LENORA
Vaughn left my side sometime after I fell asleep, exhausted by absorbing what had happened to him without falling apart. The place where he’d kissed my forehead was still warm, the only souvenir of the last time we’d spend together.
I didn’t bother leaving my bed the following morning. I felt like crying for eternity, curled inside myself, my body rocking back and forth as the sobs rattled through me. Turned out that Vaughn looming over me and threatening my life wasn’t half as devastating as hearing what had made him want to kill me—and the rest of the world—in the first place.
I allowed myself the better half of the day to fall apart privately, letting out all the emotions I couldn’t show him. Then I stood, picked myself up, and finished my statue.
What I did next would shock everyone.
Including myself.
VAUGHN
Instead of going back to my room the following morning, I headed straight to Edgar. I was running out of time to do everything I wanted to do to take care of Lenora before shit hit the fan. Confiding in her had felt eerily similar to handing her my balls in a nice, cellophane-wrapped package, but strangely necessary.
All that we were would die right along with Harry Fairhurst tomorrow, and Hunter and Knight were due to land at Heathrow later tonight.
I barged into Edgar’s office without knocking, ignoring the fact that Arabella was sitting in front of his desk. They were engrossed in deep conversation, hunched forward and exchanging hushed words over raised tones. Planting my hands on my hips, I jerked my head to the door.
“Outta here,” I barked. Didn’t take a nuclear scientist to know who I was talking to.
Arabella twisted her head to look at me, wiping her cheek—from tears or cum, anyone’s guess would be as good as mine.
“You’re not the boss of m—”
“Ass. Outta. That. Chair.” Each word was pronounced with dripping mockery. “Before I drag you by the hair, and believe me, Arabella, I won’t even think twice before tearing those expensive extensions—and your real hair—from that empty skull of yours.”
That was a lie, but a believable one nonetheless. She turned her face to Edgar, expecting him to fight her war, but he was too stunned to react, his eyes on me. Reluctantly, she stood, her chair scraping back, and walked slowly out the door. She stopped when her shoulder brushed my arm.
“I know something fucked you up, Vaughn. Everyone knows that. And you’re not the only person who’s bad for a reason. I’m not the devil,” she whispered.
“No, you’re not,” I rasped under my breath. “The devil’s smart and calculating. You’re neither.” I slammed the door in her face.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I scowled at Edgar the minute we were alone, leaning forward and bracing my hands on either side of his desk.
It was covered with bullshit—sketches, documents, coins, a picture of Lenora, Poppy, and their mother smiling back at him. Fake fucker hadn’t checked on his daughter in weeks.
“I beg your pardon?” He sat back, blinking. “Who do you think you’re talking to, Mr. Spencer? I strongly advise you check yourself before you’re checked out of this institute. I am not impressed with either your manners or your profess—”
I cut him off. “Fuck my professionalism. You’re fucking your daughter’s enemy.” I wiped his desk clean of everything there in one, harsh movement, just barely holding back from smashing the entire thing in his face.
He pulled back and coughed, seeming surprised by my outburst.
“Your teenage daughter’s enemy,” I added. “So don’t lecture me about manners. Len is not even talking to you, and instead of making things right with her, you go around spending time with that bitch? What is wrong with you?” I straightened up, pulling at my hair with both hands as I paced across the room.
He stood, his voice booming so loud it rattled the glass windows. “What are you on about, you silly boy?”
I whirled to face him. “Don’t play dumb. Arabella told both me and your daughter that you guys are having an affair. How long has this been going on? Since you were in Todos Santos? Was she even legal when you first had a taste?”
“I…I…wait.”He frowned. “Lenny thinks that’s what I’m doing when I’m meeting with Arabella?” It was his turn to run a hand through his mass of gray curls. “She thinks I’m having sex with her?”
By the way he said the word sex, I gathered that he viewed the concept as about as appealing as I did. In other words, he’d rather be chopped up and thrown into the ocean than tap Arabella’s ass.
Then what was he doing with her alone all the time? She wasn’t my first choice for intellectual conversation.
“Are you saying you’re not?”
“No!” He slapped the desk, roaring.
“Enlighten me, then. What possesses you to spend more time with Arabella than you do with both your daughters combined?”
