Page 88 of The Final Gambit
“Caringis a recipe for getting hurt, and I haven’t let anyone hurt me in a very long time.” Eve smiled again, like she was the one who had the upper hand, not the one pinned to the ground. “In all fairness, I did warn you, Avery. I told you that if I were you, I wouldn’t trust me, either. I told you that I am a person who will do anything—anything—to get what I want. I told you thatinvisibleis the one thing that I will never be.”
“And Toby,” I said, staring at her, sick understanding coming over me, “wanted you to hide.”
“Blake wants me by his side,” Eve said, zeal in her voice. “I just have to prove myself first.”
“You don’t have one of the seals yet, do you?” I asked. I thought about Nan saying that Vincent Blake didn’t give anyone—not even family—a free ride.
“I’m going to get one,” Eve told me, her voice burning with the fury of purpose. “Give me that USB, and maybe you can get what you want, too.” She paused, then hit a nail right through my heart. “Toby.”
I hated even hearing her say his name. “How could you do this?” I said, thinking of the picture Blake had sent, the bruises on his face—and then of the pictures of Toby and Eve on Eve’s camera roll. “He trusted you.”
“It’s easy to make people trust you,” Eve commented softly, “if you let them see you bleed.” I thought about the bruises she’d shown up here sporting and wondered if she’dtoldsomeone to hit her. “You can spend your whole life trying not to hurt,” Eve continued, her voice high and clear, “but making people hurtforyou? That’s real power.”
I thought of Toby telling me that he had two daughters.
“Give me the USB,” Eve said again, her eyes still blazing, “and you won’t ever have to see me again, Avery. I’ll earn my seal, and you can have this place and those boys all to yourself. Win-win.”
She was delusional. Oren had her pinned. She’d come at mewith a gun. She was in no position to negotiate. “I’m not giving you anything,” I said.
A flash of movement.I whipped my head toward the chapel door. Grayson stood there, backlit, his eyes locked on Oren, who was still restraining Eve.
“Let her go,” Grayson ordered.
“She’s a threat.” Oren clipped the words. “She pulled a gun on Avery. The only place I amlettingher go is far, far away from all of you.”
“Grayson.” I felt sick. “This isn’t what it looks like—”
“Help me,” Eve begged him. “Get the USB that Avery has. Don’t let them take this from me, too.”
Grayson stared at her a moment longer, then walked slowly toward me. He took the USB from my hand. I just stood there. Feeling like my insides had been hollowed out, I watched as he turned back to Eve. “I can’t let you have this,” Grayson said softly.
“Grayson—” Eve and I said his name in unison.
“I heard.”
Eve was unabashed. “Whatever you heard, youknowthat I am not the villain here, Grayson. Your grandfather—he owed me better. He owed you better, and you and your family owe Averynothing.”
Grayson’s eyes met mine. “I owe her more than she realizes.”
A dam broke inside me, and all of the hurt I hadn’t let myself feel came flooding out, and with it, everything else I felt—and had ever felt—for Grayson Hawthorne.
“You’re as bad as your grandfather was,” Eve tried. “Look at me, Grayson.Look at me.”
He did.
“If you let Oren kick me out of here or call the police, if you try to force me to go back to Vincent Blake empty-handed, I swear to you, I will find a cliff to jump off of.” There was something fierce and mad and savage in Eve’s voice—something that sold that threat completely. “Emily’s blood is on your hands. Do you really want mine there, too?”
Grayson stared at her. I could see him reliving the moment he’d found Emily. I could see the effect that Eve’s specific threat—acliff—had on him. I could see Grayson Davenport Hawthorne drowning, fighting the undertow in vain. And then I saw him stop fighting and let the memories and the grief and the truth wash over him.
And then Grayson took a breath. “You’re a big girl,” he told Eve. “You make your own choices. Whatever you do after Oren sends you packing—that’s on you.”
I wondered if he really meant that. If he believed it.
“This is your chance,” Eve said, fighting Oren’s grip. “This is redemption, Grayson. I’m yours, and you could be mine. It’s your fault Emily’s dead. You could have stopped her—”
Grayson took a single step toward her. “I shouldn’t have had to.” He looked down at the USB in his hand. “And this would be useless to you.”
“You can’t know that.” Eve was a wild thing now, fighting Oren with everything she had.
