Page 28 of Corrupted Pleasure

“Youhad intent,” I spat. “I just wanted my stuff and then to get the hell out of there!”

“Davina’s right,” Juliette muttered, looking slightly defeated.

“I shouldn’t have let y’all go.” A string of curses left Wynter’s lips. “I shouldn’t have driven you. Made us all stay back at the dorms. We should have called Uncle Liam and asked him to send someone there.”

The mention of her uncle shot adrenaline through my veins.Bad timing, I warned my body.

Wynter’s blonde curls framed her face. She straightened up, soot smeared on her cheek and her pupils dilated from adrenaline that still pumped through her veins.

“Maybe we ask Uncle to help us now,” Wynter suggested, pushing both hands through her blonde curls. Her hands trembled badly. Not that my hands were steady. “We’re out of our element here.”

“No!” Juliette screeched, her eyes bulging out of their sockets.

“No,” I agreed. We couldn’t involve her hot, mafia uncle. Especially considering what happened the last time I saw him. “You have all done enough. I should go to the police and just tell them I did it. I was mad and lost my temper.”

The three sets of eyes turned to me. “Fuck no,” all three exclaimed at the same time.

“Besides, that fucker said he has all four of us on tape,” Wynter reasoned. “No sense in admitting anything with such evidence.”

“That weaselly little fucker,” Juliette snapped. “We should just kill him.”

“Yeah, let’s add murder to the destruction of property and arson charges,” Wynter added dryly.

“But the tape will show that it happened by accident,” Ivy tried to reason.

I swallowed. I didn’t think it would show it was an accident. The events leading to it showed Juliette preparing to torch the fucking place down and us seemingly along for the ride.

“Juliette, we should get out of town,” Wynter finally announced, a determination on her face. “Let’s go to Uncle’s beach house in the Hamptons.”

“You want to go on vacationnow?” Ivy questioned, disbelief in her hazel eyes. I didn’t blame her. I didn’t think it was the right time to go to the beach.

“You might be onto something,” Juliette agreed with her cousin. They shared a glance, a nod, and Juliette explained, “We might be able to find something of value and pay off this prick. Or at the minimum, lay low until we figure out how to get out of this mess.”

I took a deep breath. That was all well and good, but somehow, I didn’t think it would be the end. Garrett would hold it forever over our heads. And besides, was stealing from the head of the Irish mafia any smarter? He’d kill us. Well, definitely me. Ivy, Wynter, and Juliette were somewhat immune.

“And what about when he doesn’t stop at just five hundred thousand?” I questioned. “At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he blackmails us for the rest of our lives.”

“Then we kill him,” Juliette, very much the mobster’s daughter, concluded.

“Let’s not become killers quite yet,” Wynter reasoned, rolling her eyes. She started her Jeep and pulled out of the parking lot.

“God, I need a drink,” Juliette muttered from the back seat.

“Me too,” Ivy agreed.

The two started discussing the need for alcohol to forget what had happened today, while Wynter and I sat in the front in silence as she drove. Guilt ate at me. Wynter was right, we shouldn’t have gone to Garrett’s house. I shouldn’t have voiced my anger. There were so many fucking things I shouldn’t have done, starting with giving Garrett another chance.

Speeding down the streets of New York, Wynter kept her lips pressed tightly together. It was her way to think through things. I knew she had the most to lose if this got out. She would lose her opportunity to make it to the Winter Olympics.

We came to a red light at a four way crosswalk, and I laid my hand over her white knuckles gripping the steering wheel.

“I’m sorry, Wyn,” I murmured.

Her big eyes turned my way, the wild curls bouncing around her face and she shook her head resigned and tired. Unlike the rest of us, she got up at four in the morning to start her day.

“It’s as much my fault as it is yours.” She offered a feeble smile, her eyes meeting mine. “Everything happened so fast.”

A car behind us sat on the horn and the four of us jumped in our seats. Juliette and Ivy turned in their seats to glare at the car behind us and yell curses at them, like true New Yorkers. Wynter drifted through the crossroad, and I noticed her eyes widened at the car passing us, going the opposite direction.