Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,125

place.

Let the men talk?

You slimy piece of shit.

It’s right at this moment that I finally see what I should have known all along. This man has no respect for her. Not one damn ounce of it. And the pedestal he’s kept her on has been more to keep her feet off the ground than to be a fucking father and show her how to walk on her own.

It only pisses me off more. Still, I say nothing, my jaw tight, my eyes locked to his as I wait to see just how low this son of a bitch will go.

“If you still want to play off this bullshit engagement, I’ll leak the tape.”

My jaw clenches tighter, but I force a grin that shows nothing of what I’m thinking. “Wouldn’t that only hurt you? Your own daughter committing a crime under your watch.”

His grin matches mine. “You have a lot to learn still, Gabriel, about how those older than you work. And when I can prove that I just now received this and decided to arrest my own damn daughter because I’m tough on crime, nobody will come after me for it. But what will it do to her?”

“You wouldn’t,” I seethe.

His slimy grin stretches wider. “Try me. I’ve been playing this game a lot longer than you. You have no idea what I’ll sacrifice to protect my interests.”

Beside me, Ivy begins yelling at her dad, and while I can hear her voice, my brain isn’t making sense of the words. I’m too busy staring this asshole down, my mind scrambling to figure out a way around what he’s doing.

This is the last fucking thing I expected him to do. Destroy his own daughter? What kind of monster is he?

Apparently, a father just like mine.

And now that I know that, the game has to change again.

Ivy is crying by this point, but neither of us look at her. We’re too busy glaring at each other.

My thumb sweeps across the engagement ring once more, a silent promise screaming in my head that I will fix this situation since I’m the asshole who caused it by setting her up in the first place.

Fuck, this is going to hurt her. It’s going to kill me in the process, but I need time to figure out what to do.

“Fine,” I growl. “I’ll let her go. But only because I actually give a damn about her, unlike you.”

“What?” Ivy turns to me, her eyes wild in my peripheral vision.

I can’t turn to look at her, can’t drag my stare away from the monster standing in front of me. “Gabriel, no.”

Her eyes shoot back to her dad. “This is insane. You wouldn’t do this to me.”

She might have a problem believing it, but I don’t. Governor Callahan just ripped off his own mask and showed me that whatever he’s involved in is important enough to toss his own daughter under the bus to protect it.

This is a lot bigger than any of us realize.

I shake my hand free of Ivy’s, my eyes finally sliding her way, begging her to see the truth of how I feel, fucking begging her to see beneath my mask like she always has.

She’s always known when I was lying. But judging by the tears in her eyes now, I worry that she won’t know I’m lying now.

“The engagement is off. Don’t call me again. Don’t come to my house or show up at my office. We’re done.”

Her expression falls, tears leaking from her eyes as she searches my face. “No. I’m going with you. He won’t actually do this.”

She rushes toward me, and I grab her arm and force her across the room to her dad.

Ivy trips over her own feet walking backwards, her bottom lip trembling when her father wraps an arm around her to hold her still.

I stare at her for a few silent seconds, inwardly promising her that I will find a way to fix this, but until then she needs to see through Fraud and remember Gabriel stares out at her.

My eyes lift to her dad. “You win.”

His expression doesn’t so much as twitch in response to tell me what he’s thinking.

I look at Ivy one last time before spinning on my heel to storm away, her voice a shriek of sound when she calls for me to come back.

“Gabriel! Damn it! I’m not staying here. Gabriel, stop!”

Shoulders tense, I leave the room and march through the foyer, their butler opening the door for me as soon as