Page 74 of The Final Gambit

“I went back.” He let those words linger. “To the place where Emily died—I went back.”

Emily’s heart had given out after cliff jumping. “Jameson…”

“I jumped from dangerously high up, the way she did. Nothing happened the first time. Or the second. But the third…”

I could picture the scar in my mind, running the full length of Jameson’s torso. How many times had I dragged my fingers along its edges, feeling the smooth skin of his stomach on either side?

“There was a fallen tree, submerged in the water. I could only see one branch. I had no idea what was underneath. I thought I’d cleared the whole thing, but I was wrong.”

I pictured Jameson barreling down from the top of a cliff, hitting the water. I pictured a jagged branch catching his flesh, barely slowing him down.

“I didn’t feel pain, not at first. I saw blood in the water—andthenI felt it. Like my skin was on fire. I made my way to the shore, my body screaming. Somehow, I managed to pull myself to my feet. The old man was standing there. He didn’t bat an eye at the blood, didn’t ask me if I was okay, didn’t yell. All he said, looking my bleeding body up and down, wasGot that out of your system, did you?”

I leaned against the wall of my gemstone cage. “Why are you telling me this now?”

I could hear the sound of his footstep on the end of the line. “Because Gray is going to keep jumping until it hurts. He’s always been the solid one, Heiress. The one who never trembles, never backs down, never doubts. And now, he’s lost his mooring, and I have to be the strong one.”

“Take me with you,” I told Jameson.

“Just this once,” he said, an aching tone in his voice, “letmebe the one who protects you, Avery.”

He’d used my actual name. “I don’t need you to protect me. You can’t just leave me here, Jameson!”

“Can’t. Shouldn’t. Have to. This is my family’s mess, Heiress.” For once, there was nothing wicked in Jameson’s tone, no innuendo. “It’s up to us to clean it up.”

“And what about Eve?” I asked. “You know what your grandfather said.Don’t trust anyone.Grayson isn’t thinking straight, but you—”

“I’m thinking more clearly than I ever have. I don’t trust Eve.” His voice was low and aching. “The only person I trust with all that I am and all that could be, Heiress, is you.”

And just like that, Jameson Winchester Hawthorne hung up the phone.

CHAPTER 58

Iwas going to throttle Jameson. The two of us were races and wagers and dares, not this.

I tried calling Oren, but it went to voicemail. Libby didn’t pick up, either, which probably meant her phone wasn’t charged. I tried Xander, then Rebecca. I was halfway to calling Thea before I remembered her phone had been destroyed. Trying to calm myself, I took out my knife, plotted murder, then gave away ten thousand dollars to strangers struggling to pay rent.

Finally, I texted Max.Jameson locked me in the world’s most expensive dungeon,I wrote.He’s got some asinine idea about protecting me.

Max’s reply didn’t take long.THAT GREEN-EYED BASTARD.

I grinned despite myself and typed back:You cursed.

Max replied in rapid-fire:Would you prefer “smirking, paternalistic ship-head who can shove his mother-faxing paternalism up his mother-faxing asp”?

I snorted, then finally calmed down enough to take in the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the gemstone room.Two walls made of obsidian, I thought.Two walls made of white agate.Probing the walls didn’t lead me to an exit switch but did reveal that the gemstones had been formed into bricks, and if you pressed at the top or bottom of any of those bricks, they rotated. Rotating a black brick turned it white. Rotating a white brick turned it black.

I thought about all the times I’d seen Xander fiddling with a handheld puzzle, then craned my neck, taking in every detail of the walls, the ceiling, the floor. Jameson hadn’t locked me in a dungeon.

He’d locked me in anescape room.

Three hours in, I still hadn’t hit on the right pattern, and with each passing minute, I wondered if Jameson and Grayson had caught up to Eve. Warnings of all kinds swirled in my mind.

Don’t trust anyone.

Anyone close to you could be the next target.

I tire of waiting.