Fraud (Antihero Inferno Book 2)

by Lily White

  Taking every advantage, I bite at the skin of her neck, my tongue licking the line of the tendon that pushes out.

  “We should talk,” she says, her voice breathless.

  “About?”

  My fingers sink deeper, and my thumb circles her clit. Her legs shake and her body leans against me more.

  “About what this means.”

  What the hell does she think this means?

  “It means I want to fuck again,” I growl as I release her hair to palm her tit. My cock is hard again, the line of it pushing against my pants.

  Ivy’s hands dive into my hair.

  “I know that, but we should talk about us.”

  My head pops up and our eyes lock, my hands stilling on her pussy and tit because, “There is no us.”

  She blinks and shifts her hips in an effort to make me start up again. I refuse.

  “I’m not sure you mean that. We had sex, which means you like me more than you’re admitting.”

  Pulling my hands away from her body, I stare at her like she’s grown a second head.

  “People fuck all the time without it meaning anything.”

  Ivy shifts her stance, her eyes softening more while my brows tug together. She can’t possibly be the type who wants a relationship just because my cock has been inside her.

  “You want to know what I think?”

  “Not really.”

  Laughing softly at that, she reaches out to cup my cheek.

  “I think you’re hiding all your feelings because of what you went through in life. We should talk about that.”

  Son of a bitch.

  I’d never guessed Ivy was the kind of woman who latched on like a parasite the minute she bumped uglies. Women like that don’t have a pussy, they have a bear trap ready to snap closed to catch your ankle in it.

  “You know what I think?”

  She grins and rubs her thumb along my jawline. I step away to break the contact.

  “I think you should go back to your room, and we can forget this conversation ever happened.”

  Disappointment flashes behind her gaze, that and determination.

  “You need to talk about it, Gabe. You can’t go through the rest of your life pretending to be something we both know you’re not.”

  I blink at that. “This conversation is over. Please walk away.”

  Her eyes lock to mine.

  “Still the broken prince, I see.”

  “You’re not walking.”

  She needs to leave. Now. This very instant.

  This is a line never to be crossed.

  With a roll of her eyes, she pushes away from the doorframe.

  “Fine. If you want to hold it all inside, that’s on you.”

  She takes a few steps away and turns back, her lips a thin line of anger.

  “Did you bring those clothes in or not?”

  “I tossed them in the laundry room downstairs.”

  With that, she should have kept moving, but instead she stands there.

  “Are you sure we can’t talk about this?”

  “Goodnight, Ivy.”

  “You’re being ridiculous.”

  I don’t bother answering.

  After a few seconds she walks away, and I stand in place, listening as she runs downstairs.

  Thoroughly pissed off, I realize I won’t be sleeping tonight since I can’t trust her, and she just broached a topic that is so far off limits that it’s not even close to what’s acceptable to be discussed.

  Grabbing my bag, I decide to go downstairs to get some work done.

  Ivy is running back up, and we pass at the midpoint, her head turning to me like she wants to say something, and my eyes straight ahead because I refuse to hear it.

  Another hour passes as I distract myself with emails on cases and complaints about Tanner.

  Lacey has demanded another pay raise which I happily approve because losing her isn’t worth the nightmare it would be to find Tanner another assistant.

  While I’m firing off that message, Ivy comes downstairs again to head into the kitchen.

  Without bothering to look up at her, I ask, “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

  She pauses.

  “I want something to drink. Would you like to join me in bed after?”

  “Not anymore.”

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she glares at me.

  “You can’t be this much of an asshole, Gabe. I really think we should talk about this.”

  I tilt my head right. “The kitchen is that way.”

  Ivy huffs out a breath and walks her ass to the kitchen, the cabinet doors opening and closing as she searches for a glass.

  Dumping ice into it, she fills it with water then begins searching through my drawers.

  My head pops up at that.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “A spoon,” she mumbles.

  “Why? It’s water.”

  “I like to stir the ice. It makes it colder faster.”

  Her eyes meet mine. “We really should talk about this.”

  “Third drawer on the right,” I bark, refusing to talk about anything. My eyes snap back to my computer screen to avoid this bullshit conversation.

  Another sound of complaint climbs up her throat, but after finding the spoons, she stirs her water and takes her glass upstairs.

  I’m thoroughly annoyed at this point and slam my computer closed because I can’t believe she’s doing this shit.

  Eventually, I calm down enough to work again, my fingers flying over the keys for the rest of the night, finally stopping when sunlight begins to brighten my windows.

  After calling Tanner to tell him to come by this morning to question Ivy about what she knows, I run upstairs to check on her.

  The door is locked when I try the handle, but when I press my ear to the door, I hear the shower running.

  Satisfied by that, I run back downstairs and put on a pot of coffee.

  I’m standing in my kitchen an hour later pouring a third cup of coffee when Tanner walks in with the rest of the guys behind him.

  The sun is still barely up, and we all should be at the office, but priorities tend to shift when new information becomes available.

