Page 31 of Dangerous Men

Alec taps his finger absently on the glass in his hand, nodding.

“Do you want to tell me about him?” he asks.

“I don’t think I ever want to talk about him again for the rest of my life,” I answer, and I’m rewarded with a chuckle. “But… we dated. For a little over three years.”

“He called himself your fiancé,” Alec presses. I don’t miss the dark undercurrent in his voice. Like the idea that I could have been engaged is personally offensive to him.

I let out a long breath. “Well, that’s news to me. He never officially asked me to marry him... I think he was going to, eventually. That’s kind of what it was like with him towards the end. I was planning the rest of my life, building a business and a career, but to him it was just… an eventuality. Never something he had to put any effort into.”

Alec is watching me closely, and even though I know I should stop, I can’t. The words just spill out of me.

“I think I was holding on to how we felt for each other in the beginning. When things were nice and fun. And then, after we broke up, I realized I never stopped to question if he was actually any good for me. If I evenlikedbeing with him.”

“Why did you break up?” Alec asks in a gentle voice.

The memory sends a wave of nausea through me.

“He cheated on me,” I mutter. The words hang in the air, an embarrassment, and just for something to do, I swallow the rest of my champagne, twirling the empty glass by its stem in my fingers. “Had been cheating on me for a while, but… I finally found out, I guess. You sort of met her, the blonde he was with. Anyway, I found out, and that was that.”

It wasn’t, though. And knowing that makes the nausea in my stomach grow.

Because I didn’t really end it, not then. I tried to make it work, even after what he’d done to me. I tried so damn hard.

It took two months after I found them together for it to finally sink in that this life I thought I’d been building with him—this future I thought we had—was just a lie. One stupid lie I’d deluded myself into believing.

He never stopped seeing her, either. He just stopped trying to hide it.

I’m pulled away from my thoughts when Alec takes my hand in his.

“It’s not your fault,” he says softly. “What he did to you? That’s not your fault.”

I swallow hard and can’t meet his eyes.

“Believing him wasn’t your fault,” he insists. “Do you understand that, Sydney?”

I wish I could. But that’s the problem, isn’t it? Even after all this time, I don’t believe it. Logically, I know I shouldn’t be embarrassed that he fooled me. But emotionally?

“Hey, what did I miss?” Ash asks, coming through the crowd. He sets my empty glass on the table so he can take my hand, frowning. “Everything okay?”

“What’s his last name?” Alec asks, ignoring Ash entirely. His thumb is stroking the back of my hand in a smooth, calming gesture that’s leaving me a little breathless.

“Uh… Levine.” I answer. “Chase Levine.”

“Ashton, tomorrow morning I want you to find out where Chase Levine works,” Alec says, voice low. “And buy the company.”

“You… what?” I ask, stupefied.

“Sure thing,” Ash answers, like it’s a completely normal request. “Anything else?”

“Yes. I want you to fire him.”

“Wait, that’s not… that’s really not necessary.” I laugh, looking between the two of them, not sure if they’re joking or not.

They are joking, aren’t they?

“Oh, I think it’s very necessary,” Alec says. “I don’t want anyone who is stupid enough to do that to you working at one of my companies.”

“But you… you don’t even own his company,” I protest weakly.