| 3.1 | dangling the bait

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❝I'm not loving you, the way I wanted to
See I wanna move, but can't escape from you
So I keep it low, keep a secret code
So everybody else don't have to know❞

Chapter Three: 
Dangling the Bait

Sirens wailed in the distance as my hand dropped to my side, limp. I stared down at the phone I was holding, at the name on the screen. Deborah, the name belonging to my former boss. Bitter tears blurred my vision as I redirected my gaze to the haze of colors in front of me from the headlights of the cars passing by. Was this really happening?

The sound of footsteps acted as a warning that I was no longer alone. Whirling around, I glared at the man before me, no longer wanting anything to do with him.

"Have you come to gloat?" As much of a mess as I felt, I had enough strength to deliver that line with the venom it needed. It didn't seem to have any effect on him though, as he simply crossed his arms over his broad chest and smiled down at me like this was the best entertainment he'd had all night.

"I see no reason for you to get emotional about this."

"I just lost my job, asshole." I snarled, and looked away from the smug bastard's face. His being here wasn't helping at all...how did he even know? If I had lost it because of him, I needed to know why. I needed to know where I had gone wrong. "How the hell did you plan all this?"

"It was all thanks to you, Tris."

My head whipped up at his words. He was smiling down at me, his mouth pulled back into an amused grin.

"You offered yourself up on a silver platter the moment you rang up my friend's escort service."

His friend. That was the voice in the background. He had picked up the call for fun, as a joke. But that still didn't explain...

"And you're clearly no Rae Williams."

My brows furrowed at his words. "How would you know?"

"Because I've fucked Rae Williams."

His words hung in the air. I didn't know what to do with them apart from gape at the way he smirked down at me.

"I was curious, you see. Why would Rae Williams fly in from Seattle when all she needed was to hail a cab to get here?"

My eyes widened as I begun to piece everything together.

"And it was quite easy to find out who you are, Ms. Henderson. You're not a mere face in the crowd as you'd hoped to be. Not even here in Washington."

He had known. He had known from the start. And he had led me on.

I took a shaky breath and turned my head away. How could I have not seen this? All those subtle hints he'd been dropping from the moment he'd picked up my call, the fact that he drew attention to himself the moment we walked in. The only reason I'd been let in without an invite was because I was with him: the very heir of the company.

"So you decided to single handedly sabotage my whole career?" He clearly hadn't seen that coming. I turned back to face him, fury seeping onto my face. "You thought you could go on a little adventure tonight to meet your old fuck-buddy. Did it not occur to you that you were destroying my future? A job I've been busting my ass off for years to get?"

His smile vanished. A scowl grew in its place.

"Did you really think I was going to let some pathetic excuse of a corporate spy weasel her way into my dad's company affairs?"

I laughed. It came out broken, and maybe I sounded more like an old lady dying of a horrible wheeze but really, I laughed in his face and took pride in doing so.

"Your dad's company?" I threw him a sarcastic smile. "Judging by the way people treated you in there, I doubt your existence means anything to Innovus."

His expression darkened immediately. It told me I had touched the right spot. This was a sensitive issue for him and after the hell he'd pushed me into cause of his little game, I saw no harm in returning the favor. After all, I had nothing left to lose.

"What did Mr. Brady call me? What was it again? That's right. Another notch on your bedpost." I hummed under my breath, and took a step closer. "I've got you all figured out. You might be the invisible heir to a big-shot company but all you are to them," I cocked my head in the direction of the hotel behind us, and took one more step till I was inches from his face, staring right up into his infuriated eyes. "All you are to them is a spoiled, little brat. Another big kid who's trying to get to daddy's riches and fame. If anyone's a weasel here, it's you, Mr. Castellan."

The mocking ghost of a smile lingered on my lips. Our eyes were locked together and I made sure not to drop my gaze as I whispered my last words, dripping poison.

"You. Are. Worthless."

It was by far the most cruel thing I'd ever said in my entire life, but upon doing so, I did not feel an ounce of regret or shame. He had earned it. I thought I saw a flicker of pain in his eyes. I knew I saw rage. But I didn't give a fuck. I was done here.

I turned on my heel and started down the sidewalk. The tears I had been containing for so long started to sprout up again, clouding my line of vision but not quite enough for me to be oblivious to the fact that people were staring at me. I didn't blame them. They were looking at the mess I had become. I had walked into that grand hotel a proud, beautiful, accomplished woman. But I left with a stained dress, broken future and shaking hands. I left, bleeding.

Ruined.

Deborah hadn't hesitated to let me go. She said it was risky territory. That there would be rumors and Innovus would come at us if they found out what I'd been up to; that she couldn't risk our company facing the music for my failure. That she would concoct up some honorable story about me going out of my way to do this for our company without having even been authorized to do so. She said I'd be remembered a 'martyr', those being her parting words of comfort...right before she told me I was fired.

"Fuck you, Deborah," I murmured under my breath. I stopped walking, wiping away the tears in my eyes with the edge of my wrist. I needed to get a grip of myself and think through this logically. If there's anything the years of hard work had taught me, it was that there was always a solution if I looked hard enough. I wasn't known as one of the best closers for nothing.

A plan was already forming in my head. I could take the next flight back to Seattle, meet up with Deborah and tell her in person exactly what had happened. She might give way to reason if she knew the entire story. If not, my next option would either be to sue her for dismissing me on unfair grounds or letting out the truth to HR and the Board that it was really Deborah's fault that I had landed us in this position. Either way, Deborah wouldn't have a happy ending. Just maybe, things would have worked themselves out if the very next second, the universe hadn't delivered him to me again.

The sound of a car door banging shut, followed by hurried footsteps behind me, snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned around, just in time to see him pacing forward in my direction. Fast.

I wanted to tell him to get lost. To go fuck himself. But I couldn't because the next thing I knew, I was being forcibly dragged back to his ride, and practically thrown into the back seat of his limo without so much as a word. He shut the door behind him and turned to face me, the scowl still on his face.

I crawled back against the cool leather of the seat, as far away from him as I could but he didn't let me. He didn't let me escape.

Maybe, just maybe, my life would have fallen back into place if the very next second, he hadn't kissed me.

_____

Song: Love Lockdown by Glass Animals (cover)

Dedicated to Clarksern. Your comments crack me up so much and keep me motivated to post more. Thank you for reading this story, lovely! <3 

The next chapter will be restricted. Please make sure you're following me and have the book in your library in order to read it. I split this chapter into two parts as it's super long, so the next update will be on Thursday, this week! Keep an eye out for it. Things are going to get  real spicy. ;)


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