For some reason, I felt compelled to try to keep his trust, and besides, I knew Todd could become a problem.

One that I hoped Elias wouldn’t feel compelled to deal with himself.

“What are we going to do?” I asked.

“About what?” he said, his tone short.

“About Todd,” I said.

“Well, what do you think he wants?” Elias asked again.

And again, I didn’t respond.

He waited, and I could see his anger starting to build.

I tried to cut it off.

“We have to do something. Something that won’t cause him any harm,” I added quickly.

“Oh no, we can’t have that. Not Todd getting hurt,” Elias said sarcastically.

“Elias…”

“Don’t, Kayla,” he said, his voice tight, clipped.

“Don’t what?” I asked.

“Don’t beg me for another man’s life,” he said.

I didn’t respond, instead sat in silence, the car’s interior thick with tension.

“Where to?” Narek I asked as we headed to the other side of the city.

“Take Kayla to the building,” Elias said.

My instinct was to argue.

I stayed quiet.

Nine

NINE

Kayla

“Engaged, Kayla?” Amy said.

She’d opened the door before I even rang the bell, though that was no surprise. Davit tried to keep security hidden, but I had no doubt that Amy had known I was coming when I was half a mile away.

So she’d been standing there in aqua-colored tortoiseshell glasses with one of the two double doors open as she impatiently tapped her foot as I’d parked and headed up the wide front steps.

She hadn’t even greeted me because apparently she had questions.

Or one question in particular.

“Hello, Amethyst,” I said as I stepped through the door.

“Don’t ’Hello, Amethyst’ me,” she said.

She closed the door behind me and ushered me into the house.

“It’s good to see you. How are you? You’re looking great! How’s Crystal?” I asked.

She answered my questions as quickly as I’d asked them. “I’m fine. Whatever you say. And currently trying to tear down the house, no doubt. Now that we’ve got the preliminaries out of the way, you and I need to have a talk.”

I laughed, though I felt a little more tension than I had expected.

For some reason, I didn’t think Amy and Davit would find out about the sham engagement.

Which was incredibly stupid.

If Armen knew, I had no doubt that he would share that information with Davit, if only out of spite.

And there was no way Davit would keep it from Amy.

Still…

The idea of them knowing made this all seem more real.

And that wasn’t something I was ready to deal with.

“I hear her! Can I go see her?” I asked Amy when I heard what I knew to be little Crystal in the back of the house.