Scandal Exposed (The Lust List: Kaidan Stone #4) (2 page)

“Uncuff him,
now
,” I say, my voice hard.

“Money first. Then you can both go.”

I reach my hand into my bag and smoothly pull out the necklace.

“What the fuck is that?” Luis takes a step toward me, and I force myself to hold my ground.

“This is your payment.”

Luis snorts. “I said
cash
. Carlos, put him back in holding ‘til the bitch gets our money.”

“This diamond’s worth more than what I was able to access on short notice—more than my father originally owed you.”

Luis grabs the necklace from my hand and examines it. He whistles. “If this is real…”

“It’s real. It belonged to my father. Now it’s yours. Let us go.”

Luis narrows his eyes. “This? I can’t get rid of so easily. Too traceable. You pay cash.
That
is what we agreed. Carlos, take him away.”

“No! Wait… Then… consider the diamond collateral. You keep it until I can return with your money.” I force myself not to hold my breath, waiting to see if he’ll take my bluff.

Luis holds his hands up, the diamond I stole dangling from one of them, his gun in the other. He gives me a smarmy smile. “I don’t even know if this is real.”

“You know where we live. We’re not going anywhere.”

Luis considers me then the diamond for a long moment. “Alright. I’ll keep it as collateral.”

Relief floods me, but I keep it off my face. “So I have more time?”

Luis doesn’t answer. He returns to his desk and gestures to Carlos. “Get them out of here.”

Carlos drags Rowan out into the hallway, and I turn to follow.

“Wait,” Luis says, stopping. “You bought yourself
one
week. That’s all.”

Another shot of adrenaline floods me. “One week’s too soon. I need more time.”

“A week. Now get out.”

I step back into the hallway, dazed, and follow Carlos as he shoves Rowan toward the door I came in.

Carlos lets me out first, then uncuffs my brother and pushes him through the door. It slams shut behind us.

Rowan whirls, his eyes narrowed, fists clenched. “Fuckers.”

He moves back toward the door, and I quickly step between him and the building. “No! What the hell are you doing?”

He meets my eyes, and I see the shame there. Shame they got the best of him. He’s about to go start something with these guys when they
just
let him go… all for his pride.
Men.

His head’s still bleeding a little, but asking him if he’s okay and reminding him about that isn’t the thing to do right now. “So… you give Luis that black eye?”

He grunts and looks pleased. “Damn right. I got him back.”

“Good. Then let’s go. We need to talk.”

He backs down with a scowl and wraps an arm around my shoulder protectively as we walk to my car. “Thanks for getting me out of there. But you shouldn’t have come.”

“I had to.” I say. “And now you’re out. It’s over.”

But it’s not over, and at some point I need to break the news that my inheritance is gone. My stomach turns at the thought, but we get in my car and I get us the hell out of there.

Rowan is silent for the first few minutes, but I know he’s staring at me, waiting for me to talk first. Once we’re out of the warehouse district, I finally pull over. I can’t take it anymore.

“
What?
”

“That was Serena’s diamond,” Rowan says, no hint of surprise in his voice.

“Yep.”

“You kind of need it to get your inheritance, don’t you?”

“Yep.”

“Should I ask how you even
got
it?”

“I stole it, Rowan.” It slips out of my mouth easily. I have, after all, been plotting my theft for forever.

He wipes a hand down his face. “If they try to sell it…”

I pull back out onto the road and head toward Santa Monica to take Rowan home.

“The money’s gone, okay? I thought we only lost part of it to bad investments. Turns out we lost all of it.” My voice is dull—all the adrenaline from earlier gone. I’m exhausted and completely numb now.

Rowan hisses a breath out through his teeth. “Damn, Hay. This is bad.”

“I took the diamond to the law office this morning, and they told me.” My stomach turns as I think about Kaidan. I’m going to have to face the possibility that he may have had something to do with my missing money. It’s just too much of a coincidence that he was arrested for embezzling from the firm the same week my money went missing. Maybe we’re
both
awful people.