  What we discovered about Ivy made a meeting here more important. Yet the only thing I can think about is the sounds that fell from her lips when I fucked her on the car last night.

  I hadn’t intended for that to happen, but just like everything with Ivy and me, the best intentions mean absolute shit.

  The two of us are the worst match that can possibly exist. She knows too much about me, and I know I can’t trust her. Which is why it aggravated me so much that she brought up the subject of a relationship.

  None of that really matters, though. Not when there are other issues we need to focus on.

  “What happened to you calling us last night?”

  Tanner crosses his arms over his chest, his stare pinning my face with suspicion.

  I stare back from over the rim of my coffee cup and arch a brow, daring him to make the accusation. I can almost hear the gears grinding in his head.

  “You fucked her instead of calling us, didn’t you?”

  “We didn’t get back until late,” I lie.

  Sawyer chuckles at that and sits on the living room couch.

  Tanner’s stare narrows on my face.

  “Great story. It was really entertaining. I’ll be sure to leave a review for it when I have time to gather my thoughts and feelings. Now tell me another one, asshole.”

  Setting my coffee mug on the counter, I clear my throat. I’m dragging ass this morning because I haven’t slept.

  “The power was out because of the storm. I couldn’t charge my phone.”

  “You’re getting great at this, Gabe. One more and you might have a bestseller on your hands. Tell me another.”

  Lying to Tanner is damn near impossible, especially with him not distracted by issues with Luca. Since I’m dragging as
s with the lack of sleep, my game has been thrown off, and I have to resort to half-truths that aren’t completely made up, yet don’t answer the question at the same time.

  “Ivy wasn’t exactly cooperative. I had to pin her to the car just to get her under control. You know how she is.”

  He’s quiet for a second, his eyes assessing me for the bullshit in that story.

  “That explains why you look like shit right now.”

  Laughing, I lean against a counter.

  “That’s from not sleeping. Would you close your eyes around Ivy?”

  “No.”

  “Then it’s settled.”

  He studies me again, but I can’t hide from Tanner. He knows me too well because we’ve been close our entire lives. Still, he drops the interrogation on that issue, runs a hand through his hair, and starts another.

  “Did she admit anything about her dad and the tech company? I haven’t said anything about this to Luca yet since I’m not sure what to tell her.”

  I cross my arms over my chest, wishing like hell I had a whiskey in my hand.

  Yes, it’s only seven in the morning, but I’m already agitated.

  Ivy went full girl on me in the span of a few hours last night and it’s driving me nuts.

  Why the hell would she bring up the idea of anything more between us when she knows good and goddamned well we could never work?

  And why does just the idea of it bother me more than it should?

  “We didn’t talk much.”

  About that subject at least...

  Because it’s not a lie, I expect him to buy it and move on. Instead, he blinks, shifts his posture and taps his fingers against his arm.

  “You fucked her,” he correctly assumes, his eyes meeting mine to see the truth of it. “Are you kidding me right now, Gabe? Are you really that stupid? We both know what that woman does to you.”

  I can’t blame him for his frustration. Ivy has information we need. And I fucked around with our ability to get it. Only because Ivy has always tripped me up when it comes to the games we play.

  For Tanner, this is about Luca. But for all of us, it’s about revenge against our fathers. We don’t need their money or their enterprise, but what we do need is the ability to teach them a lesson for all the shitty things they did to our lives.

  Until we have what we need, we have to continue playing puppets that march to their orders, but once we have enough to bring them down, the charade ends and we’re free.

  Could we walk away now? Technically, yes. But that’s too simple a solution when we’ve spent a lifetime being pushed around.

  We’ll rain down hell eventually. Yet, rather than cornering Ivy for something we suspect is important, I focused on another need. One I’ve had for years.

  “You know what?” He throws up his hands. “Whatever. It is what it is. Just go wake her up because I’d like to get this over with. We need to pin this shit down before everything gets worse.”

  “She’s not asleep,” I answer. “She was in the shower last I checked.”

  He pulls out a chair at a small breakfast table and drops his weight into it.

  “Then drag her out of it.”

  I haven’t taken the first step when Ezra’s low laughter catches my attention.

  Turning to him, I notice he’s looking up, his lips stretching apart into a weird grin.

  Following the path of his gaze, I glance up, and my eyes widen as my teeth clench together. Pain shoots down my jaw as the rest of the guys look up and burst out laughing.

  “Oh, shit,” Shane says, his hand flying to his mouth in a failed fucking attempt to hide his smile. “Ivy is so dead.”

  A drop of water leaks from the large wet spot on the ceiling, and I bolt from the room without bothering to wait for that drop to splash the floor.

  I’m running up the stairs and down the hall to the guest bedrooms within seconds, the guys still laughing downstairs as I slam my hand down to find the door locked.

  Ramming my shoulder against it, I break the frame to get in, my eyes shooting to an open window that I ignore as I storm through the room into the attached bathroom.

  The shower is still running, but the drain is clogged with a t-shirt, a lake of water spreading out across the floor that’s seeping through at the baseboards to pool beneath the tile floor.

