“I loved him,” Jessica continues. “I didn’t used to be a liar . . . he turned me into one. They all did.”

“How’d they do that, Jessica?”

“By getting me to help them stay above the law, that’s how! Do you know how many shattered lives paved the way to the Gables’ success? You have no idea what these people have gotten away with! Travis, Lander, Edmund, not one of them is innocent! Their money is dirty, all of it! The only laws they care about are Darwinian! They—” She freezes, her mouth still open as if waiting for the next sound to come out. Her eyes clear and I can see she’s having a brief moment of lucidity within the ocean of intoxication. “I don’t know what I’m saying,” she says, her tone suddenly fearful. Then she gets ahold of herself, pushes her drink a little farther away. “You shouldn’t listen to me. I’m drunk. I shouldn’t be drinking this early.”

“It’s okay, Jessica, you can talk to me.”

Her bloodshot eyes narrow. “You will call me Mrs. Gable, and no, I can’t talk to you,” she slurs. “You fucked my husband.”

I take a deep breath. Why would anyone sleep with her husband when her brother-in-law is single and so intensely enticing? Any woman who dared to be with Travis must know that she would be expected to please him, not the other way around. But Lander? When he kisses my shoulder, when he slides his hand along the inside of my thigh, that’s for my pleasure. When he sucks gently on my neck, even when he whispers requests into my ear, it’s all designed to enhance the delectation of the moment, not for him, but for us.

He opened the door for that deliveryman, he touched me and played with me, all the while knowing it was a game I relished.

No, I have never had any desire for the Gable man who belongs to Jessica. Hurting Travis will be fun. But hurting Lander? That might end up killing me.

“Mrs. Gable,” I say soothingly, “I didn’t sleep with—”

“Then you will!” she snaps. “Travis always gets what he wants. He and his brother, they’re not so different as they seem. Everybody thinks Lander is the charming ladies’ man. They think that women fall for him because of his smile and his . . . his presence, while Travis’s mistresses are just with him for his money. But with Travis, it’s never about money. Not in his business, not in his personal relationships, not even in his parenting. It’s about power. And power gets you what you want.” She sits back in her chair and shakes her head. “If he wants you, he’ll have you. Power gets you everything.”