“Because it would have meant that you changed. That you found the decency to be honest. I would have rewarded you for that.”
Being busted and cuffed with a gun pointed at you isn’t the best time to get annoyed about things outside the big picture. But I couldn’t help but snarl at his patronizing tone.
“How did you know?” I asked stiffly. “How did you know I was going to scam you?”
He smiled. Beautiful. Wicked. “Because the moment I told you I was successful, the moment you saw my shop, the moment you saw the money I brought in, I saw the same look in your eyes that you used to give the popular girls in high school. The very same look you gave them that day in the cafeteria when you turned on me. The day you humiliated me. The look that said ‘opportunity’.”
“So you set me up?” It was too much to take. I couldn’t believe that Camden had been playing me this entire time.
“Yes, I set you up. I hoped you’d fail. I hoped that I’d lie on the couch all night and never hear you breaking into my house. I hoped that you’d prove me wrong, that you liked me for me. But I was right. Fuck, Ellie. I’ve never hated being so right in all my life. You’re a con artist. A liar. A thief. An unredeemable soul. You can’t be reformed. You can’t be saved. You’ll die trying to make the world pay for what it did to you. And you’ll die alone.”
My heart clenched at his words and the inside of my nose grew hot. The tears were back.
He brushed my hair behind my ears and I flinched at his touch. He observed me curiously.
“Crocodile tears?” he asked with a shake of his head. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I swallowed. A hot tear ran from the corner of my eye. “I’ve never been more serious in my life.”
“Good. Neither have I.”
He stood up and reached across the desk, bringing out a stuffed animal that had been hiding near the wall. It was a goofy looking bear. I had seen it earlier but not really seen it. I must have subconsciously figured it belonged to his son.
“See this?” he asked, making the bear dance in front of me.
“Is it Ben’s?”
“It’s a video camera.”
Double shit.
“It’s one of those nanny cams that you set up in your kid’s room. To catch the weirdos. I don’t get to take care of Ben and I probably never will, but if I ever had to hire a babysitter, I’d use one of these. You can’t trust anyone these days.” He smirked at me. “So, I pressed play at about eight o’clock. It’s been recording ever since. No matter where you go or what you do, I have all of this on tape. You’re done for, Ellie. They’re going to lock you up and swallow the key. You’re going to follow down the same path as your family, except you won’t be able to run. You know, sometimes I look at you and I see this…cornered desperation.” The phrase rolled off his tongue like smoke. “Think of how cornered you’ll be when you’re living in a jail cell.”
I’d had some low moments in my life. I’d been scared to death. I’d had the shit kicked out of me on two different occasions. I’ve had my fingers broken once (a poorly thrown punch). I’d been humiliated, cheated on, cast aside. But other than the moment I got my scars—the moment that put me on the path I was on—I’d never been so scared as I was sitting there handcuffed in Camden’s chair with my entire future resting inside the bowels of a teddy bear.
I looked him in the eye and took a steady breath. “What do you want from me?”
“What do I want from you?” he repeated, placing the bear back on the desk, facing me and out of reach.
I sighed loudly. “Yes. What do you want? Are you turning me over to your dad or do you just feel like torturing me for a bit first?”
He leaned against the wall and bit his lip. “I do feel like torturing you, Miss Watt. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time.”
My face scrunched with despair. “So you’ve harbored a stupid grudge ever since high school?”
He smiled tightly. “Don’t make it sound trivial. Haven’t you harbored a grudge since high school?”
“But I have reasons!”
He raised his brows. His eyes looked opaque and glossy like blue glass. “Oh do you? You think because of your leg and your scars that gives you a right to punish people? Rob people? Cheat, scam, and steal? You think you can use that to justify what you do for a living?”
“You weren’t me,” I said through grinding teeth. “You have no idea what I went through.”