Masquerade (Swept Away #2.5)(15)

“Did they hurt you, Mother?” I asked gently, wiping her eyes. “Did they make you cry?”

“I cried many tears because of the Londons.” She nodded. “Tears I wish I could forget.”

“I won’t break any more toys, Mother, and I won’t be jealous. Never again,” I promised her solemnly.

“That’s my good boy.” She hugged me tightly. “Now I want you to go and apologize to Daniel.” She handed me a twenty-dollar bill. “And I want you to give them this.”

“But that’s what we were going to use to go to the movies!”

“I’m afraid there will be no movies tonight, Jakob.” She kissed the top of my head and stood up. “That’s a consequence of your actions, so be a good boy and don’t cry.”

“Yes, Mother.” I tucked the twenty-dollar note into my pocket and walked to the door. “I’ll be a good boy.”

I tried to remember that day every time I felt jealous about someone. My mother had been right, of course; acting on jealousy never caused anything good to happen. Though I was finding it hard to remember that as David told Larry and me about his growing relationship with Bianca. It had been going on for a couple of weeks now, and the more he told us about her, the worse I felt. I internalized it by telling myself that I was upset that David was going to be the one to bring her down when it should have been me, but I knew that my jealousy was about more than that. I knew that I wanted to get to know Bianca London myself. I wanted to talk to the woman with the alluring green-brown eyes and quick smile. I wanted to know if she was more like the woman she seemed to be in the coffee shop or if she was more at home in her fancy frock from the shareholders’ meeting.

I knew that I had nothing to be jealous of and that David wasn’t developing any real sort of relationship with her. Though it still pleased me to know that she hadn’t slept with him.

“I’m not going to sleep with her because I don’t want Roma to be upset,” David had explained to Larry and me during one of our meetings, though I knew that was a lie. David wouldn’t care about cheating on Roma. Just as she hadn’t seemed to care to have cheated on him.

“Is that why I haven’t seen her again?” I smirked. “Scared that I’ll let it slip to Roma that you’re seeing someone else?”

“Roma knows I’m going on dates with another lady.” David looked at me angrily. “There’s nothing you could tell her that she doesn’t know.”

“I see.”

“And for the record, she said you were inappropriate with her at the ball.” He made a face at me. “She won’t tell me what, but she said she didn’t like you and doesn’t want to see you again.”

“I see.” I nodded and licked my lips. Stupid bitch was probably scared that David would figure out what had happened between us if he saw us together. She’d been very quick to drop to her knees and suck me off. I wondered what David would say if he knew that little tidbit. Well, I wasn’t going to tell him. I’d only be doing it to rile him up, and I couldn’t afford to rile him up at this moment.

“So yeah, she has nothing to worry about with me and she knows that.” He looked at his phone. “In fact, she’s encouraging me to find out exactly what Bianca knows, though I don’t think it’s much.” He looked at Larry. “She keeps asking me to meet Mattias and she wants access to the company files. I don’t even know what to tell her anymore. I don’t want to keep telling her that Mattias has blown us off. I’m not sure how much longer she’s going to believe that lie.”

“I could pretend to be Mattias if you want.” I spoke up without thinking. I didn’t really want to get even more involved, but I did want to see her again.

“No.” Larry shook his head. “That’s not a good idea.” He frowned. “Has anyone seen Steve the last couple of days? I’ve been calling him and he hasn’t returned my calls.”

“No idea.” David shrugged and I shook my head.

Larry pursed his lips and sighed. “It’s not like him to just disappear.”

“He’s been acting funny for months.” David stood up. “I swear, he’s so awkward. I have no idea why Dad brought him into the company.”

“I agree.” I stood as well. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“Your father knew what he was doing.” Larry frowned. “You should both treat Steve a lot better. He’s helped out this company a lot more than you’ll both ever know.”

And with that, we all split up. We were playing the waiting game. Larry and David were waiting to see what Bianca would do next and if she had access to any information that would put the company in trouble. And I was waiting for them to be scared enough to move on to the next step.

I was ready to take Bianca to the island.

I was ready to be alone with her. I told myself that it was to see if she had any information about my parents and her parents’ involvement. Maybe she’d know exactly what it was her parents had done to stop my father from being with my mother. Maybe she’d know what secrets my mother took to her grave. I wanted my revenge on her family, but I also wanted to know why. I denied the fact that I also wanted to be alone with her for another reason. I ignored the fact that her face popped into my mind at odd hours and that I had taken to reading all of her movie reviews. I didn’t want to think about that too hard. I couldn’t allow myself to think of her as anyone other than Bianca London, daughter of the people who had indirectly killed my mother.