Page 71 of Undertow

I glance at Merrick, but he won’t look at me. Sensing movement behind me, I peek back and stiffen at the three additional suits closing in. Where did they come from? Why did McArthur keep them hidden until now?

My pulse pounds as I focus back on my boss and work to keep my hands steady and expression neutral.

Breathe, Shaw.

“Timely, sir?” I ask.

His smile spreads into a grin as he pulls out a small black box.

I stare at it, my heart racing. This can’t be happening. I feel the vigilant attention of everyone in the room.

“You’ve done well for us,” he says. “Proven yourself and demonstrated your ability to get things done. After those few hiccups in the beginning, we’ve come to accept you asfamily.”

No you didn’t, you bastard. That’s why you’re doing this.

“Will you quit torturing the poor boy and give him the good news?” Jacquelyn says, but her sinister smile tells me she knows there’s nothinggoodabout this for me.

“September second,” McArthur says with a glare for his wife before focusing back on me. I shudder at the piercing look in his eyes. He pinches the ring box and holds it out to me. “You will ask her tonight and give her this.”

Oh god.

September 2nd is less than three weeks from now!

“We will hold the ceremony here.”

“Sir, I?—”

“You will invite Gerardo and Madelyn Dylan for the joyous occasion.”

The heads of the Red Leaf Cartel? Merrick was telling the truth.

McArthur’s gaze slices into me, filling every pore with thick sludge. Drowning me.Suffocating. God, I can’t breathe.

“You will make my daughter happy beyond her wildest dreams, Shaw. Protect her. Serve her. You will worship her. Do you understand?”

I swallow hard, the scratch in my throat my only reaction to the horror of what’s happening.

“Do you understand?” McArthur repeats in a heavy, dark tone.

My heart pumps frozen blood from limb to limb as I force my gaze to his.

“No one is above The Family. You will do this. You will do everything you’re told to do.”

Every fucking thing.

“Yes, sir. I understand.”

THEN: SYNCHRONICITY OF SENSES

I should have known. I haven’t survived this long by being naïve, but there’s no other excuse for the fact that I didn’t see this coming.

Scarlett’s grin when she emerges from a private bathroom in the suite tells me this entire scenario is no accident. The plan for this assignment was just a thinly veiled ploy to force us together. If she thinks it will rattle me and give her the upper hand in this wolf-and-fox game, she’s in for a vicious wakeup call. I’m a professional, and have managed situations far more complex than this one.

“Scarlett has generously agreed to pose as your wife,” Merrick says from the open entry into the bedroom.

I search his hard expression for more, but there’s nothing readable. If he shares my suspicions about the subtext of what’s happening here, he doesn’t show it.

“Great,” I say evenly without looking at my new “partner.” “What’s the budget?”