I saw the gun barrel and then red, just a whole ton of red. The next instant I was standing over Griogos’s body, his gun in my hand and his barrel six inches from his forehead.

  He lay completely still, his usually dark tan an uncharacteristic pallor, and an odd smell that told me he’d pissed his pants was filling the room. That all flashed in my mind, but I simply did. Not. Care.

  “You point a gun at me?” I growled, bending down, pressing the end of the muzzle against his skin.

  “Kashton!” he choked out, throwing his hand up as if to ward off a bullet. “Please. Don’t. I have family.”

  “I’m aware.” I pushed it harder against him, hoping I broke skin. My nostrils flared. I wanted to smell his blood in the air instead, but he just stayed there, frozen, pissing himself. “I came over here as a courtesy visit. I could’ve sent men to do my bidding, but I brought your granddaughter with me. I wanted her to hear how fucked you are.” I ground the gun barrel into his forehead again, and this time a trickle of blood seeped out.

  Satisfaction.

  “Now, tell her.”

  I was jumping the gun here. Pun not intended.

  I didn’t care. I got word twelve hours ago how heavily in debt Griogos was to my grandfather.

  “Does your granddaughter know she has another aunt?”

  Victoria gasped. “What?”

  “You used his companies to traffic women for my grandfather.” Not asking. Telling.

  Griogos started weeping. “Please. Please! Don’t—”

  “You’ve been doing it since Victoria was a baby, and the only time you tried to stop was when her father begged you to find another transport company.”

  “He’s going to kill my oikogéneia. Please. I am begging you.” A hiccup. More sobbing.

  His family. He really thought I believed he cared about his family. He hadn’t once looked at his granddaughter.

  “So you went to my grandfather and you said the same words to him. ‘Please. I am begging you.’”

  He flinched, his head moving under my gun barrel as he was giving up. He was folding.

  “He blackmailed you with a video of you with an underage prostitute that you had trafficked over to the States for him.” Now I asked, because he had to say the words. Victoria had to hear him admit his guilt. “Didn’t you?”

  He had moved to lie on his side, his knees pulled to his chest. He was in a fetal position.

  His head was down. His eyes closed. He almost had a blissful look on his face.

  I straightened, still holding his own gun but pointing at him from a distance. “Tell your granddaughter the truth.”

  He opened his eyes.

  He whispered, “You don’t get it. Your men are good, but they’re not that good, because my granddaughter already knows.” Now he looked at her, a deep apology flashing over his face, mixed with sorrow and regret. And shame. So much shame that it lined his every word.

  I turned.

  Time slowed.

  I felt a shift.

  Something was coming.

  A curveball.

  I didn’t want to see when I looked, but I couldn’t stop from looking.

  There. On her face. Guilt.

  Victoria knew.

  Griogos kept talking. “She didn’t know all of it, but she knew enough. Enough where it wasn’t only her aunt that I was prostituting.”

  I looked back to him.

  God. Victoria.

  I had touched her.

  I took her to bed.

  I asked her, “Me?”

  Was she a set-up?

  Pain flared in her eyes, but she dipped her head down. A small nod.

  His eyes moved to mine, a clearness in the middle of them. “Your grandfather came to us two years ago, said you would be coming for him soon. He was a step ahead. He’s always a step ahead.”

  “Don’t, o pappoús mou,” Victoria whispered, her own tone broken.

  Jesus.

  My insides turned wooden, and I maneuvered so I was facing both of them, with the gun still on Griogos. She was on her knees, shaking her head, pleading with him. Not me. She had one hand outstretched to him, and she implored him again. “Don’t, o pappoús mou. Please don’t.”

  “I have to. He has to know. He’s right. His grandfather cannot win, not any longer.” He sat up, ignoring the gun, and reached for her.

  She went to him and he folded her in his arms. Her head was cradled to his shoulder and he smoothed her hair back as if she were an infant. He rocked her back and forth, crooning into her ear, “It’s for the best, and then you will be free. He will not let Calhoun hurt you.”

