Page 120 of A Lethal Game of Trust

She frowned and accepted my grip, shuffling down her skirt with her other hand. “That was months ago. Are you actually that scared of them?”

“Of course,” I said. “It’s the combination of drowning and getting eaten alive for me.”

“So sharks and frogs,” she mused as we walked towards the towering steps. “Interesting.”

“Where else are we going on holiday?”

“South Africa,” she said with confidence. “I’ve never been.”

“Sorted. Why haven’t you spent your inheritance?”

She stopped and glanced up at me, alarmed and stuttered. “You—you can’t ask that.”

“I have.”

“I just haven’t spent it,” she said. “When I went to rehab, I told your dad I didn’t want him to let me access it until I was… better.”

I brushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “You arebetter.”

“Yeah,” she said and looked down at her heeled feet. “But I… I’m fine without it.”

That would have to do for now. She wasn’t completely open with me yet, but she would be eventually.

“Next question,” I said as we started to ascend the steps. “How do you feel about joining the Belov family’s way of life again?”

She bit her lip in thought before I started rolling a finger for her to hurry. “I don’t… I’m ready. I don’t regret leaving, but… the lecturing isn’t working out how I’d hoped. I miss the adventure. I miss the power. Sometimes, I think about my dad and…” She looked down at her footsteps. “Would he be proud of me for leaving everything he’d worked so hard for? The family line?”

“He would always be proud of you.”

She sighed and looked up. “That answers your earlier question. It’s why I haven’t taken the inheritance. I don’t deserve it if I’m not living up to his legacy.”

I interlocked our fingers. “You don’t think you deserve it after what you went through? Leo, business aside, you deserve not to have to worry. Your dad gave you that money. He wanted you to have it, to be looked after.”

“Because he knew it was coming?” she countered, her grip on my arm tightening. “Because that’s what this life is? Always a risk?”

“All life is a risk,” I offered.

She nodded and vowed, “I won’t lose you like I lost him. I won’t.”

46

Every Time, Over Everyone

Leonie

Ivan and Vera met at an art museum in Paris thirty-four years ago. Darley wasn’t quite as renowned for artistic talent or anything other than sunshine and money, but the couple always had their wedding anniversary at the Darley Art Museum in a nod to the beginning of their relationship.

It was an old Georgian building made of sandstone and thick columns around the square at the top of the towering steps. The building itself was a work of art.

Every year, the Belovs and their closest friends would come an hour early to toast the year and catch up before the rest of the guests arrived.

Each step we climbed felt closer to battle.

Even with Dom’s hand gripping mine and his question game.

My phone dinged in my bag and I scrambled to get it, my clutch falling to the floor. Dom released me to bend and pick it up as I read the text.

ISSY: Going to be late. Not tooooo late, but late.