“Those were people’s lives your father stole. The money you lived off and then threw away was stained with blood off your father’s hands, and you knew it. None of that meant anything to you.”
He sneers. “You’re no fucking saint, Rush. Reeling me in, dangling a multi-million dollar construction project in front of me like a goddamn lure, knowing I’d take your bait. You had no intention of building that project with me. Just like when you invited me to your poker game knowing I was desperate for a windfall. You only wanted to watch me lose.”
I stare at him, feeling no remorse for those deceptions. I needed a means of getting close to him, of earning his trust—just like he’d done with my father. The difference is, I didn’t put the rope around Hathaway’s neck; I simply handed it to him and waited to see if he would do the work himself. As I expected, he didn’t disappoint.
“Rush set me up from day one, Mel. Everything he did was to destroy me.”
Melanie listens in utter silence. After becoming so close to her that she almost feels a part of me, now I can’t tell what she’s thinking at all.
“I should’ve told you.” I swallow past the knot of bile that’s forming in the back of my throat. “As soon as I realized you had no idea about Hathaway’s past or who he was, I should have told you, Melanie. Fuck. I’m sorry—”
“Don’t believe him, Mel. Come with me instead.” Hathaway takes a step forward under the spinning lights of the strobes. My men situated behind him are coiled vipers ready to strike on my command. If I turn them loose on him now, I’ll lose Melanie for good. I see that cold truth in her uncertain eyes.
“I should’ve told you everything,” I murmur, self-loathing making my voice scrape like ashes on my tongue. “I should have told you how much you mean to me, too. Because you do, Melanie. Christ, you mean everything to me.”
Gently, I reach out to her, trying to show her I mean no harm. I never could where she’s concerned.
“He’s playing you just like he played me,” Hathaway urges, his voice rising in hysteria. “He killed my project, Mel. I lost my fucking job because of him. How long do you think his interest in you will last now that he’s got what he wanted out of ruining me?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I warn him as Melanie draws out of my reach, my gaze never leaving hers for a second. “He’s wrong. What we have together has nothing to do with him. You have to believe that. Please, let me prove it to you.”
Hathaway cackles now. “This son of a bitch is still playing you, don’t you see that? He’s using you. For fuck’s sake, Mel, be smart and think about it. When he could have any other woman he wants, why the hell would he choose you? ”
I see her flinch at that cutting remark and rage explodes inside me. “You fucking bastard.”
When I lunge toward Hathaway, Melanie’s voice stops me the way nothing else could.
“Jared, don’t.”
I wheel back to face her, my breath heaving out of my chest. “He’s wrong. What he said isn’t true at all.”
She stares at me. “Which part? The fact that you used me to get back at Daniel? Or that you’re still using me, even now?”
My sternum feels as though a jackhammer is blasting into it. She’s slipping away from me. I can see it in her anguished eyes. She doesn’t believe anything I’ve said. “Melanie, please forgive me—”
“I’m taking her out of here,” Hathaway interrupts. He makes his move, jolting forward and snagging her by the wrist. She tries to jerk loose and he clamps down so hard she cries out.
My fist flies at him like a reflex. It connects with his jaw, snapping his head back on his shoulders. He goes down to the floor like dead weight, half-dazed and losing his grasp on Melanie.
I nod to my staff and they swoop in. “Call the police and tell them we’ve got an intoxicated patron for them to pick up.”
“Glad to,” one the men snarls, before the security detail drags him away.
“Show’s over,” I bark to the spectators who’ve gathered to watch my life fall apart before my eyes. “We’re closed for the night, effective immediately.”
The crowd moves off. In the next moment, the music stops and the lights come on. My staff starts corralling people off the dance floor and away from the bar.
Without a word, Melanie starts walking away from me.
“Wait.” My stride carries me in front of her. “Please . . . wait. Hear me out.”
Her stormy blue-gray eyes seem huge, brimming with hurt and unspilled tears. “What more do I need to hear, Jared? Are you going to try to tell me that getting revenge on Daniel for his father’s sins isn’t the entire reason we’re together?”
“It’s not.”
She scoffs, scathing me with her doubt. “You wanted to hurt him. You wanted to take something away from him as payback for what his father took from you.”
“Yes, I did.” I shake my head, unable to justify any of those motivations when she’s looking at me with such raw despair. “I wanted him to feel what it was like to lose everything that mattered to him. Including you. Especially you.”
“So, you used me. Just like he said.” Her mouth twists with pain. “Why else would you have ever wanted to paint me?”
“No. Jesus, no.” I want to touch her, but I know there’s no soothing I can offer her now. Only the truth. “You’re all I thought about after I saw you here with your friends that night. Not because of Hathaway. Because I’d never seen a woman I craved more than you.”
“Did you know Daniel and I were in a relationship?”
I nod soberly. “I also knew he wasn’t who he pretended to be. The private investigator I
