Page 177 of Money Reigns
Olivia
Aring.
Warren Beaumont was serious.
A fucking ring.
I just chose a ring.
A laugh claws out of me, too high, too sharp, bubbling hysterical as I rush down the hall. My office door clicks shut behind me, the slam ricocheting in my bones as I press my back to the wood, chest heaving.
I squeeze my eyes shut, my breaths jagged, shallow, useless. I try to breathe. I try to think.
What the hell just happened?
Then suddenly, I feel it.
A prickle along my skin. The faintest shift in the air. The scent of something familiar, a cologne I haven’t smelled in weeks.
I open my eyes.
Brody is inches away.
His hand clamps over my mouth before I can scream.
“Shh,” he whispers, urgent. “Stay quiet.”
My whole body jerks, panic a wildfire in my chest, but I nod, stiff.
He waits a beat, then slowly pulls his hand away.
His voice is low, urgent. “When I was in Seattle, helping Declan Brooks I started noticing weird shit that got me thinkingabout War. About the way he is. All these billionaires, Liv. They’re the fucking same.”
He glances around the room like it might be wired.
A scoff slips out before I can stop it. “Don’t you want to be one of them?”
He shrugs, jaw ticking. “Not so sure anymore. When I came back, I searched my office. Found a hidden camera. War didn’t evendenyit when I confronted him, just offered me that California position instead. The contract comes with a bonus, bigger apartment. Clean slate. You interrupted us, remember? That’s what it was.”
My stomach twists. Idoremember. War’s voice. The tension. The way he looked when I barged in.
“I figured… if he did that to me, someone he barely gives a shit about, then what the hell has he done to you?” Brody’s voice lowers. “And Ifoundit. A camera inhere.In your bookshelf.”
My gaze jerks toward the shelf.
Brody’s fingers snap lightly against my chin, turning my head back. “Don’t look.” His voice drops. “I know you two are close. Maybe he’s forcing—”
“No.” The word rips out of me, hard, immediate. “He’s not forcing me.”
He studies me like I’m speaking a foreign language. “You don’t even seem surprised about the camera.”
I shrug, the weight of it sitting heavy in my chest. “That’s just… War.”
Silence falls like a stone.
Brody takes a step back, like he’s been burnt, nodding slowly. “Oh. Okay…”
He reaches behind me for the knob.
