Disillusioned (Swept Away, #2)(52)

I could feel tears falling from my eyes as I turned to him. “So why even bother asking me to be your girlfriend?”

“Because I wanted you to know for one brief moment, before everything exploded and got bad again, that I really care about you. I want you to know that in a perfect world we’d be together and we’d be happy. That’s what I wish we could have. I want it to be as simple as Bianca and Jakob, Jakob and Bianca—but it’s never going to be that way for us.”

“It could be,” I whispered, and grabbed his hand. “We could forget everything. We could just move on and pretend nothing ever happened. We could tell David that—”

“Bianca.” Jakob closed his eyes. “We will never be able to forget this and just move on. There are still so many unanswered questions. We owe it to ourselves and each other to figure this all out.”

“Even if it ruins us?”

“We didn’t have a beautiful beginning.” He shrugged. “It seems only natural that we won’t have a beautiful ending.”

“So we just settle for a beautiful middle?”

“No.” He leaned forward and kissed me hard, his eyes burning into mine. “We settle for an explosive middle. We settle for a middle that makes up for the end of the world. We settle for a middle that we can carry to our graves.”

“I’m scared, Jakob.” I kissed him back. “What are we going to find out?”

“I wish I knew.” His eyes darkened and he held my hands. “I just want you to remember that I never intended to hurt you. I never intended for any of this to happen.”

“I know.” I nodded. And I did. A new honesty was in Jakob’s eyes, one I’d never seen there before. True emotion shone through from his soul to mine. Whatever we found out together might break us apart forever, but it wasn’t either of our faults. We were innocent parties caught up in the webs our parents had weaved. “I loved my father,” I said tenderly. “I loved my father so much, but I wish he’d let this all die with him.” I rubbed the tears from my eyes. “I wish he’d just let me be.”



“Blake’s calling me.” I grabbed my ringing phone from the coffee table and answered the question in Jakob’s eyes as he stared at me.

“Okay.” He pursed his lips slightly, and I knew that for all his talk, he still wasn’t happy that Blake and I were friends.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“You’re not going to believe what I found.” Blake’s voice bounded with excitement through the phone and I smiled.

“Tell me!” I said eagerly, and moved away from Jakob, whose finger was running down my arm and making its way to my breast. “Stop,” I hissed at him as he sat up and leaned forward to kiss me.

“What?” Blake sounded confused, and Jakob grinned at me in response.

“Sorry, not you. What did you find?”

“Seems our good old friend Steve is pretty well connected.”

“Connected? With who?”

“So there are photographs of Steve as a boy with many different executives from the Bradley Corporation.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” I felt slightly disappointed at his report. That was nothing new. “Hold on, Blake. Hey, Jakob, how did you and your brother know Steve?”

“He was an intern for my dad when he was a teenager.” Jakob continued playing with my breasts as he spoke. “He’s been with the company for a while. My dad trusted him a lot and he’s been on the payroll for many years.”

“You’re with Jakob, aka Mattias?” Blake’s voice was low. “Are you joking?”

“I’m with Jakob, yes, but he’s not Mattias, Blake. In fact, there is no Mattias.” I sighed, not wanting to have to tell the whole story. “They made Mattias up.”

“They made Mattias up?” Blake was in awe. “Like Parcher in A Beautiful Mind?”

“Yeah, though they told me Tyler Durden in Fight Club.”

“Holy shit! Let me get this straight—Mattias Bradley is a figment of the imagination? Was Jeremiah Bradley crazy? Did he have split personality? Manic disorder? Did he suffer from paranoid schizophrenia?”

“Blake, he just made up a fake kid to help protect his real kid from gold diggers,” I said, aware that Jakob was listening intently to every word of the conversation.

“Oh, okay, not as exciting then.”

“So anything else on Steve, aside from the fact that he was tight with the Bradleys?”

“Bianca, he wasn’t just tight with the Bradleys. He was tight with your father as well.”

“What?” I fell back against the couch, shaking my head. “That doesn’t make sense. How do you know that?”

“How does he know what?” Jakob’s eyes searched mine. “What did he say?”

“Blake says that Steve was friends with my father as well.”

“Are you sure you want to tell Jakob everything I tell you?” Blake asked warily. “Are you sure we trust this guy?”

“I trust him.” I gave Jakob a quick smile.

“If you’re sure . . .” Blake sounded uncertain.

“I am. Anything else?”

“Yeah.” Blake’s voice got excited again. “So Steve lives in a shitty apartment in Washington Heights, right?”