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TRIGGER WARNING

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*****

Lila

She sat in the Penthouse, a gag in her mouth, her hands behind her back and tied to the chair, and her ankles tied to its legs. He hadn't made the bonds super-tight. She could probably get out of them eventually. But she knew he'd done that on purpose. He was still trying to make her believe he wasn't the bad guy here.

He sat across from her, scowling. She just glared at him over the towel between her teeth.

He shook his head and looked away, like he was choosing his words. But then he took a deep breath and when he turned back, his blue eyes were sad.

Then he dropped his head forward, the anger seeping out of him, along with the tension. He rubbed his face and swore quietly. "I didn't want this to be a fight, Lila. For real. Can you please… can you please listen to me? Hear the words I'm saying and just… just understand that you're right, that I'm jealous of him But, that doesn't mean I don't care about him. And I know what he did for me. And even if I think he's fucked in the head, he's still my brother. And this—all of this—was for him. I promise. You'll see."

Cursing again he stood and leaned over her. "I'm going to take the gag out of your mouth so you can talk to me, but please, just let me tell you—" he peeled the towel off and she was spitting words the second it was off her tongue.

"I will never listen to another word out of your mouth!" she snarled. "You betrayed Dane and me and the staff… you betrayed everyone for that psycho!"

"No, I didn't."

"Then who's been sharing all our secrets? Huh? Who took Tish if it wasn't you? Who told Doug where Dane had hidden me."

"I didn't know where Dane had hidden you and it drove me crazy! If I'd known you were so close I would have done the security completely differently—he wouldn't have gotten you! Can't you see, Lila? By knowing what he knew, I was able to make plans against him that looked legitimate—and just blame them on Dane!"

She shook her head. "I don't believe you. But it doesn't matter, anyway. You know you can't keep me here, right? You know someone's going to come looking eventually. What are you going to do, Chris? Kill me? Because I will never believe you! Never! Are you going to destroy Dane by destroying me?"

Chris stared. He was pure, cool determination. "You have zero clue what hell you'd be creating for Dane if you blew the whistle on this."

She glared at him, but shook her head. "He's your brother. I can't believe you'd do this to him. He hurt for you!"

"And I'm trying to save him like he saved me!" Chris roared, the veins in his forehead popping. "Holy shit, woman, do you ever listen?"

"No."

"You're going to listen. And then I'm going to untie you. But you're going to listen first, because there's so much more going on here than you can even realize."

Lila doubted it, but eventually, she didn't have any choice except to listen. Because she couldn't get loose, and what he had to say…

Damned if it didn't start to make sense.

*****

An hour later her head was swimming and she didn't know what to think. He had an answer for everything.

Yes, he'd fed certain information to Doug—he'd had to, otherwise he'd have been caught. But to his mind, he received more than he was able to share. And he'd always been careful to keep the most important things—the things Tish didn't know—to himself.

He'd almost gotten caught that way, more than once.

"Every so often she'd know something that I didn't realize she knew. Once we reported to Doug differently and I was able to play it off—she was the assistant. Dane didn't tell her everything. But one other time, I decided last minute it wasn't a big deal to let Doug know. And it turned out, if I hadn't, he would have called me out. Tish had already told him the day before. I got extra careful after that."

When Lila snorted, Chris whirled on her. "You do realize that if I hadn't been working with his dad, we never would have gotten you out of there? He literally just let me walk you out. That whole thing about sneaking you… it was just so you and Dane would believe it. He made the plan with me because he knew Dane would let you go—and he knew that as soon as you were out of Dane's sight, Dane would be insane knowing that his father controlled who was around you and what happened to you."

'And if he tells you to kill me because Dane doesn't do something he wants?" she muttered.

"I won't do it. We'll lose that insight. But understand, Lila: I know exactly where Dane is. I know how to get to him. And I know how to get him out."

"What?"

"Have you missed the entire point of everything I've been saying? My goal with Doug was always twofold: To position myself to take him out, or to be in place if he got his hands on Dane. I mean, that was before you even came on the scene—and I never imagined you two would… well, that's not true. As soon as you were there, I could see the attraction between you. You guys weren't nearly as sneaky as you thought you were, by the way." He said, his nose wrinkled in contempt. "I really thought my brother had better game than that."

"I'm sure he'd say the same about you," she snapped.

Chris shook his head. "That's another thing—where are you at with all this? This line about maybe leaving Dane, about not believing him anymore, that's just bullshit, right? Something for me, or whoever, to feed to Doug. Because even though I think you're nuts to stick with him after that, it seems like you two were pretty solid. And I'm guessing you've got some kind of romantic plot trumped up in your head so you can forgive him?" His mouth twisted on the words like they tasted bad.

Lila's heart raced and she held his gaze then forced herself to look away and down. "Probably."

"Lila—"

"I'm waiting to hear from John. That last one… I need to know if it's real."

Chris shook his head. "You're fucking mental, you know that? You and Dane deserve each other."

"You want me to believe that you're trying to help him when you say shit like that, Chris?"

"No, I'm his brother. That's what we do. You? You have a choice—and you made the wrong one.

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really."

"The wrong choice about Dane, or the wrong brother?"

His eyes flew wide and he turned on her again. "Don't flatter yourself."

"Dane isn't the only one who shows more of his emotions than he thinks, Chris. You think I haven't noticed? You think Dane didn't notice?"

"Shut the fuck up."

"Is that what all of this little deception, bringing me out of Doug's hands, is about? Is that what Doug told you? That you could have me if Dane was gone? Or is that just your idea? You get Dane killed and then comfort me until I fall into your arms?"

"Shut up, Lila, you don't know what you're talking about."

"Really? Because from where I'm sitting, I had a husband and a lover and he was amazing, and then you two got your hands on him and everything went to hell. I know the business has been in trouble and you didn't give Dane the answers about what was going on with Becky—but it sounds like you had them. And what about Tish? You were in on that together, right? And yet our entire focus was scrambled trying to find her and help her when you knew where she was the whole time."

"You think I could feed you stuff like that without getting myself killed?"

"I think you're ttelling yourself you're the good guy, when really you're just the guy who's fucked up everyone else's lives for his own gain, and doesn't have the balls to admit it."

"Shut up!" he roared. "You have no idea—"

"I don't want your ideas! I want your traitorous ass out of our lives and in jail where it should be! You covered up a murder, Chris!"

"Shut up!"

"No! I won't shut up! Are you going to kill me, now, to keep yourself safe?"

"Don't fucking tempt me! If you're stupid enough to think I'm making this up, if you won't listen, you're going to get yourself killed anyway—you'd wish it was me who took you out, because Doug would hrut you first, you realize that, right?"

"Are you threatening me with… an easier death?" she said, her heart pounding. Were they really having this conversation?

"No! For fuck's sake, Lila, I'm trying to get you to see that I'm on your side!"

"I'm on no side that includes a rat-bastard like you, Chris. Never."

He cursed again and again, red-faced and veins popping, he planted himself in front of her. "I'm the only one who can keep you safe now, you fucking idiot!"

"Then I guess I don't want to be safe, because I'm never trusting you again! Kill me if that's what you're going to do, because it's what it'll take to keep me quiet about what you are!"

He shook his head and his hands fisted. "Don't do it, Lila. I told you… don't make me do it."

"Why? You've been a part of taking EVERYTHING FROM ME!"

Chris exploded.