I rolled my neck. Yeah. Right.
“Fine.” West exhaled. “I’ll go first, but then I’ll choose your secret.” Before I could say Yeah fucking right, he continued. “Let me tell you what my father plans to do. He’s been after that coin since the day of that funeral. He plans to use it to get a majority stake in Crowne Industries.”
“He must have been pretty fucking pissed when you gave your coin to me,” I said.
West looked away, but quickly looked back. “I assume your grandfather is planning the same.”
I held in a scoff. Of course my grandfather was going to do that. All that New Era of Crowne was bullshit—they were doing the same fucking thing that divided them years ago.
“Once he’s secured Crowne Industries, he plans for me to marry Gemma as a final fuck you to Beryl Crowne.”
I folded my arms. “Gemma has been engaged for almost a decade.”
West shrugged a shoulder. “Beryl has a habit of marrying his children and grandchildren off for stability. It’s my father’s belief that we’ll offer a more enticing package: a piece of his old kingdom.”
My grandfather tried to marry Abigail off, he succeeded in marrying me off, and he’d had Gemma engaged for years. Yeah, he had a habit, all right.
Gemma’s fiancé wasn’t a great man, but he isn’t terrible. He was just your average, run-of-the-mill privileged rich asshole. But West?
I saw red, had West’s collar beneath my fists before I blinked. “Stay the fuck away from my sister.”
West gripped my hands over his collar. “I don’t fucking want your sister. You know my end goal.”
“Story? She doesn’t want you either. You have no stake in this battle, du Lac.”
“Maybe, but I’ll fight all the same.”
I laughed, bitter and caustic. “You raped her—” West flinched, and I paused, focusing on that reaction. That split second where his mask slipped. “You don’t like hearing that?” I asked softly. “That you raped her?”
West shoved me off. “Dunno, Crowne. Are you proud of the way you treated my sister for over a decade?”
A stalemate of silence passed. As the fire dwindled, West’s features were shadowed and hardened. For a moment, he looked a little like the older kid who’d once pulled me from my bed in the dark of our dorms, slamming me against the icy window.
>
Why the fuck was my sister crying?
I ground my teeth. “It’s not the same thing.”
West laughed, waving a hand in the air like whatever. “Now you. Give me a secret.”
“My grandfather—”
“Nope, my choice, and I don’t want information on your grandpa. I want info on Story. What does she like now?”
I guess that was the problem with inviting a snake into your bed.
They slithered.
I rubbed my jaw, tense from grinding my teeth. “Pretty fucking vague question, West.”
“Fine, I’ll narrow it down. How do you get her off?”
I focused on my breathing, on the in and out of hot air from my nostrils. It wasn’t even fucking day one of this, and I was picturing slamming his head into the floor.
“I think we need some ground rules,” I said at last.
He arched a brow. “Ground rules?”