Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,15
record. Her friends are all typical spoiled snobs, and she came back home after completing a business degree to settle into the life her father created for her.
He bought her the house she lives in. Always insists she have a driver. Her bank account and credit cards are all tied to his name.
She does absolutely nothing for herself, and it makes me sick to think about it.
Even her social media accounts are a cure for insomnia, all her posts focused on clothes, food or her vacations to the usual places.
All the fire that used to exist in this woman has been expertly snuffed out by her politician daddy, and I grieve for who she used to be. Although I can’t begrudge how easy of a target that makes her.
Sadly, his plan to subdue his daughter for the purposes of protecting her - or maybe more to the truth, for protecting his career - has resulted in the opposite. She’s too simple now, a soft, fluffy lamb that doesn’t know to run when a wolf is stalking after her.
“Greenwood is nice,” I say, although we both know it’s bullshit. Not that it’s a bad neighborhood. The houses all cost in the millions. But it’s still not what most consider influential.
Even in school, we would refer to those outside our circle as the Greenwood kids, those who lived comfortable lives but still had no claim to fame. They were second tier to our first.
“That’s crap and you know it,” she says on a laugh. “Stop lying.”
Ivy’s shoulders relax on that response, the tension that existed between us bleeding away as she shifts her position enough that she’s turned toward me.
I grin as soon as her eyes lock to mine.
“We should just go ahead and get to what’s strange about this moment. We’ve always hated each other. And we’ve done some shitty things. But I like to think we can move past that now that we’re adults, right?”
Sure. Anything you say, beautiful...
Shifting in my seat so that I’m leaning a shoulder against the backrest, I intentionally face her directly, the space between us closing in tiny increments that won’t spook her like the skittish bunny she is.
“Age does have a habit of calming people down.”
Another laugh, her lashes batting over blue eyes that have rarely looked at me like I’m human.
It was a mistake on her part many years ago to believe I wasn’t fucked up enough to hurt her like I did, a momentary accident that we never repeated.
Our history isn’t only the pranks we pulled and the punches we threw, it also has regrettable moments where Ivy saw beneath my easy smile and witnessed what exists beneath.
I always hated that she knew what she did about me. And maybe it’s a large part of why she was my favorite target. It wasn’t the girl I wanted to destroy; it was the memory she carried in her pretty head.
I can still feel the rain from that night - that accident between us - every freezing drop stabbing my skin like knives.
Shaking it off, I focus on the present.
“My point is that we should start over, pretend like we never knew each other before this moment.”
She scoots closer, and so do I. It’s almost as if her polarity has reversed and instead of shoving away, we’re now pulled together like magnets.
Before I left the house, Tanner warned me that Ivy is still the same, that she would be right back to her old tricks given the right opportunity.
I think the bastard was too tied up in his bullshit with Luca to hear what I was telling him, making him wrong on all accounts.
That’s bad for Ivy.
But good for me.
The car takes a corner as it pulls into heavier traffic, the motion as good an excuse as any for me to slide closer. We’ll blame simple physics for propelling me toward Ivy and not my need to draw her into my orbit.
So easy, this task.
It’s almost boring.
But then, nothing is completely boring when I have a hot as fuck blonde staring me down, especially one as tempting as this.
“Anyway,” she says, a soft purr to her voice that rubs me in all the right places, “I’m hoping you have changed enough that you’ll help me with this thing with Tanner. Without my dad, I’m screwed. If I disobey him...”
Interesting word choice, I think. It’s wrong that the thought of her obeying anyone turns me the fuck on.