“We have to figure this out,” Rowan says, sounding just as tired as I feel.

“I know. Luis will never stop.”

“They’ll have to if you’re broke. You gave them the diamond… That should be enough.”

I shake my head. “No. They want cash. I know what I have to do.” I feel hollow inside. Empty. There’s only one solution now.

Rowan wrinkles his brow. “What are you gonna do? Let me help.”

“No. I’m taking you home. Then I’m going to the cops. I don’t want you involved.”

“They fucking kidnapped me. It was extortion.”

I make eye contact with him. “And I engaged in grand larceny instead of going to them in the first place.”

“We’ll fix this some other way. It was my fault.”

“No.
This
is the right thing to do. So I’m doing it.”

He lets out a heavy sigh, and we ride in silence until we reach his apartment and park outside. My mind goes through every possibility of how the next few hours will play out. But every scenario includes me in a prison cell. I’m past caring… I just want all of this to be over.

Rowan clears his throat. “Hayley? I want you to know… I’m sorry.”

I stiffen in my seat. Not words I ever expected to hear from him. “For what?”

“I should have been able to take care of this like I said I would.”

“It’s not your fault. It was dad’s.”

“No… you’re right. I should have gone to the cops with you as soon as you told me. Instead I blew you off and didn’t listen. I’ve been a shitty brother to you.” There’s a lot of angst in his voice, like he means it.

And I don’t answer, because it’s true. He has been a shitty brother.

“Hay?”

“What?”

“I know you don’t think very highly of me, but—”

“No. You don’t think very highly of
me
.” My voice cracks on the words. The numbness is starting to wear off, leaving me shaky and broken.

“No, I—”

“Every time I come around you, you send me away,” I say. “You don’t have to pretend to care all of the sudden.”

Rowan lays a hand on my arm. “I
do
care.” I finally meet his green eyes—they’re soft and full of regret. “I’m sorry I’m such an asshole.”

I sniff and shift in my seat. “You’ve always sent me away when I needed you. Just like dad.” It comes out as an accusation.

He doesn’t answer, and finally I put my hands back on the wheel. “I gotta go to the cops now.”

“Dad didn’t send you away.”

That surprises me so much I meet his eyes again. “What? Sending me to Charlotte’s all the time… Boarding school… Yeah, yeah he did.”

“That was
me
.”

Shock runs through me, and my world tilts on its axis. I don’t think I can take many more of these revelations today. I pull in a deep breath. “It was
dad
.”

“No. I told Jenny to get you packed and send you to Char’s all those times.”

Jenny, dad’s assistant, hated me, too. Or so I thought. “But… Why?”

“I didn’t want you to see Dad… the way he was. When he was high, or drunk, or coming home with women… I didn’t want to you to have to see that so soon after mom…”

My heart twists at the look in his eyes, the way his hands are clenched tight in his lap. Like it’s costing him a lot to say all this.

“And boarding school?”

“Me. Dad was going over the edge, and I was afraid he was gonna take us with him… So when you got caught stealing… I convinced Dad and Jenny to send you away.”

I shake my head, not wanting to believe it. “No. You were only sixteen. Those were dad’s decisions—”

“Did Dad
look
like he was capable of making decisions back then? I just wanted to protect you, Hayley. That’s the truth. I’m sorry I pushed you away so much. I just didn’t want Dad to fuck you up. The way he fucked
me
up.”

He abruptly gets out of the car, and I open my door to follow. I stop him when he gets to the sidewalk and wrap my arms around him. He hugs me back tightly, and when he pulls away, there’s dejection on his face. “I was really proud of you back there—the way you handled everything. If you think going to the police is the right choice…”

“It’s the right choice.”

“Then let me get cleaned up and meet you at the police station. We’ll do it together. We’ll tell them everything.
Together.
”

My chest expands at the thought of having him with me when I confess. I give him another hug. “I’ll meet you over at the main station, by the law office.”

