between us, and I couldn’t understand the look on his face at all. Not until a second later when he drew his gun and told Cash to either release me, or he was going to take a bullet.
Cash laughed, the sound low, but deep in his throat. “Am I forcin’ myself on you, darlin’?”
Harrison. Harrison. Harrison.
I was doing this for my brother! Wasn’t I? Even though I hated to hurt Scott, because he’d never done anything to me personally, a part of me—a deep, seedy part of me—actually admired the way Cash was handling this revenge plan. It was clever.
Just like the old saying went, “feed a man and he eats for a day, but teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” Well, Cash’s deal seemed to go something like this, “Kill a man and it’s over, but wound him in a place that doesn’t have the capacity to heal, and he suffers for the rest of his life.”
I was the one who ultimately had to do the hurting, though, and it killed me to have to do it. Scott was a decent guy, apart from his attitude toward organized crime individuals.
Cash squeezed my waist a little, and I sucked in a breath before I silently released it. “No,” I said, my voice firm. “He’s not.” I took another deep breath. “I was hoping you would’ve come earlier. I needed to talk to you about this.” I slid my hand over Cash’s, and Scott’s eyes narrowed. Then he lowered the gun and holstered it. “I’m sorry, Scott. I really am. You’ll never know how much. But I can’t do this—us. I met Cash and— ”
I’d been waiting for Scott to interrupt me, to call me out on the bullshit, but he didn’t. He believed me. He actually believed me. This farce, as Cash had called it. Maybe Cash was right. Scott couldn’t tell the difference between the actress and the real me.
“And you fell in love with the bastard!” Scott roared and I flinched a little in Cash’s embrace. Scott didn’t notice it—his eyes never left Cash’s—but it was enough that Cash felt it. He held me a little tighter.
“I—” I was about to say what? But then maybe he’d suspect something was up. But how could he not see that I was acting? That the only thing I felt for this man holding me was a mixture of disdain and curiosity?
Okay, and lust. I couldn’t be blamed, though. The man was frigging good-looking with a healthy dose of virility. I gave myself a pass on the attraction, because my heart worked and the blood in my veins ran hot.
“Fuck, Keely!” Scott shouted, finally looking at me. “Do you have any idea who’s touching you right now? Who he is?”
“The marauder.”
The air seemed to still, and the only thing that seemed to move was the frantic heaving motion of Scott’s chest. “So you know. You know what kind of animal has his hands on you.” When Scott looked down at Cash’s hand, he noticed mine, the light from the house making the emerald glimmer in the night.
I dug in my back pocket, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible, and pulled out the ring Scott had given me. I stepped out of Cash’s hold, then took a step forward, hoping Scott could see the remorse in my eyes. It hurt me to end it this way.
This was only the beginning, though—for the three of us. Cash had sounded the battle cry, and Scott answered it.
“Here.” I took his hand and slipped the ring inside, trying to steady my own hand. It trembled. “You deserve to be happy,” I whispered. “Another woman, someone different, deserves to wear that ring.”
Scott ripped his hand from mine like I was a leper, a disgusted look on his face, before he made a fist with the hand holding the ring. “You fell in love with a savage. A fucking animal that kills for money. You fell in love with my worst enemy. And he played you like the devil plays the weak. I never took you for weak, but I guess I was wrong. About a lot of things.”
He looked at Cash. “We’re not done, Kelly. You stole my heart—now I’m going to steal your soul—Hell’s Kitchen. It never belonged to your father. It’ll never belong to you, as long as I’m alive to stop it.”
Any reasonable man would’ve taken one look at Scott’s face and cancelled the