Page 16 of Twisted Trust

Why run if she has nothing to hide?

She must know I want to kill her. She must know her time is up.

Five years.

Five years I’ve spent rebuilding my life because of her treachery.

Five years of mending my reputation and suffering all manner of insults and distrust from my peers.

Five years earning back the crystal XXX badge, and no sooner did my father pin it to my lapel than the reason I lost it in the first place slams back into my life.

Is this my curse?

Did I do something awful and this is my punishment?

“Levi?” Chip stands next to me in the elevator as we ride it up to my penthouse suite. “What are we going to do about Maeve?”

That’s the only question in my mind.What do we do about Maeve?

“The man who attacked her… do you think it was a Red Serpent?”

“The Serpents don’t come out this far,” I murmur as I delete the messages from my phone. “But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn she screwed over some other guy and that was the result.”

“Mmhmm.” Chip hums softly. “But do you think—” He cuts himself off because as soon as the elevator doors open, the long corridor that stretches all the way down to the open-plan lounge shows the hunched-over figure of my father at the very end, standing out on the balcony.

“I didn’t know he was coming,” I say softly, stepping out of the elevator.

Chip glances at me with ame neitherlook, then makes himself scarce as I walk down the hall toward my father.

I loosen my tie and unbutton a few buttons on my shirt, then shrug off my jacket and place it over the back of a chair as I pass.

My father’s here for one reason and one reason only.

Antony.

It’s only ever about Antony.

“Father.” Bowing my head briefly in respect, I step up to my father on the balcony that overlooks the entire Vegas strip.

From this high up, I see miles more than I did from the hospital and it would be beautiful if not for how filthy the city is.

And I should know. I’m one of the people who dirtied those pretty lights.

“Levi.” My father, Elio, lifts his arm and offers me the packet of cigarettes dangling from his fingers.

I take them on reflex but just as I go to take one out, something makes me stop.

The face of that child, Maeve’s son, flashes in my mind and I hesitate. Placing the packet on the bamboo wicker table behind us, I settle against the balcony’s railing.

“You didn’t attend the meeting with Antony.” Elio breathes deeply and tilts his head skyward as he breathes out. “Why?”

“I was in an accident. A kid ran out into the road and we swerved to avoid him.”

I bury the real truth in a half-truth because the thought of mentioning Maeve to my father fills me with cold dread.

Her betrayal hurt too many people to count and if he catches wind of her, he’ll kill her before I get the chance to.

And I want to kill her slowly.