guess. It would have been a good match. Her family’s empire and mine. But Adair was never a team player,” he continues wistfully. “Poppy is, though. Not my first choice, but her family’s net worth has doubled. Imagine what I can do with that money. And you? You taught me how easy it is to manipulate people. Honestly, I think I learned more from you than all four years at Valmont.”
“I’m glad to be of service,” I say flatly. “I’m not so easy to manipulate anymore.”
Cyrus Eaton actually laughs. Tilts his head back, opens his throat nice and wide, and roars with laughter. “You don’t get it,” he says. “I own your secrets. You think you have power over me now? It’s exactly the opposite. I could bury you with what I have on you. You think I’m talking about five years ago? I’m not. And you don’t even know!”
I rise to my feet, my pulse thundering in my ears.
“Sterling, don’t,” Luca’s voice says quietly over the comms, startling me. It’s incredible how easily a human being forgets the illusion of privacy. Even me. Even here. But Luca is my friend, and that means he knows I’m about five seconds from snapping Cyrus’s neck. He knows it’ll take everything I’ve got to fight it.
“It’s not worth it,” Jack says.
What the fuck are they talking about? This is exactly what they signed up for. We’ve never been afraid to get our hands dirty.
“If you want him dead, I’ll do it,” Luca says in an even tone. “You’ve got people to lose now, remember?”
When I woke up today, I knew everything I wanted from life. Maybe for the very first time. I came in here with a plan and all it took was Cyrus Eaton laughing at me, and I was ready to throw it all away.
And for what?
I think of Jay Gatsby floating dead in his pool, never learning his lesson. I see that scrap of paper Adair left me on the pillow. Those words. I’ve been fighting the past’s current for so long, desperate to prove I’m stronger than the ocean of mistakes behind me.
But all I need to do is get out of the water.
“Cyrus,” I say calmly, waiting for his laughing to fully stop.
“Yeah? What do you need, Sterling? Need to borrow my car? I’ve got five now. I’ll give you one,” he chuckles, admonishing me by waving his index finger. “But you have to ask nicely.”
“Sterling, we have all the drives,” Jack says quickly. “Luca’s out. I’m plugging one in now. Standby.”
His laughter rushes toward me, stopping short like the tide shifting. It can’t reach me anymore. I’m too far on land for it to touch me.
“You offered me to the FBI, didn’t you?” I say, giving Cyrus something to chew on, biding my time until I know I’ve won once and for all.
“You are smart, I’ll give you that. But the company you keep... Organized crime, Sterling? What would Frankie say?”
“It’s Francie, actually.”
“Like I care.”
“Sterling,” Jack’s voice sounds on the comms. “We’ve got everything. Looks like three years or more. It’s even labeled neatly in the file tree.”
“Do you not understand what you’ve done?” I ask Cyrus.
“The sex tape? Relax. Only 3 people ever saw it, and one of them is dead now.”
“You violated Adair,” I say. “You set me up.”
“And you got a million bucks for it,” Cyrus says, “Too bad you didn’t find out until you were in the military.”
“I never got that money.”
“Seriously?” Cyrus looks like I just handed him a Christmas present. “Angus really was a tightwad. I kinda thought that’s where you got all this.” He points to my watch and my shoes, evidence that I’d come into money somehow.
If he only knew, he probably wouldn’t be laughing now.
Jack’s voice comes over the comm again. “Sterling, everything’s in position.”
I drop my voice so much he has to strain to hear me. “Your whole world is about to come crashing down. If you ever come near me, my friends, my family again, if you so much as think of doing something, you’re a dead man. The Bratva don’t take kindly to people spying on them.”
Cyrus’s confident mask slips. His Adam's apple bob once, twice, and finally, when he gathers enough saliva, he replies, “Leave town now. Or I share everything with the FBI.”
I allow myself a smile. “But, Cyrus, you don’t have anything to share with the FBI.”
The pleasure of watching him figure this out is almost orgasmic. His eyes flit back