  “No! No!” Her hands fisted into his suit jacket and she tried to shake him. Her head was violently shaking side to side. “No!”

  He cupped her face, stopping her movements, and his thumbs rubbed back and forth over her cheeks. He was trying to soothe her again, but Victoria kept screaming and shaking and rocking, and nothing was working on her.

  She had snapped.

  “No!” She turned on me, a feral look in her eyes. “You don’t hurt him. Got it?! You don’t hurt my grandfather!” With that, she launched herself at me.

  I grunted.

  Her body hit mine, but I swept her to the side.

  Balled fists started hitting me. “No! Don’t hurt him! No!”

  One of my guards came forward, and plucked her away from me. His arm went around her waist, her back to his front. Her fists were still swinging. She was kicking out. Her entire body was twisting, trying to break free.

  Her screams were hysterical and hoarse at the same time. “I’ll hurt you, Kash! I’ll hurt her. Don’t touch my grandfather. Don’t—”

  I should’ve expected this, bringing her with me, but I couldn’t have.

  They tried to use her to set me up. I should’ve seen that. I hadn’t.

  That was my mistake.

  Griogos looked up at her, a different pleading look in his eyes, and I motioned for one of the guards.

  I snapped, “Take her out of here! Now!”

  They took her. One wrapped his arm around her neck. She was still trying to break free. He applied pressure on her neck, just enough so she would lose consciousness.

  When she fell silent, he caught her body, lifting her up.

  “Take her back. Put her on a commercial flight to Chicago. Get her out of my sight.”

  I turned to Griogos.

  I was going to kill this man. I hadn’t decided before. I had hoped to use him, maybe turn him for my own purposes, but not anymore.

  “Finish. Everything.”

  I had lost all patience.

  He nodded, his head hanging down. “As you know, Calhoun’s been watching you all your life. He knew the kind of man you were becoming. That you were rallying to fight him. He has underestimated you in some ways, but in others, he was far ahead of you. My daughter was supposed to befriend Quinn Francis. My granddaughter was supposed to befriend you. She was to do more than that. She was supposed to seduce you. In an ideal world, Calhoun wanted her to marry you, to have you fall in love with her, and she was supposed to use her influence over you to bring you back into your grandfather’s control. If nothing else, she was supposed to find dirt on you so he could blackmail you. But nothing worked.”

  “We did date.”

  “You shared nothing with her. You had sex with her. That was it. Calhoun wanted video of it, but she wouldn’t do it. She refused and we suffered because of it.”

  He nodded again, just two bounces. His voice was clear. Resigned. “I have a USB drive in a safety deposit box. I’ll get you access to the box.”

  A darkness was forming in the depths of Griogos. It hadn’t been there before.

  Anger. Fury.

  Griogos was starting to rally against Calhoun, now that he had been defeated, now that he knew there was no going back.

  His next statement proved my guess was right. “You take that USB drive. You take what I have on it, and you use that to destroy your grandfather. You do it, or he will murder all of my family. He already took one of my daughters. He targets the women. I have sons. He hasn’t touched my sons. You must kill Bastian, Kashton. You must. It’s the only way to be rid of him. The only way.”

  He was done. I could see the final look in his gaze.

  There was no more, so I had a guard bring his phone over. “Call your banker.”

  He did.

  We were given his passcodes.

  He recorded a good-bye voice-mail to Victoria, then called his daughter.

  After all of that, after we made sure any security surveillance was turned off and destroyed, I had the guards leave, so that only Griogos and I remained.

  He had moved to a couch, but now he stood. He faced me. He nodded, his eyes giving me permission. “You must. You know it. If you don’t, then I will.”

  I started to put his gun back on the table, but he stopped me.

  “No! You have to. You must be the one. You must.”

  I had never done this.

  I lifted the gun.

  Peace came over his face.

  He closed his eyes.

  FORTY

  Bailey

  Something was wrong.

  The first day in Aspen had been fun.

