Trusting You (Second Chances #2)(56)

Mason glared at him, but turned a softer look to me, raising his eyebrows for direction. I nodded. “It’s okay. I’ll find you in just a bit,” I reassured him.

His devilish smirk was spine-tingling, and he focused it on Daniel. “Yes, you will.”

Daniel steered me away with his hand on my lower back like it belonged there. I sidled out of his grasp, but he chuckled and put it back. “Brett’s not going to see, baby,” he teased. “He’s too busy to notice anyway.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You love playing with fire, don’t you?”

He chuckled. “Yep, and you’re what ignites it.”

Remembering what Claire said, it all made perfect sense. Deep down I could sense that Daniel was just trying to use me to get what he wanted. I had known it all along, but I was done letting him play games with me, and I was done playing them.

Gripping Daniel’s arm, I pulled him down the long hallway, not knowing where I was going, but hopefully to somewhere I could talk to him and get some answers. “So soon, baby,” Daniel muttered mischievously. “I figured it would take a while.”

“Trust me,” I growled. “It’s not what you think.” When we got to the end of the hall, I flipped on the light in one of the rooms and pushed Daniel in it. Of all the spaces I could’ve picked, I had to pick the one with the massive king size bed.

I slammed the door and put my back to it. “I’m done, Daniel. I’m not going to let you play games with me anymore.”

A surprised look crossed his face, but then it turned serious. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I sneered,. “I’m talking me, you idiot. Stop trying to make it look like you want me back. You want something from me, don’t you? Maybe money perhaps …”

“And why would I need your money?” he asked, tilting his head to the side, studying me. “If I recall correctly I think I’m the one who has more money than you. Is it so bad that I wanted you back? Why does there always have to be an ulterior motive with you?”

He stalked closer to me, almost predatory, and caged me in with his hands against the door. My insides screamed for me to get away, that the look in his eyes weren’t just a simple I want to f*ck you look. I swallowed hard and sputtered my words, “You may want to get me in bed again, Daniel, but I know that’s not all you want. You’re using me for something and I want to know what it is.”

He leaned lower and pinned me with a steely glare. “You have no clue what I want, Melissa. I want it all … I want you. Stop fighting me when I know you want to give in. You’re trying to make up excuses not to come back. Are you scared of me, baby?”

Pressing me hard against the door, he grasped my chin and was about to kiss me when I heard Brett’s angry voice along with someone else’s; he was in the room next to us. What the hell was he doing and who was he with? Immediately, Daniel cupped his hand over my mouth to keep me quiet.

“Not a word,” he whispered in my ear.

Whatever was going on next door wasn’t good, but I listened just as intently as Daniel was. Who was in there with him?

“How could you not tell me?” Brett asked angrily.

The other voice replied in a softer tone, but I could tell it sounded like a man in his later years, “I tried, but you never answer your phone when I call. This was the only way.”

Brett scoffed. “Do you have any idea what you’ve gotten yourself into? Do you even know about the guy you’re dealing with?”

Daniel stiffened and closed his hand tighter over my mouth, breathing hard and gritting his teeth.

The other man spoke, “I know he’s a man that will do anything to get what I want and that’s what he did. He got me you, right here, and right now. I didn’t know of another way.”

Brett growled, “Are you f*cking kidding me? Daniel is a scam artist and a thief. The land he wants to build your billion dollar mansion on isn’t even his land. It’s his sister’s and he owns no right to it. You have no clue what he threatened my girlfriend with just to keep her mouth shut, not to mention the money he stole from his other clients just to make this possible.”

“What the f*ck?” Daniel hissed quietly, glaring at me with his rage-filled brown eyes. “You told him?”

I closed my eyes in response and squeezed them tight. Daniel grabbed a fistful of my hair and jerked my head back, hard. “Open your eyes and answer me, dammit.” Reluctantly, I opened my eyes slowly. I had no clue what was going to happen now.

“Did you tell him everything?” he asked. When I nodded, he gripped my hair harder, making my muffled gasp sound like a whimper. “Fuck, f*ck, f*ck …” he repeated anxiously. “What am I going to do now?”

The other man’s voice next door grew louder. “Look, I had no clue Daniel was going to go through extreme measures to get me what I wanted, much less commit fraud and embezzle money. I’ll call my people now and get it all handled.”

“Yeah, like you handled Mom,” Brett countered.

Wide-eyed, I gasped when the realization of who Brett was talking to sunk in. Tears began to build behind my eyes, and my chest ached. Brett wasn’t with just anyone next door; he was with his father. His father was the investor who wanted to build on the land in California. He set the whole thing up so that he could get Brett in the same room with him and talk to him.”