Mr. Corporate (Mister #3) (28 page)

“Thanks, Jerry. I’ll take it from here. We’re still beat, so we’re gonna grab some sleep. I think Pax and Five are gonna do the same, so you might as well go see if they need anything.”

Jerry smiles and leaves. West closes the door behind him. “How you holding up?” he asks. Like nothing is happening here.

“Good, I guess. Except for all the secret glances and code words flying around. What’s happening, West? Why is everyone so tense?”

“I don’t know yet. But I’m still tired. You still tired?”

“Is that code for more sex?” I laugh.

“No,” he says, dead serious.

“Oh. OK. Yeah. I didn’t get much sleep. It’s like five in the morning. And you and your friends are dead set on keeping secrets until we get to California, so I might as well pass the time in your arms in this bed.” I smile, narrowing my eyes. “Remember all the good times we’ve had in this bed, West?”

“Burned in my memory, baby,” he says. And in that moment the real West—the one I know, and have known, for ten years—is here and the one I don’t know has been ordered back to wherever it is he hides.

I’m not sure what to think about this. The only thing I know is that if the Misters are taking over, and that Five guy is here, something big is happening.

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Weston

I spend the next fifteen minutes waiting for the questions. So far she’s been unusually silent about what she has to know is a pretty big deal between me and Mysterious. He’s an asshole, I’ve said it plenty of times over the years to Tori, but she’s never seen us actually interact. She’s only heard things second-hand.

He’s dead fucking set on making her suspicious. And I know what that means.

He’s going to use her against me in San Diego.

But for whatever reason, Tori isn’t taking his bait. She’s calm, controlled, and exceptionally congenial.

How long will that last?

I look over at her. She’s snuggled up to me when we got back in bed. Not naked. Not this time. I guess my rude dismissal of her sex offer was taken seriously. I didn’t mean it to come out that way. It’s just… fuck.

Maybe Mysterious does know something? I mean, more than I know he probably knows. I get that that he’s good at what he does. He digs up dirt on people. He fixes shit, or something. Movie stars get into trouble. Someone dies at their drug party. Or they get their seventh DUI. Or they are being blackmailed by the baby mama of their illegitimate children. And Paxton Vance is the man they call to sweep it all under the rug.

He does that with blackmail, or payoffs, or who the fuck knows? Kills them, maybe? I don’t know what he does.

I do know Pax has some serious resources. But only four people know my real story. One of them is dead and the other three have just as much to lose as I do if this ever gets out. So if Pax does know, then how did he get that information?

It’s definitely not the other people in my little dirty past. I know that shit for sure. Two of them will never talk. Ever. And the last one… well, I have more on him than he can possibly have on me. I’ve had to renegotiate this deal before so I have triggers in place to make sure that shit gets out if anything ever happens to me.

He knows I have those triggers.

If he fucking went back on his word… well, I will fucking take him down with me.

Don’t freak out now, Corporate. You’re at the goddamned finish line. You just talked to him about it last week. Nothing was suspicious. Nothing was out of order. Everything is still cool
.

Mysterious probably knows something, though. I just wish he’d let on to what it is.

I’m sure he knows about school. That’s the only paper trail there is. That’s it. He can’t know anything else. He can’t.

If he does… then who the fuck told him? No one knows what happened
that
night except me. No one.

They have to be bluffing.

I don’t know if I sleep during that six-hour flight. Maybe I do, fitfully and in spurts. But I do know that when that knock comes to the cabin door, I’m awake.

And ready.

Tori won’t take their side over mine. She won’t. She belongs to me. I’m so close to sealing that deal, I can taste her in my mouth.

So let’s go, Mr. Match. Let’s get this show on the road, Mr. Mysterious. I’m a player. I’m a risk-taker. I’m a winner. And I’m not gonna let these assholes take me down. Not after the hell I went through to get this far. And I’m not gonna let them screw things up with Victoria and me. We are on our way to a full-on second chance.

So no fucking way. This isn’t gonna go down the way they expect.

I’m ready. I’ve been preparing for this moment for fifteen years.

I’m all in, motherfuckers.

Let’s do this shit.

Chapter Thirty-Nine - Victoria

West has been different ever since Mr. Mysterious showed up, but right now, as we drive in the car that will take us to wherever Mr. Match is waiting, he’s silent and withdrawn. Last night he was silent and attentive, so silent and withdrawn is yet another change that tells me something big is about to happen.

I look over at him, but he doesn’t even notice. He’s staring out the window.

I look across from me, at Mr. Mysterious, and he doesn’t notice either. He’s looking out the window.

