“I guess I should go.” I sniffed and took a step away from him.
“Wait.” He reached out and grabbed my shoulder. He studied my face for a second and then leaned forward. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I can see from your expression that you genuinely like me. I’m sorry, but I wasn’t sure. My brother convinced me that you weren’t with me for the right reasons. But I know now that you were. You wouldn’t be crying or willing to give yourself to me if you weren’t.”
“What do you want to tell me?” I looked up at him with wide eyes.
“I really shouldn’t say anything, but I like you, I do. I think Mattias is having you watched,” he whispered into my ear. “He thinks you’re up to something.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your name is Bianca London, right?” He looked apprehensive, as if he knew he shouldn’t be telling me all this.
“Yes, you know that.”
“Well, I guess Mattias hired a detective or something. I don’t know. But he thinks you’re after something. He might do something to scare you. I don’t know what, but he wants you to stop your research, I guess.”
“Scare me?” I shivered. “Why? What’s he thinking that I’ll find?”
“I don’t know. He doesn’t share all of that with me. I’m just saying be careful. Maybe do a research project on another company or something.”
“Why, what do you think he would do?”
“I don’t know, have someone scare you, give you a warning? I don’t know, Bianca. I’m just saying that maybe you need to find another company to research. Mattias is a private guy. It’s how my father was. I don’t really know what they’re capable of.”
“Yeah, but why would he be so upset?” Bells were going off in my head. So David had basically just confirmed my suspicions—Jeremiah Bradley had been capable of anything when it came to business.
“Who knows? Just be careful, Bianca. Mattias isn’t someone you want to play with. When he gets riled up, he plays dirty. And when I say dirty, I mean really dirty.”
“I’ll be careful, David. Thanks for telling me.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything.” He took a step away from me. “But I like you. I’m sorry about all this.”
“It’s fine.” I nodded and walked toward the door. “Thanks again.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I heard him saying something else as I left the apartment, but I didn’t pay attention. So Mattias was going to try and scare me, was he? I shivered as I walked out of the lobby and down the street. I had no idea what he was going to do, no idea at all. All I knew was that I needed to come up with a new plan—and I needed to find Mattias Bradley’s secrets before he caught me.
Find out how it all began for Bianca and Jakob
in the first book in the series!
illusion
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prologue
“Bianca, where are you?” His voice sounded angry, and I shivered as I opened my eyes.
I stared at the large expanse of dark midnight blue sky through the tree branches and prayed that he wouldn’t find me. I could see the white-sand beaches from my vantage point. The whole island looked so much smaller from up here. My limbs felt numb, but I was too scared to move even an inch. If he heard the rustling of leaves, he’d know where I was. I closed my eyes again and tried not to think about falling.
“Bianca, this isn’t funny.” His voice was hoarse, and I heard his footsteps moving closer to me. “Bianca, if you can hear me . . .” He paused, and his voice changed. “Please don’t make this harder than it has to be. I’m not going to hurt you.”
I heard a branch snap below me, and I knew he was close. All he had to do was look up. If he looked up, he’d be able to find me. This man who’d become my most intimate confidant was now my predator, and I was his prey. I opened my eyes and took a deep breath before looking down. An involuntary gasp escaped my mouth as I realized how high up I was. That was my first mistake.
“I’ve found you.” His voice cracked as he looked up at me with dark eyes. “When will you learn? You can’t escape me.”
“Did you hurt him?” My fingers started trembling as I looked down at him. “Tell me. Did you hurt him?”
“It depends on what you mean by hurt.” He lifted his hands up, and I saw that his fingers were drenched in blood.
I closed my eyes; I had my answer.
“I did it for us,” he said simply, and I felt my heart drop into my stomach. “Don’t you trust me?” he asked me softly as he started to climb the tree. I saw the shiny glitter of the silver knife in his left hand before he placed it into his pocket, and my heart stopped beating for a second.
“I trust you.” I nodded and waited for him to reach me.
That was my second mistake.