Cruel Money (Cruel 1)

“Because you don’t deserve her,” he roared at me from across the room. He clenched his hands into fists, breathing deeply. Then he released them as the tension seemed to leave him. “You don’t deserve a girl that amazing.”

“What the fuck does that even mean?” I demanded. Then I saw what I hadn’t seen before. This couldn’t be reality. “Do you…like her?”

“Just now catching on?” Lewis asked sardonically.

“What? How? When?” I stammered.

“I thought she was gorgeous the moment she walked into the beach house and yelled at you. Then when she drank straight out of that whiskey bottle and held her own against us. Totally out of her element and totally alive. And then a million moments since then. But it was her words…” Lewis held his hands up, as if he could barely get it out. I hardly recognized him. I had never seen him like this. “It was her books that really won me over.”

“You’ve read her books? She won’t even let me read them.”

He shrugged. But his next words were chilling. “You need to tell her about the bet….or I will.”

“You’re not serious.”

But looking at him…I knew he was.

He really was.

I had to tell her.

I stared at the elevator that led up to my penthouse and wondered how the hell I was going to break this to her. I’d lose her. She’d been shaken when she called Lewis. Me confirming it…that would only break her. One more thing on top of everything else.

But I still had to do it. It was the right thing to do.

I took the elevator upstairs and waited for Totle to come attack me. I scratched his head. “Okay, Aristotle, make this easier for me, man. Help me out.”

I kissed the top of his head and then followed him inside.

But what I found when I entered was Natalie sitting on the couch, sobbing.

“Natalie?” I asked, striding toward her and enveloping her in my arms in one big rush.

“The…vacation home agency…called,” she gasped out between sobs.

“Oh shit, really?” Guess Lark hadn’t gotten to my mother in time. Fuck!

“They said that…I was terminated. They’re removing my account and sending…final payment.”

“I am so sorry, baby. I’m so, so sorry.”

I rocked her back and forth in my arms, as I had back at the beach house. One punch after another just kept coming.

“No, Penn, I’m sorry,” she said, swiping at her eyes. “I shouldn’t have said those things to you. I was just mad. And now, this. I don’t know. I can’t keep it together.”

“Hey, you have nothing to apologize for. Nothing.”

“You sure? Because I was pretty mean. I shouldn’t have said those things to you.”

I tilted her chin up to look me in the eyes. “Forget about it. I’m just sorry about the agency. I tried to get Lark to talk sense into my mother, but she must not have gotten to her in time.”

“Well, thank you for trying. It was kind of inevitable anyway.” Natalie’s shoulders shook one more time. “And then Katherine was here, being a total bitch.”

“What did she want?”

“Ugh! Nothing. She acted like she wanted to help me out, but I really think she’s in love with you and trying to break us up.”

Her blue eyes looked up into mine, so trusting, and I knew then…I had to do it.

“Natalie, I…need to talk to you for a minute.”

“Okay,” she said uncertainly. She wiped at her eyes again. “I’m kind of a mess. This has not been the easiest day.”

“No, I suspect not.”

“What is it?”

“I…” I opened my mouth to tell her. To get the words out. But they wouldn’t budge. “My…my mother did this because of me. Not you.”

“I mean…I know she said that, Penn, but you don’t have to blame yourself.”

“No, she said she’d give you your job back or at least not talk to the agency if…if I went back to work for the company.”

“Well, that’s awful!” Natalie cried. Her eyes were angry again. That sadness replaced by fury. “She can’t do that to you. That’s blackmail. How dare she use your affection for me against you.”

“But…I should have done it,” I said out loud for the first time. “It would have saved your career.”

“At what cost?” she gasped. “The loss of your career and life and passion and soul? No, Penn, that is not an even trade. And if you think that I’m going to blame you for this, you’re wrong.”

“There’s more,” I said cautiously.

“What?”

I needed to contradict her. I needed to tell her the real reason this was my fault. But that look. That look of adoration in her eyes. I couldn’t break this. Even if it was an illusion. I couldn’t break her heart along with anything else.

“I want you to stay here,” I told her.

She nodded. “Okay. I’ll stay until my flight on Saturday.”

“No, Natalie.” I took her hands in mine. “I want you to move in with me.”