“Don’t think that your pretty smile and clumsy attempts at charm will have any effect on me,” Mab said. “This is a business arrangement. Nothing more. Unlike some people in this room, I don’t sleep with the help.”
Sebastian’s eyes glittered with anger, but he made an obvious effort to rein in his temper, given whom he was talking to. Smart move, although I was starting to wish that Mab would go ahead and fry him on the spot, given what he’d done to Charlotte and his father.
And what I was beginning to realize he’d done to me too.
But Sebastian wasn’t easily daunted, and he leaned in again. “You don’t know what you’re missing,” he murmured. “It’s great fun sleeping with the help. You should try it sometime.”
Mab’s black gaze flicked over his body, cold and dismissive. “Doubtful. But do keep trying to persuade me. It seems you enjoy the thrill of the chase as much as I do.”
He smirked his agreement.
“But on to the business at hand,” Mab said, taking a sip of her brandy. “Your speech at the party seemed to go over quite well. You shouldn’t have any problems taking over your father’s company now. I’ll admit that when you first approached me with your little scheme, I had serious doubts that it would work.”
“Really? Why was that?”
“It was far too complicated,” Mab said. “Hiring an assassin to murder your father seemed a bit much, especially when you could simply arrange for him to have an accident at one of his job sites.”
I sucked in a breath. I’d suspected it as soon as I’d seen the bruise on Charlotte’s arm, but it was another thing to have confirmation. Sebastian—Sebastian was the one who’d hired me to kill his own father.
Once again, the thought that I’d murdered an innocent man devastated me, and I had to bend over double and clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from throwing up. It didn’t stop the tears from trickling down my face, though, each one as cold and frozen as my heart.
Sebastian shrugged. “Yes, well, I wouldn’t have even had to hire that assassin if the old man had agreed to step down following the restaurant incident like I wanted him to.”
“Something that you conveniently arranged to push your father out of his own company,” Mab shot back. “How did you get that terrace to collapse?”
He gave her another smug grin. “That’s my little secret.”
“Too bad it didn’t work out like you’d hoped.”
“I thought the public pressure would be too great, that he would get forced out immediately or simply resign out of guilt that one of his precious projects wasn’t as strong as he thought. But of course, my father ended up being a bit more . . . stubborn than I anticipated.”
“Which is why you went out and hired yourself an assassin. Another needless complication. Why not take care of your father yourself? Afraid of getting your hands dirty?” Her voice took on a mocking note.
“Hardly.” Sebastian sneered. “But my father is not without friends. Him having an accident, especially after the terrace collapse, would have raised even more questions. This way, it looks like one of the family members of the victims killed him or hired someone to do it for them. Not me.”
Sebastian had wanted to take over his father’s company, so he’d arranged the terrace collapse, which meant that he was responsible for the deaths and injuries of those innocent people at the restaurant—not Cesar.
More guilt roiled in my stomach, along with deep, dark, unending shame at what I’d done. I’d been so cocky, so arrogant, so damn righteous in my desire to kill Cesar that I hadn’t thought things through, like Fletcher had wanted me to. As a result, I’d given Sebastian exactly what he wanted.
I was such a fool.
Mab shook her head, making her coppery hair float around her shoulders before it settled perfectly back into place. “Yes, but the assassin could always trace the payment back to you and use it to blackmail you further down the line.”
“Don’t worry about the assassin. She’s passed out in my bed right now.”
I sucked in another breath and straightened up. Sebastian knew that I was an assassin, knew that I’d murdered his father. He’d known the whole damn time.
Mab’s eyes narrowed with interest. “ ‘She’? The assassin is a woman? Do tell.”
“Oh, yes.” Sebastian practically purred with triumph. “You’re absolutely right about the possibility of blackmail, so ever since I reached out to this assassin, I’ve been keeping an eye out for anyone new in my father’s life. And lo and behold, a few days after I put down the deposit, I see a young woman snooping around.”
He went on to tell Mab how he’d found me lurking in the hallway outside the library at Dawson’s mansion. I cursed my own carelessness. I should have made sure that everyone was gone from the library before I’d slipped back inside the building, but I hadn’t, and it had cost me—even if I wasn’t quite sure how high the price was going to be yet.
He finished his story, and Mab arched her eyebrow.
“And you think that some random waitress is really an assassin in disguise? That’s a bit thin, darling.”
For the first time, a bit of doubt flickered in Sebastian’s face. “Well, I don’t know for sure that she’s the assassin, but she was outside the library at Dawson’s mansion after your meeting with my father. That can’t be a coincidence. And you should see the rest of her family. They’ve all been giving me the evil eye ever since I cozied up to her.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Mab drawled. “Given your oh-so-honorable intentions toward her.”
“Something’s going on with them, and I intend to find out what it is.”
“And how did you lure this supposed assassin into your bed?”
His face twisted into a sneer. “It was quite easy, actually. Seems she’s a bit starved for attention, poor thing. All I had to do was play the part of the doting suitor. She was practically eating out of my hand.”
Sebastian told Mab about all our dates, mocking all the time we’d spent together. I closed my eyes, my stomach turning over, but I couldn’t shut out the sound of his voice. He sneered as he told her about all the times he’d looked into my eyes, all the sweet words he’d said, all the lies he’d told me. And then he laughed—he threw back his head and laughed and laughed, as if fooling me so completely was the most amusing thing he’d ever done.