  Stepping carefully across the floor so it doesn’t cave in, I turn the water off and move back into her room, looking at the window again and over to the bed.

  My eyes shoot to her bags to see there are only fifteen of them.

  “Fuck!”

  Halfway down the stairs, my eyes meet Tanner’s, every muscle locked over my spine as I run past him toward the front door.

  “She’s gone.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me,” I growl as I rip the door open and run out onto the porch. Stopping in my tracks, my hands ball into fists to see the damage.

  “This is exactly why she’s not allowed at my house. What the hell are you going to do now?”

  I’m so angry I can’t think straight.

  “I don’t know, Tanner. I was thinking I’d take a relaxing nap and maybe catch up on Netflix. After that I might get my hair and nails done and then check out a nice pole dancing class. It would do wonders for my abs. What the fuck do you think I’m going to do?”

  He curses under his breath and follows me down to the driveway, the rest of the guys pouring out of the house to discover what we already know.

  My car is gone, and the three they drove over are all sitting on flattened tires.

  Tanner is dead silent beside me, our heads turning to lock eyes.

  “I only have one thing to say about this.”

  “What’s that?”

  “She’s not allowed around my car either.”

  “At least it’s not eggs,” I breathe out, my body flinching in place when I hear the muted sound of something crashing down in my house.

  We all go silent for a brief second, my spine locked in place because I don’t want to rush back in to see what I already know.

  From the doorway, Taylor calls out, “Think that was your ceiling caving in, Gabe.”

  All the guys snort while trying to contain their laughter. My eye twitches, and I stare out at the forest because I need to step away from this before I choke one of them to death.

  I’m going to kill Ivy when I get my hands on her next.

  That and fuck her.

  Obviously, not in that order, but definitely both.

  It’s what I always want to do to her when she gets like this, only because her bullshit makes me hate her and respect her at the same time.

  I love that she never bows to anybody.

  That she never caves.

  That she’ll sit there with a sweet smile on her face while fucking up your world without one shred of guilt for it.

  It drives me insane that she can lie as well as me and make me forget that she’s never to be left alone or trusted.

  When all is said and done, the most basic truth is that Ivy is a fraud as much as me.

  I should have tied her to my damn bed and watched her all night. The only problem with that is I wouldn’t have been able to keep my hands off her.

  Fucking one time? That was us working out the hatred.

  Fucking twice would have been pushing us too close to the truth of how we feel about each other. Especially after she brought the possibility of a relationship into the equation.

  “I can’t believe she did this to you again. I mean...again,” Tanner emphasizes. “At this point I’m going to need for you to admit I was right when all this shit started. She hasn’t changed at all. Go ahead. Say ‘Tanner was right’. I’ll wait.”

  My jaw tics, and I roll my neck over my shoulders.

  “It’s not that hard to say. Only four syllables.”

  “Would you fuck off right now?”

  He has a bad case of the chuckles, apparently, his lips pressed together as his should
ers shake, and he lifts his face to the sky.

  I already know that the angrier I get at this moment, the funnier it will be to him, so I take a deep breath to stuff it in.

  “Fine. You can say it to me later since I know you’re thinking it. What’s important now is how the hell do we get her back?”

  Shane and the other guys come down the porch steps, most of them standing by Tanner and me as Shane circles the cars, his lips cracking into a grin.

  “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I’ve always admired Ivy. I swear this girl has no fucks to give.”

  His eyes lift to look over the hood of the car at me.

  “She took out all of the tires. Side punctures, too, so we can’t patch them. If it had just been one or two tires, we could have worked it out. But this will take some time with it being all four.”

  My brows shoot up. “How much time?”

  “All day if you want all the cars done. A few hours to have one up and running. It’ll go quicker if Priest is at the shop and can bring me what I need. I’ll give him a call.”

  While he walks off to do that, Ezra steps up beside me.

  “I can call Emily, if you want. Most likely, Ivy will be heading back in that direction.”

  He’s right about that, but Emily won’t tell us anything. I spin to lock eyes with Sawyer.

  “Call Dylan. Offer him whatever he wants to call us immediately when she gets there.”

  Not that we can do much about it while we’re stranded here. Thankfully, I have another failsafe in place. One that will make finding her much easier.

  My eyes survey the damage again, and I breathe out a heavy sigh.

  That fucking bitch.

  I cannot believe she -

  Okay...no...I can believe it.

  I just can’t believe she got away with it.

  The thought of what this woman is capable of makes me smile.

  Ivy

  Men are so damn easy.

  Usually not Gabriel, though. I’ll admit that. But even he has certain male weaknesses that cause him to fall for the same shit other men have issues with.

  Namely, the relationship topic. I knew the second I brought up the dreaded conversation, he would retreat and get annoyed so much that he stopped paying attention.

  I think it’s an issue with the Y chromosome. Especially when it comes to alpha male assholes. Their dick is always ready and able to provide a good fuck, but their brain shuts down when a woman wants to get emotional. They scatter like roaches in the light every damn time, running off as fast as they can.