  Some of the guys went snowboarding while some of the girls stayed back for wine. But in the evening, people had split off into groups. Matt’s group took the main sitting area, with shots being passed around, rap music blaring. Tony somehow found drugs to score. He pulled those out, too.

  Also, everyone was coupling up.

  Torie was on Guy’s lap.

  Tamara was on Tony’s lap.

  Matt disappeared early on with Fleur and Cedar, and everyone seemed to know about the threesome that was currently happening in his room.

  My friends had retreated to the small living room area of their cabin. I checked in, saw Melissa and Hoda laughing in the corner with Liam and Carl. Dax and the guys had their computers out. They were buzzing about a new video game that had come out on Friday.

  I went to my room, ignoring the sounds and smell of sex coming from Matt’s room, and curled into my bed with my phone in hand. I’d sent Kash a few text messages, and called, but he hadn’t responded.

  And now it was dark and this feeling … I’d felt this feeling all day long. It sat on the bottom of my stomach like a boulder. I kept wanting to remove it, to shrug it off. Nothing.

  It wouldn’t move, and now whatever it was had come to fruition. And it wasn’t good.

  I knew. I just knew something bad had happened.

  I sat up, seeing it was close to midnight my time.

  Grabbing my phone, my heart pumping in my eardrums, I hit Kash’s name. Then waited. Then held my breath.

  A second later, “Hey.”

  God.

  God.

  “What happened?”

  He didn’t respond, not right away. “I’m heading to Berlin. I need to get something. After that I’m coming to you.”

  “What happened?”

  “Bailey.”

  That made my heart even worse. I heard the pain, the longing, and I heard how he was keeping it all locked down, all to himself.

  “Kash.”

  He sighed. “I got things to tell you, but I can’t over the phone. I don’t know who’s listening.”

  Shit. I couldn’t say anything to that.

  “I want to help you.”

  Another sigh, this one sounding warmer, if that was possible. “I know, and that means everything to me. Trust me. Once I’m done here, I get what I need, I’m coming to you. Nothing’s going to stop me.”

  I whispered, clutching that phone so tight. “Okay.”

  That phone was my lifeline to him. I knew he was going to go, but I didn’t want him to.

  “You okay there? Anything happen with Matt or your friends?”

  I eased back down in bed. He’d moved on to other conversations so I could relax as much as I could. “Yeah. You know what Hoda said, but the rest is all fine. You got us an extension so we can Skype into our class tomorrow? That was sweet of you.”

  He was silent a beat.

  “I didn’t do that.”

  “What?” I sat back up, my heart starting to thump hard again.

  “I didn’t. All I did was relay to Peter that you and Matt needed a trip out of town. He said he’d take it from there, so … My guess: your father made two calls. One to his executive assistant, for her to arrange everything for your trip, and if it was needed—and it sounds like maybe it was—a second to the head of graduate programs at your university. Them getting a call from someone who is about to donate seventy million to their school, I’m sure it’s no skin off their noses to have a couple grad students Skype into a class for a day.”

  I eased back onto my bed. “That’s nice of my dad.”

  I expected him to say something in return, maybe something funny, or even just a “babe.” He didn’t. My alarm began to spike for a third time in that conversation.

  He was quiet again, just a split second. “How about your friends fly back tomorrow night but you stay? I’ll come to you, and mention it to Peter, so it could be a family trip, too.”

  Now my heart really was pumping.

  My hands even got sweaty. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  I was seriously missing him. “I wish you were here.”

  “Me too, Bailey. Me too.”

  I whispered one last time, “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  He hung up, and I ached.

  FORTY-ONE

  Knock!

  Knock!

  Those were more like Pound! Pound!

  I rolled over, grabbed my pillow on the way, and let it loose. The door was opening just as my pillow was in the air, and smack! Right in Matt’s face.

  I grinned, my head on the other pillow, and one eye opened at him. “Score.” That came out as a croak.

  I was tired.

