Page 39 of The Lies We Tell

“Yeah. I think I’m just going to run to the bathroom and freshen up.”

Grabbing her purse off the back of her chair, she wound through the tables, catching the eye of her father’s man and indicating the narrow hallway to the bathrooms with a tilt of her chin.

She wasn’t sure if he would take the hint or just ignore her, but her heartbeat quickened when she heard footsteps following her. A moment after she entered the bathroom, he did the same, locking the door behind him.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been tasked with following the Gallo bitch.”

Tessa let out a small sigh of relief. So her father hadn’t lost faith in her. Yet. But the confession only led to more questions.

“Why?”

“I guess so she can’t negotiate any more deals and steal business away from him.” He took a step forward, reaching up to twirl a strand of her hair around his finger. “He’s been pretty disappointed with your lack of progress. But maybe if you help me out today, I’ll tell him how cooperative you were.”

Shoving his hand away, Tessa moved as far away from him as the small space would allow and eyed the door.

“You need to leave. If the Bianchis find out my father is having one of their women tailed, they’ll retaliate.”

“Well, after today, she won’t need to be tailed anymore. She’ll be dead.”

“What?” She jerked away from his sinister grin. “You can’t kill her.”

“Who’s going to stop me? You?” He took a step closer, crowding her against the wall. “I take my orders from your father. And he wants to throw them off balance, halt the sale of Gallo Industries by taking out the only surviving heir.”

“I thought the sale was already final.”

“That’s because you’re stupid.” He reached up to stroke a finger down the side of her face, his tone softening. “You don’t need to worry about any of that. All you need to do is what you’re told. There’s a little covered market not far from here.”

He backed away, reaching into his pocket and producing a knife. “After lunch, suggest that you stop in to check it out. I can attack in the crowd and then disappear without anyone seeing me.”

She watched him flip the blade out and then balance it between his thumb and forefinger. The evil glint in his eye and the image of Sienna bleeding out on the ground from a fatal knife wound nauseated her.

“No.”

He barked out a laugh, sobering when he saw she was serious. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I mean, I’m not going to help you kill her.”

He darted forward, gripping her hair and yanking her head back. “You know what your father gave me permission to do if you didn’t cooperate?”

Sliding his hand down her stomach, he cupped her between her legs, squeezing and grinding his dick into her ass. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she tried to wiggle free.

“I wouldn’t exactly be able to take my time with you in this shitty bathroom, but I’ve wanted to give you a ride for years. So I could make do.”

“Fuck you,” she snapped, fingers inching slowly into her purse and closing around the only thing she had to protect herself with.

“No.” He grinned, wrapping her hair in his fist. “That’s what I’m going to be doing to you!”

“Over my dead goddamn body.”

Before he could reply, she gripped the can of pepper spray she always kept in her bag and hit him right in his beady little eyes with it. He yelped, the knife in his hand clattering to the floor when he leapt away.

Stumbling backward, he rammed his hip into the edge of the sink, cursing under his breath while he struggled to rub the burning mist from his eyes. When he charged, she hit him with it again, causing him to thrash and snarl and grab for her.

He was thrown off, but he still blocked the door, and she needed to escape. Weaving on his feet, he tried to both switch on the faucet to splash water over his face and reclaim his weapon.

But he couldn’t do one without losing focus on the other. And while he was distracted, she dove for the knife he’d discarded in his mad dash to relieve himself of the torturous burning.

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