I look at Five.

He shrugs and shakes his head, as if to say,
Don’t bother
.

All of a sudden Weston sits up straight. “Where the fuck are we going?”

I look out my window as we pull up to a gated community not far from the beach. It’s so close, I can smell the salt and feel the way the sea air changes things as soon as the driver opens his window to talk to the guard.

“Nolan Delaney is expecting Mr. Vance and Mr. Conrad,” the driver says to the guard.

“I thought you said Nolan wasn’t a part of this?” West asks as the guard opens the gate and waves us through.

“He’s not,” Mysterious answers. “But Oliver and I use this house for business.”

“Do you now? Somehow I have a hard time seeing Nolan saying yes to that little arrangement.”

“I guess that’s why we don’t tell him.” He says it with a straight face too. Like this is no big deal. He uses houses that don’t belong to him all the time. “Besides,” he continues. “Nolan has enough houses for everyone. He doesn’t come here. He’s down in San Diego or out in the desert. What he doesn’t know can’t hurt him, now can it?”

“You know what I don’t get,” West says. “Why the fuck you think that what’s ours is yours all the time.”

Mysterious shrugs. “That’s just how I roll, Corporate. Anyway,” he says, suddenly looking over at West with a very serious glare. “You and him are alike, right? Silver spoons and all.”

“Says the guy who grew up taking pony rides on horses worth two million dollars.”

Mysterious doesn’t even shrug it off. Just replies, “Maybe you and Nolan really don’t have anything in common? Isn’t that what you always said back in the day? You’re so different.”

I look at Five and he’s pretending this conversation isn’t happening.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” West asks.

And this time Mysterious directs his reply to me. “You’re about to find out, Mr. Corporate. And so’s your little girlfriend. So if I were you, I’d enjoy this reality for a few more minutes. Because it’s all about to come crashing down.”

I reach over and take West’s hand. Give it a squeeze. “It’s OK, West. Whatever is happening, it won’t change us.”

“You better not make promises you can’t keep, Miss Arias,” Five suddenly says. He’s been quiet in front of me almost this entire trip and now is the time he chooses to speak up?

“Well, Mr.
Five
,” I say, sneering his fake name. “I’m just letting my boyfriend know that I’m on his side. Especially since the two of you are so dead set on ganging up on him. We’re a team, and nothing you have to tell me can change that.”

“You don’t know anything, Victoria Arias,” Five says back. “Nothing about what’s happening here. So I’m gonna give you a small piece of advice. Wait until you hear the facts before you make any more declarations.”

“Fuck you. You know what? We’re out of here.” West drops my hand and pulls out his phone, his fingers running through his contacts.

“Put it away,” Five says. And when West doesn’t listen he says, “Does the name Stewart Manchester mean anything to you, Weston?”

It must, because someone is talking on the other end of West’s phone and West ignores the voice next to his ear to stare at both Mysterious and Five. He ends the call and puts his phone away.

What the fuck was that about?

I look over at West but he won’t meet my gaze.

“Don’t worry,” Mysterious says. And when I look at him, I realize he’s talking to me. “This is his big moment, Victoria. Twenty-five years of lies are gonna come pouring out in just a few minutes.”

I take West’s hand back, squeezing it again, only this time harder. “Don’t listen, West. I’m not going anywhere. It’s us, remember? Us against the world.”

West looks at me with a frown. “Maybe he’s right. You should probably stop making promises, Tori. You might regret it in a few minutes.”

“What?”

But there’s no time to get any more information out of him. Because we pull up to a massive house and when I look out the window I see the last person in this little gang-up. Mr. Match is standing in front of a glass-front double door. He opens it at the same time Mysterious opens the door closest to us, and walks towards the car.

I get out, then Five and West.

Mr. Match greets me with an extended hand. I just look at him, refusing his gesture. He looks over at his friends and shrugs. “What’s up, man? How was the trip?”

“Went as planned. As you can see.” Mysterious points to me and West, who has come up next to me. West does not take my hand.

“Oliver,” West says.

“We missed you at the last meeting back at Perfect’s house.”

“I work. I can’t be taking off every time there’s a problem with one of you guys.”

“Well,” Match says, “I think that’s about to change.”

“Is that right?” West asks.

But Match just waves his hand towards the house.

“Are we staying?” I ask West. “We don’t have to stay, Weston. Let’s just go.”

“Sorry,” West says. “But we do.”

“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” Match says. “So please, come in and make yourself at home while we hash it all out.”

Chapter Forty - Weston