Page 17 of Valentine Masquerade
I let out a deep breath and type out a message, needing to gauge where her mind is at.
Hunter: Are you having second thoughts?
She chews on her bottom lip as she stares at her phone, placing it facedown. I think she’s going to ignore my question or leave me on read, but then she picks it up, her fingers sweeping over the screen before my phone vibrates with her incoming reply.
Our Obsession: No x I’ll see you tonight x
“Thank fuck for that,” I say out loud just as Harrison walks in, staring down at his phone.
We share this number via the cloud so we can both message from the same account.
“Everything set up for tonight?” I ask him.
He looks up, his lips curling in a smile. “Yep, I’ve made sure that the area is kept strictly off-limits and all cameras are off until we leave.”
“That’s good.” Because when she finds out, it will go one of two ways. But either way, we’ll have the upper hand and lead her right where we want her. First, though, we want her to actually experience the ball, which might be short-lived when all is revealed.
I glance back at the monitor fixed to my wall as Ari starts stuffing some things into her bag.
“You know she’s going to lose it when she finds out we’ve been watching her all this time.”
I shrug.
“Are you even sorry about invading her privacy like this?” he asks.
“No,” I reply instantly. “You?”
He shakes his head. “Nope, not even an iota.”
She’s our perfect obsession.
“You know I don’t plan on hiding. Once she’s ours and we’ve claimed her, there’ll be no more sneaking around,” Harrison says, palming the back of his neck.
I nod in agreement. “I know. And I’m with you there, brother. But it means there’ll be some big changes around here, starting with Dad.”
He pulls out the chair behind my desk and spins it around to face me before he takes a seat.
“It’s a long time coming, if you ask me. We should have sorted him out way before now.”
“Maybe, but this was about him getting his dues, and he will.”
We both watch the screen as Ari leaves her loft, closing the door behind her.
“And what about Marion? Are we still in agreement that we offer her some help?”
I turn back to face him. “Yeah, maybe Ari can talk some sense into her if Dad’s out of the picture.”
That man has no idea what’s about to befall him. As much as we loathe the man, he did do something right. He brought Ari into our lives. But as for the rest, he’s pretty much swanning around like he owns the place when that’s far from the truth. The difference now is we’re about to call him out on it.
He created the perfect family portrait to the outside world, but he’s not a family man. Not really. He didn’t deserve our mother, and he sure as hell doesn’t deserve Marion either.
He forgets our mum raised us better than that. Maybe that’s why he was concerned he couldn’t get away with treating her like a subservient; she always stood her ground.
For the most part, it might outwardly look as though we’re the same, but we’re far from it. We played a part.
Am I saying we haven’t been arseholes to Ari, made little jibes? Of course we have. But if she really looks closely, even she’ll admit we could have been so much worse. Is that an excuse for our behaviour? Not really, but it’s done now.
Time to put things right.
