“Scarlett?” Javiero prompted.
“When I began working for Niko, I promised him I wouldn’t turn my back on him. That my loyalty wouldn’t falter.”
“A pledge of fealty? How quaintly feudal. Or is the word futile? Because he never rewarded vows. My mother can attest to that.”
“The reward came first. He did something for my family.”
“It’s starting to sound like a transaction, not a favor. He never did anything out of kindness.”
“That’s true.” She frowned at her ragged nails. Niko had always ensured he benefitted as much or more from anything he did. “What he did for me—us—was quite big. My, um, father sold him our family home. Stonewood. It’s an old farmhouse on a modest property, but it has a lovely view. It had been in my mother’s family for generations. She didn’t want to give it up, but it had fallen into disrepair and we couldn’t afford to fix it.” They’d barely been eating, mostly because her father drank all his income. “For Niko it was a place to park his money. He didn’t even see it. His agent handled the transaction then came after us when he realized how bad the condition really was.”
“Sounds like an incompetent agent.”
“My father can be very persuasive.” Manipulative. She found herself playing with the pendant Javiero had given her, fingering the key, which felt smooth and lovely on one side, like a worry stone. “Dad was in real estate and misrepresented the whole thing. Long story short, the agent knew Dad was cheating Niko and encouraged Niko to file a lawsuit. It ruined us. Mum had never had a job and Dad’s agent license was suspended. The money he’d got for the sale of the house was put into a holding account while the suit was pending. We had no house, no money from the sale, and no income to pay rent on the place Mum and Dad had moved into. I had to drop out of university to go home and work. Help out. We all five wound up living in a tiny caravan. Things were very dire. Then Dad learned Niko was in London. He told me to go see if I could talk him into dropping the suit.”
“Your father told you to do that.” He knew where this was going. She could see the repulsion in his cold eye.
“You’re judging,” she pointed out with a fire of humiliation burning hot. “What choice did I have? My father wasn’t going to save us. No one was.”
“How old were you?”
“Twenty-one.” She dropped the pendant to tangle her fingers in her lap. “Things were bad, Javiero. My brother was smoking drugs. My sister was shoplifting. Mum was… Dad was abusive when he was drinking and he drank when he was stressed.”
“Violent? You should have let Niko send him to jail. Did he hurt you or your siblings?” His hands fisted, but when he caught her gaze flicking to them, he splayed his hands on his thighs. His tension remained palpable, though, coming off him in waves.
“Mum and my brother caught the worst of it,” she mumbled. “Through most of my life, Dad would stay sober often enough and long enough we would convince ourselves it was behind us. Then something would happen and… After I went to work for Niko, things stabilized. They were back in Stonewood, but Dad was working a janitor job, resenting it and drinking because of it. It was a huge relief when he got picked up on that driving under the influence charge. He told Mum to tell me to hire a better lawyer. I refused, even though I could afford one.”
“Good.”
It hadn’t felt good. It had felt cold-blooded. Cruel.
“Mum was beside herself. She’s codependent, I guess. She keeps my sister very close, even though Ellie is like Dad, drinks and gets nasty. It’s difficult for me to be around them. I support them, and keep an arm’s length. Maybe I’m enabling. I don’t know anymore.”
“So you did sleep with my father.” She’d never heard anyone sound so sickened. “To persuade him to go lenient on your family.”
“No.” Her voice rasped with anger. “I was prepared to. I told him I would do anything to help my family.”
“Anything.” His hands fisted up again.
“Anything,” she confirmed, holding his gaze, holding it even as the tension pulled like a taut metal string between them, sharp enough to sever flesh.
“I have no way of proving it didn’t come to sex. You’ll have to believe me and I know you won’t.”
“How can I? Why else would he help you?”
Although she had braced herself, his ugly conclusion was still a slap in the face. She blinked and looked away, trying to clear the dampness that matted her lashes.
“Because he was impressed by how far I was willing to go for a man I hated. You and I have something in common,” she added with a bitter smile. “My loathing toward my father is as deep as yours toward Niko.” There was no humor in her, only despair as she added, “I used to think you and Val were such spoiled rich infants, throwing a tantrum at Niko when he had never hit you. Never sold your home out from under you or told you to throw yourself at a stranger and beg for mercy.”
Javiero’s nostrils flared right before he jumped to his feet and paced away. “When will your father be released? He’s safer in prison. I hope he knows that.”
“He’s not your problem. He’s mine,” she said miserably. “And Niko was a dream by comparison. He said his sons hadn’t shown him such fidelity and if I gave him that sort of allegiance, he would drop the charges and sell Stonewood back to me. He put the title in my name, then took the mortgage payments from the salary