He heads back into his apartment, and my heart is the lightest it’s been in a while as I get back into my car. My father was a fuck up. That’s a fact.

But my brother never despised me like I thought he did. He’d been
protecting
me. I know my father got even worse after I left, because I saw it in the headlines. But Rowan had lived it. And he’d kept me from having to live it, too.

The thought chokes me up as I pull away from the street and head back for the freeway.

Whatever happens now, I have family again.

When I reach the police station, my resolve is solid, but apparently I chose the wrong time and place to report my crime. The police station is a circus. Paparazzi are everywhere, and I have to circle around and park in the lot near the station. What the hell is going on now? I take deep breaths, suddenly shaken. Rowan texts me to let me know he’s leaving his house soon.

I grab my purse and the glasses and floppy hat from my back seat and make myself get out of the car. I’m not giving myself the chance to back out. I’ll wait for Rowan inside. I’m done running. I’m done lying.

As I walk to the station, a few paps half-heartedly snap me, but then they swing away from me to follow someone else headed up the steps.

It hits me like a fist in the chest, and I can’t breathe.

The paps are shouting his name, and I finally get why the station is a circus.

“Devon Stone!”

“Devon!”

“Why was Kaidan arrested?” Devon was coked up last night, but in the mid-morning light, he looks surprisingly sober.

Of course. Kaidan’s here.

My chest is so tight, I either want to pass out or run, I just keep walking. Devon disappears inside just as I reach the stairs. That’s when they see through my lame disguise.

Paparazzi crowd me, taking my picture, calling my name. I hold my head high and march up the steps.

KaiHay Arrested on the Same Day!

Ah, the tabloids will have a blast with this one.

Kaidan steals Hayley’s money (maybe), and Hayley steals Serena’s diamond (definitely).

I let out a crazed laugh as I pull open the door and walk through.

Devon’s at the front desk, but he doesn’t notice me. I slink over to a bench against the wall to wait for Rowan.

A bleary-eyed prostitute is cuffed and seated at the bench across from me. She grins at me, revealing missing teeth. “Hey, lovely,” she slurs.

I avert my eyes, even though she can’t see them behind my dark glasses, and focus on Devon’s back. I can’t believe my life has come to this.

A few minutes pass, and Devon turns around and sits a foot away from me on the bench.

He doesn’t recognize me, so I take off my glasses and stare at him until he looks over.

His brows go up. “Hayley?”

“Devon.”

“What are you doing here?” He sounds exhausted and now, close up, I can see the effects of last night’s drug binge. But it doesn’t do much to hinder those Stone good looks. He’s Kaidan’s twin brother, after all. Even though they’re fraternal, the resemblance is enough to make me long for Kaidan and my heart hurt all over again.

I bite my lip. “I…” I don’t know what to say. Not that I stole his nearly step-mother’s diamond, that’s for sure.

“You here to see him? You’re in luck. I just posted his bail. Were you still at the house this morning?”

“I was.”

Devon runs a hand through his dark hair in a way that reminds me very much of Kaidan and lets out a harsh laugh. “I’m so sick of my family’s bullshit. But I wasn’t gonna leave Kai here.”

“Where’s your father?”

“Who knows? My brother used his phone call to call
me,
not Dad. Because he knew I’d actually show up.”

“I thought you two didn’t really… get along.”

He looks at me like he’s seeing me for the first time—as a person, not one of Kaidan’s endless rotation of blond doppelgangers. “We might not get along all the time, but whenever shit goes really wrong, he’s
always
there for me. And I’m here for him.”

I nod, but I don’t feel like speaking. I understand fucked up sibling relationships. And now that I’ve finally fixed my relationship with
my
brother, I’m probably going to jail.

Tears prick my eyes as Devon gets off the bench. I look up to see Kaidan standing at the front desk, signing papers. Two FBI agents are standing nearby, looking pretty pissed off. Devon wraps Kaidan in a half-hug.