Heart of the Devil (The Forge Trilogy #3)(36)

Smith: Indy beat her father at poker in Monte Carlo.



Of course she did. Because that’s my girl. My smile dies as quickly as it came. Except she’s not. Not anymore.

I walk away from the bridge and outside into the wind whipping the Atlantic into six-to-eight-foot swells. I text back.



Forge: Keep her safe. If anything happens to her, it’s your head on the chopping block.

Smith: Yes, sir. Understood. She’s more cooperative now than she was. We’ll stay close.

Forge: You better. Where is she now?

Smith: Leaving her father. We’re on it.



I stare at the screen of my phone, wishing that I were the one standing there, watching her. Close to her.

Fuck. I’m a pathetic piece of shit. I gave her up. Ran her out. Fucking broke her goddamned heart. I don’t deserve another glimpse at paradise.

I jam the phone in my pocket and trudge back down to the engine room to take over for whoever is cleaning the bilge.

My penance. But it’ll never be enough.





33





India





As I walked away from my father in Monte Carlo, he tried to talk me into returning to Russia with him and forgetting Forge. I refused.

I still remember his stubborn expression as he said, “You will come. You must learn things . . . before it is too late.”

He wouldn’t tell me why it would be too late, so I left him with a promise that I would think about it.

He didn’t like that at all.

I departed Monte Carlo the next morning, eager to get home, because there was nothing else to learn in Monaco. A few hours after touching down, I’m already forming phase two of my plan. A knock comes on my door, and I freeze.

“Ms. Baptiste, your sister would like to see you,” Superman says through the door, where he is determined to stand all day.

After placing my espresso on the counter, I cross the room to unbolt my locks.

To distract myself from thoughts of Jericho during my sleepless night in Monte Carlo, I went through option after option for telling Summer about her mother and my father. I can’t keep it from her much longer, but I still don’t know how to tell her without breaking her heart.

As soon as I open the door, her red-rimmed eyes track over my face. I glance at Superman, but he shrugs as if to say, I have no idea what’s wrong with her.

“What did you say to her, Indy? Seriously? Could you not just let me have this one thing?” Summer swipes at a tear that falls, smearing her mascara across her cheek.

“What are you talking about? Are you okay? What happened?”

My protective instincts rage to the forefront as I pull her inside, but Summer snatches her arm from my grip with an accusing stare.

“Don’t act like you don’t know.”

“Know what? Tell me. Please.” Concern edges my tone, and I hate that I can’t reach out to her and fix whatever’s wrong. I close the door behind her as she marches into the living room.

“I got thrown out on my ass this morning when I showed up for work. Juliette was out of town yesterday, but she came in this morning and fired me and made this awful scene. She called me a whore like my sister.”

Oh, that bitch.

A cold calmness settles over me. “I am so sorry, Summer.”

“You should be! Now I’m never going to have a career in the fashion industry because she said she’s going to blackball me with every label on the planet.” Summer bursts into full-blown sobs.

I rush toward her and wrap my arms around her shaking shoulders, not caring if she wants my comfort or not. “I’m so sorry. I saw her in Monte Carlo. We had words. I didn’t even think—”

“About me?” She jerks away from me. “Of course you didn’t. Because what do I matter?”

My sister’s despair kills me. “I’m so sorry. You always matter. You know that. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t have married a stranger to save your life.”

“Don’t pretend that was for me! You wanted him anyway!”

Her anger hits me even harder, but it forces me to ask myself the question. Had I wanted him no matter what, then?

I was slightly terrified, yet intrigued, by Forge when he threw down his proposal in the form of a no-questions-asked favor. Under any other circumstances, I would have told him to shove the proposal up his ass. I did marry him for Summer, but that’s not why I wanted to stay married to him.

But he let me go . . . to be honorable. Because he didn’t let me choose. He forced my hand. And then he let me go, even though . . . he might have been falling in love with me.

Maybe we didn’t start out the right way, but that doesn’t matter to me anymore. All that matters is what happens now.

“See, I’m right,” my sister says when I don’t reply. She’s completely unaware of the epiphany I’m having.

“I’m sorry, Summer. Truly. Completely. What can I do to fix this for you?”

“You can’t.” She lifts her chin, her lips wobbling as she holds back a sob. “But Forge could. Juliette would listen to him if he told her not to blackball me.”

“If that’s what you want, that’s what will happen.”

Summer’s platinum-blond brows wing up. “How? You said he threw you out. It’s already over, Indy. God, Juliette loved rubbing it in my face.”