out the window.
Pain shoots down my jaw from how hard my teeth clench. Speaking around them, I fight to stay focused on the conversation instead of her.
“Ivy has already agreed to talk to her dad and give me access to his records. So her father is handled, but what are we doing about the other threads?”
Tanner drags his confused stare from Ivy and turns to Taylor. “Where are we on finding Jerry. Anything new?”
When I glance at Taylor, I see that he’s eyeing Ivy as well, his brows tugged together before he shakes off whatever he’s thinking and answers, “Jerry is still covering his tracks, but I’ve been checking in on his daughter, Brinley. She’s a bookworm like Luca, but more social. I have some of the names of her friends.”
Ivy turns to glance at Taylor at the mention of Jerry’s daughter. An odd expression flits across her face, but then she glances at me, scowls, and turns back to stare out the window again.
Interrupting what Taylor is saying, I take a sip of my drink. “Something catch your attention, Ivy?”
Her eyes slide back to me. “Nope. I know nothing. Just sitting here looking pretty.”
“Okay, what the hell is going on?” Sawyer asks, smoke rolling over his lips. “Who murdered the real Ivy and replaced her with a changeling?”
“Sawyer,” I warn.
“What?” He snuffs out his joint in an ashtray and laughs. “I feel like I’m watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers or some shit. This is pathetic and a little creepy.”
It’s maddening actually.
Depressing.
My stomach twists more, but I fight doing anything about it because she’s doing exactly what I asked of her.
So why the hell is it bothering me so much?
“Give that information to Shane,” Tanner says, breaking my attention away from Ivy. “Shane, I want you to see if you can get close to Brinley.”
Shane’s eyes shoot to Tanner. “Why me? Why not Taylor or one of the twins?”
“Because the twins are busy with Emily,” I answer, my stare locked on Ivy, waiting for her to react.
I don’t know why I’m poking at her now, but when she doesn’t so much as twitch at the mention of the problem between the twins and her best friend - a situation I know for a fact bugs the shit out of her - my gut twists more, and my shoulders tense.
Shane begins questioning Tanner again, but all I can focus on is Ivy.
It’s like she’s not even there. Physically, yes, she’s sitting primly in her seat and not causing problems, but mentally, she’s somewhere else.
I want to know where she is.
Know what she’s thinking.
But now that she’s muted like I demanded, Sawyer isn’t wrong to say she’s someone else entirely.
Forcing myself to let it go again, I turn back to the conversation as Shane agrees to see how close he can get to Brinley, and Tanner gives Taylor another order.
“Start checking into Everly again-“
“We’ve already tried that,” Taylor argues.
“I know, but come at it from another angle. She’s connected to Ivy’s dad and Jerry in some way. Dig deeper into her past, especially the few years before she started Yale and her first year there. That might be the time period when she had contact with them.
Ivy opens her mouth as if to say something, but then shakes her head and refuses. I’m not sure anybody else noticed, but I did. And only because I can’t keep my eyes off her.