“I cocked up!” Edgar pushed his desk away completely, causing it to skid over the floor until it almost hit me. He shook with what looked like years of built-up rage. “I cocked everything up in Todos Santos, but not the way you think. I didn’t have an affair with Arabella. I had an affair with her mother, Georgia—the first woman I’ve been with since Lenny’s mother died. I got carried away, not thinking. Not thinking she was married, that she had kids, that I was destroying another family while trying to keep mine together. Arabella caught us in the act one day and told her father. This spun the next year in my life out of control. Apparently, Georgia had been battling an addiction to painkillers and alcohol, and I was one of her continuous bad decisions. She cried rape to save her relationship. And I got thrown into a behind-the-scenes legal battle with Arabella and her father, who wanted to avenge Georgia’s indiscretions. He whisked Georgia off on a so-called vacation, but really, it was a lengthy trip to rehab, while Arabella stayed in California with her sister. That’s when her mother admitted she had an affair with me and wanted a divorce. When her husband threatened to drag her through a nasty process and waved the pre-nup in her face, she tried to cut her wrists, unsuccessfully. Arabella and her sister were crushed, and guilt consumed me, so I found myself helping the family through this period. When I learned Arabella had found a way to get here, I knew she was after revenge. That’s why I’ve been distant with Lenny. The less I drag her into this, the less chance Arabella has to get to her. She’s been making every day a living hell. I think she has this idea that if she ruins my life, she’ll feel better about the fact that I ruined hers.”
“Is that what’s happening right now?”
“Yes. She barges into my office and room unannounced, throwing accusations in my face. She’s walked in on two dates I’ve had since coming here. Shattered two of my sculptures. Then there’s what she did to Lenny and Poppy, of course. I knew that. I knew. That’s why I kept my distance from them. I told myself it would all be over in a few short months, and things would go back to normal.”
“Bullshit. Lenny and I both heard you in your room,” I challenged. “You told her to get off of you. You had sex.”
“She was trying to seduce me!” he shouted. “She gets into fits where she tries to have sex with me, but I always push her off. I’ve called her father a few times. Her sister, too. They said I deserve it for what I did to their family. She’s a martyr, dragging me through every single sin I supposedly committed.”
“Why are you allowing her to spend so much time with you, then?” He didn’t seem the type to bone a teenager, but I was still skeptical.
He swallowed hard. “More time with her means less time for her to target Lenny. Children shouldn’t suffer for their parents’ misdeeds. I’m humoring Arabella’s destructive side until her time here is up. But I am not touching her, and I am horrified that my daughter would think that. Does she not know me at all?”
“Have you taken the time to get to know her recently?” I retorted.
His head hung low, like a half-mast flag.
“Has she shared this with Poppy?” He sighed.
I shook my head. Len hadn’t gathered the strength to upset her older sister. When you care about someone—and at this point there was no point denying I cared for Lenora—you really don’t want to be the bearer of shitty news to them.
“Thank God.”
“Don’t thank God, thank your daughter. You have to make amends with her.” I pointed a warning finger at him from across the room.
“I don’t know, Vaughn. Parenting is bloody hard, okay?”
He wiped sweat from his brow, dragging his massive back against the wall and squatting down. I did the same, crouching across from him, on the other side of the room.
“The truth is, kids don’t come with a manual. I’m not always sure when she’s acting up because she needs to, because it’s normal, and when it’s serious. Lenora has always been so inherently good. Both my daughters are, really. But Lenny has loads of common sense and a spine for miles. I’d never been particularly worried about her. I thought I was merely allowing her a rebellious period, thinking she was mad about the internship again.”
The internship. I almost winced. That one was all on me.
“You need to talk to her today. Set the record straight. Tell her exactly what’s up.”
He nodded.
“As for the internship…” I continued, the words leaving my mouth of their own accord. “The plan has changed. I need your help with something.”
Edgar frowned. “You’re still going to show the sculpture, right?”
Of course. Edgar loved Len so much. That’s what she didn’t know. She thought him giving me the internship was him disregarding her. She didn’t know he’d made the greatest sacrifice for her. It was me who’d deceived them. At first, anyway.
I’d told Edgar I would make his daughter fall in love with me and get her out of her emotional funk. That I would court her, love her, cherish her, and be a friend to her. He, in return, sold her dreams to buy her happiness. With me.
We’d both lied to get what we wanted, and it had blown up in our faces in a spectacular fashion.
“I’m not showing the statue.” I flicked my Zippo, letting the flame lick up and pressing it to the tip of my tongue, fully aware he was going to put me on fucking blast. The secret to extinguishing fire with your tongue is a lot of saliva. And very little fucking common sense. “But we are going to show them something, all right.”
My meeting with Edgar somehow bled into late afternoon. I gave him careful instructions on how to handle everything with Len. It felt like placing your toddler in the irresponsible hands of an untrained monkey, but I knew I had to get the hell out of there, and fast, after I executed my plan.
When I finally returned to my room, all I wanted was to kick my boots off, close my eyes, and pretend tonight was going to be just another night of me sneaking into Good Girl’s room.
But of course it wasn’t.