Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,87

on that cryptic award, Gabe. I think Ivy just surpassed me.”

Ignoring Tanner, I keep my eyes locked with Ivy’s, her idea making sense the more I think about it.

She’s such a devious mind, which only reminds me that I still need to watch my back around her.

“Actually. It’s a good idea,” I say looking back at him.

“It’s not an idea at all,” Tanner argues.

It’ll take a better-structured plan for it to work, but Ivy just laid out the bare bones.

“It’s the best one we have. And Ivy and I know exactly how to get what we want.”

Staring at me like I’m an idiot, Tanner asks, “And how’s that?”

Speaking in unison, Ivy and I remind him of the one talent we both have that might help us pull this off.

“We lie.”

Ivy

This situation keeps getting more complicated. It feels like every plan I make to evade or avoid Gabriel blows up in my face.

At the start of this, I hadn’t planned to rat out my father. In fact, I had every intention to keep what I knew about him to myself. Hell, I was even willing to lie and make up something that couldn’t be proven in order to dodge the price Tanner wanted from me.

But then they pulled out their secret weapon.

Facing Luca’s sad face and wet, hot tears shoved me to my knees. I couldn’t help myself after that. I sang like a fucking canary, just tweeted that information all over the place because I couldn’t stand not being able to help her.

It wasn’t just that, though. The moment Gabriel told me the information I had could potentially hurt their fathers was the same moment I became Team Inferno, a fact I’m not completely comfortable admitting.

I have no idea where any of this leaves me, or what it means for the war I know is still ongoing with Gabriel. All I know is that I’m willing to call a ceasefire if it means I can help take down the assholes who raised him.

All I’ve ever wanted was to see Gabriel freed. It’s why I wouldn’t stop fighting as we grew up. Why I dug my claws in and held on despite how cruel he could be.

Does that mean I didn’t hate him for what he did?

Hell no.

I couldn’t stand him for most of our lives.

But the thing about hate is that it’s easily transferable when you discover a more fitting target than the one you had.

The night I saw those men hurt Gabriel was the night I decided I hated them more. And everything that happened after that was simply a matter of me finishing the war.

Still, that doesn’t mean things aren’t hella awkward or as shaky as a chihuahua on meth. There is no stable ground for me to stand on at the moment, but rather than running off, I’ve decided to buckle down.

Tanner and the majority of the Inferno took off an hour after I spilled my guts like a busted dam about the conversation I’d overheard near my father’s office.

And while I wasn’t upset to see them go - especially since Tanner and I were dancing around each other in some weird truce that wasn’t really a truce - I was definitely weirded out by the fact that Gabriel and the twins chose to stay.

Mostly, I didn’t like the twins being here, which is why I made up some excuse about not trusting Gabriel in order to convince Emily to sleep in my room with me.

Thankfully, she bought it, and I didn’t miss the relief in her expression to accept the offer.

The twins ended up taking the two other rooms, and Gabe crashed on the couch downstairs, which was all well and good with me. I’m not sure I can close my eyes around him, or if he would feel safe closing his eyes around me.

Seeing the relief on Emily’s face to sleep with me only made me trust the twins even less.

Something is going on, but despite my repeated attempts to get Emily to open up about it, she refused.

Now, it’s the next morning, and I’m sitting in the living room staring out at the side balcony where Emily is in a heated conversation with Ezra. Or maybe it’s Damon.

Honestly, I can’t tell them apart, but regardless of who it is, I don’t like it.

“We need to talk about our living arrangements before we head back to town.”

Peeling my eyes away from the conversation occurring outside the French doors, I turn to see Gabriel coming down