  I didn’t want to look in the mirror. I was sure the bags under my eyes would be down to my mouth line.

  He rolled his eyes, bent, and grabbed the pillow. Tossing it back on my bed, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Got a call last night. Got an update on new plans, too. Aspen was supposed to be my getaway, and you were supposed to come along for the ride.”

  I tossed back my blankets.

  Matt quickly averted his head, throwing up a hand. “Oh, God. Warn a brother next time. I don’t need to see you in your pajamas.”

  “Relax. I slept in sweatpants and a shirt.”

  I walked past him for the bathroom.

  I could feel his glare on my back. “With no bra. That’s not an image I need to see of my sister.”

  I paused. He was right. But I’d been cold in the middle of the night and had pulled on a sweatshirt. I yelled that, too. “I’m in a sweatshirt, moron.”

  “Oh. Whatever. Listen, um…”

  I used the toilet. Flushed. Washed my hands. I was waiting during all that time. I could hear his voice through the door, but he’d stopped talking. My alarms started going off, and while drying my hands I pulled the door open and stepped into the doorway. He was there, his head tipped back, one hand on his jaw as if he had no clue what to say next.

  “Matt.”

  He looked at me. Yep. I’d been right. His eyes were tortured.

  I sighed. “Kash is right.”

  The torture slid away to concern. “Kash is right about what?”

  “I have baggage from being kidnapped by Quinn. Bad enough where it’s hard for me to go to the house to see my siblings. There’s the constant undercurrent of war going on between Kash and his grandfather, a war that Kash keeps me out of, but he hasn’t in a lot of ways. But both those things are going on right now, added to whatever happened last night—”

  “What happened last night?”

  “Plus, Quinn is out of jail, and she’s connected to a certain blogger who hates us, and I’m sharing all of this to express how much my plate is full. You’re standing in my room, hesitating, and I can’t handle anything more, so spill. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it now, because I cannot carry any more, and I cannot stress how serious I’m being about that fact.”

  “Right.” His hand fell away from his jaw. He faced me squarely, rolling his shoulders back. “I was with Fleur and Cedar last night when Fleur’s phone lit up. She didn’t answer. Cedar’s phone blew up right after, and she answered.” His eyes went hollow, for just a second, then hardened. “Victoria was on the phone. She’d been with Kash. In Greece. They went together.”

  Hit.

  Hit.

  Hit.

  Three hits, all right after another.

  I drew in a ragged breath. “Oh.”

  “Kash called me, said he’d talked to you, but he didn’t say anything about Victoria.” He hesitated again and was wary. “Did he say anything about her to you?”

  What?

  Victoria?

  Suddenly, I felt my insides squeezing. Hard.

  “No.” That word scraped over my throat to get out.

  “Right. Well, she’s coming here, and she’s mad.”

  “What?”

  He shook his head. “Fleur, Vic, and Cedar have been around us and the guys all our lives. I know you don’t like ’em. I know you have reason not to like ’em. And I know they’re stuck-up bitches, and the only reason they’re stuck-up is because all of their families are old-money wealthy. That’s a different circle, if you get my drift. You. Me. Our dad. We’re not in that circle, but those girls are. Chester is. Tony and Guy, they aren’t.”

  I was waiting.

  “And Kash is most definitely in that circle. I’m sharing all this to help you understand why we put up with the girls. Some of it is power and connections. Some of it is because their families know our families. Some of it is because, when you hang with someone for so many years in a row, since you were all in first grade and on—those are friendship roots that don’t get cut so easily.”

  My throat was getting raw. I knew he was winding to the point.

  A stark sadness flashed in his eyes. His mouth tightened. “I usually treat those girls like trash. It’s fucked up, and I’m not justifying my ways. It’s a response to how bitchy they can be at times. I used ’em last night, but that’s not been anything new. Fleur, Cedar, even Victoria, back in the day—they aren’t sluts, but they do have healthy sexual appetites. They trust us guys, hence the reason why they get around, but it’s only our group.