“Yes, Bianca?”
“You’re an asshole.”
“I think I’ve told you before that I’ve been called a lot worse.”
“I think I can understand why.”
“As much as I love bantering with you, Bianca, I’d much rather you get dressed, pack some clothes and whatever other junk you want, so we can leave.”
“I already told you that I’m not—”
“Stop.” He grabbed me and leaned forward. “Your apartment is bugged. People are threatening you. People are spying on you. You are not safe here. Now, you can call me whatever you want. You can fight me. You can punch me. You can do whatever you want once we make it to my place. But right now, I need you to pack your stuff and come with me. I’m not going to take no for an answer.” He paused and gazed at my shocked expression and gave me a small smile. “No answer, Bianca?”
“You think I’m . . .” I stopped as his eyes narrowed.
“You have five minutes and then I pick you up and carry you out of here. I don’t care if you’re naked.”
“You can’t carry me out,” I muttered angrily. “You can’t carry me down the street. I’m not a hundred pounds.”
“I can bench-press three-fifty.” He smirked at me. “Trust me. I could carry you for ten miles if I wanted to.”
“Whatever.” I flounced out of the bathroom and hurried to my closet. He wasn’t going to just leave, and I had a bad feeling that he would carry me out in the street in my bath towel.
“You have five minutes.” He pulled on his pants and shirt and watched me as I grabbed some pants and a top and pulled them on quickly. I looked in the closet for a small duffel bag and pulled some random clothes into it. “Where are you going?” He followed me as I left the bedroom.
“I need to get my father’s papers.” I looked back at him and grabbed the plastic bag full of documents. “I’m pretty sure there are clues in here that I didn’t get the first time around.”
“What clues?”
“If I already knew, I wouldn’t need to go through the papers again,” I huffed.
“Anything else you want to bring?”
“Are you going to follow me around the apartment as I pack?” I glared at him.
“Why so hostile, Bianca?” He grabbed my hand. “Do you need me to soften you up again?”
“You’re a pig. Do you really think that sex is the answer to everything?”
“Not to everything, no.” He grinned.
“Do you take anything seriously?”
“I take everything seriously.” He frowned. “Don’t you get it, Bianca? I’m not the enemy here.”
“Your first interest is yourself, not me.” I shook my head. “Your first interest is getting revenge for your mother.”
“We have the same interests, Bianca. We both want to figure out who the lady spying on you was. If she had an affair with my dad, why is she spying on you? Where is Larry? What happened to Steve?”
“Do you think David has anything to do with it?” I licked my lips and shivered, still not quite believing how David had tricked me so cleverly.
“No.” Jakob frowned. “I don’t think he could have pulled this off without telling me.”
“I just don’t get it.” I gasped, a memory hitting me. “I can remember phone calls he had with Mattias.” I remembered the time in his apartment when I’d stormed out and come back without his noticing. He’d been on the phone with someone—he’d said Mattias’s name. He’d been making plans with someone. Whom had he been talking to if there was no Mattias? It just didn’t make sense. Unless David and Jakob were both lying to me . . .
Maybe there was a Mattias, a third man. It would make sense. Maybe Jakob’s new devotion, his supposed “openness,” was still a part of the plan. Were David and Jakob in on this together? Could Mattias be, not Tyler Durden, but Verbal Kint from The Usual Suspects? “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
“Remember, Bianca, David knew from the beginning who you were and what you were up to. He planned every single detail he was going to let slip. Every thing he said and did was cleverly masterminded.”
“Were you the one on the phone with David that night?” I asked Jakob softly. “Were you the one telling him what to do? If you’re saying that David couldn’t have done all this other stuff by himself, how did he come up with everything by himself?”
“Bianca.” Jakob frowned. “Let’s talk when we get to my place.”
“What don’t I know, Jakob?”
“There are things we both don’t know.” He walked into the bedroom and grabbed my duffel bag. “Is there anything else you need?”
“Does Mattias Bradley exist, Jakob?” I walked over to him and grabbed his chin. He blinked down at me, his eyes revealing nothing. “Does Mattias Bradley exist, Jakob?”
“What are you talking about?” He frowned. “We already told you there is no Mattias Bradley.”