Page 90 of Power

Pure, controlled fury crossed Jace’s face, though not at me. His shoulders straightened, and I glimpsed why people followed him.

“Have you ever had to consider reporting said incident and having to weigh all the consequences of what might happen if you did? Don’t believe me? Why don’t you look up the last three people who raised their brave hands to alert the company that they had a predator in the mix? And find out where those three women are now and where the three men are.”

Jace took a step toward me, his movement purposeful but gentle. “Scarlett?—”

“Extra credit if you look deeper at those three men and see if any other complaints had ever been filed against them—because my bet is, the answer is yes. And my bet is, those three women had their careers destroyed when they raised their hands to try to do the right thing.”

I could see each of my words hitting him like punches, even as he maintained his composure.

“Thisis why power turns me off, Jace.”

As I turned on my heel to leave, Jace’s impassioned words hit me from behind, halting my retreat.

“You’re right. The world is messed up and unfair. But you’re blaming me for things outside my control!” he snapped. “Admittedly, I’ve lived a privileged life, but that privilege didn’t leave me unscathed. Money couldn’t save my mom from cancer or protect my dad from being murdered. And money is why I’ve shielded myself from relationships. I learned the hard way that it makes people pretend to care. So, yes, money and power have provided me many things, Scarlett, but those things also came at a cost. And no amount of money and power could guard me against the world’s brutality or give me my parents back.”

My heart softened, and I turned back to face him. “I can have compassion for what you’ve faced, Jace, but life’s odds are still stacked in your favor. The obstacles between us are just too high.”

He stepped closer. I stepped back.

“So, that’s it?” he challenged.

“I guess so.”

“Tell me you don’t have feelings for me,” he demanded, his voice dropping to that dangerous, velvet tone that had undone me before. “Tell me you don’t want this.”

I opened my mouth to lie, to protect myself. But the words failed me. My heart thumped traitorously against my ribs.

His eyes caught my hesitation, and something triumphant flashedacross his face.

“You don’t get it, do you?” I whispered, a new coldness settling in my chest. “It doesn’t matter what I feel. It never has.”

“Of course it matters?—”

“No,” I cut him off with finality. “As long as you’re holding all the cards in the relationship, I can’t see us ever working out.”

With a deep breath, I walked up to him, kissed him on the cheek, and with fresh tears in my eyes, turned and walked away.

46

JACE

“What’s with the long face?” Axel questioned. “Did your stock portfolio drop a whole percent today?”

My mind wasn’t here, in this room of the mansion, with my fellow Sinners and Saints brothers. I’d known it the second I pulled up to the gates, the gargoyles looking down at me like I was someone new. The brick, the luxury of it all, ignited guilt within me. Here we were, using a goddamned mansion as a club of sorts, while other people like Scarlett were probably out there right now, struggling financially.

“Hello,” Axel repeated, snapping his fingers in front of my face. “Earth to Jace. Are you going to play or sit there, looking like someone keyed your favorite car?”

I glared at him. He sat with his usual confident demeanor next to my other chosen brothers, Blake and Ryker.

“I just …” I paused, looking at my cards without really seeing them.

“He’s calculating how many companies he can buy before lunch tomorrow,” Ryker joked, tossing chips into the center. “I’ll raise fifty.”

“I see your fifty,” Blake said, tossing his chips into the center.

Blake didn’t grow up with privilege. He’d grown up in thefoster care system, and Ryker grew up middle class. Axel’s family were business owners who had oscillated between poverty and upper middle class. These guys weren’t handed privileges like I’d been.

“Let me ask you something,” I said, absently folding my cards down in front of me.