Page 155 of Heartless Sinner

“She said you two were getting pretty close,” the redhead beside him commented. “I always knew she’d marry into politics.”

A beefy guy looked up from his phone. “We always knew she’d marry whoever her daddy chose.” He rubbed his hands together. “Money and their image is all they care about.”

Rachel flipped him off.

I dragged a hand over my forehead and shifted my legs, letting Rachel slide completely off my lap.

The guy wasn’t telling me anything new.

That was how marriages worked in my world.

Love was optional.

Money, power, and the right last name weren’t.

I looked between Rachel and the guy who’d made the comment. He had the thick neck and swollen arms of someone who probably had a steroid dealer on speed dial.

He also couldn’t stop looking at Rachel. Rachel kept staring at him too.

There was something between them. I didn’t know what, nor did I particularly give a fuck, but the possibility of Rachel getting involved with me clearly pissed him off.

“Brooks …” Steroid started.

Something in his tone told me I wasn’t going to like whatever came next.

“I saw that interview where you talked about the chick whose dad tried to put a bullet in yours.”

Daphne went rigid beneath my arm. Her fingers slipped from mine. She reached for a bottle of water on the table and twisted off the cap like we were discussing some random woman instead of her.

I kept my expression bored.

Inside, every alarm in my fucking head went off.

“Did you guys fuck?” he asked.

Daphne dropped the cap. It bounced against the floor.

She started to bend for it, but I beat her there, snatching it up without taking my eyes off Steroid.

“What makes you think that?” I asked, sounding as interested as if he’d asked about the weather. I stole Daphne’s water and took a drink.

“Intuition.” He smacked a palm against his chest. “My mom says I have the best intuition she’s ever seen. And as a man who’s fucked aplenty”—his stare slid toward Rachel long enough to tell me she belonged on that list—“I know the look of a guy talking about someone he’s fucked.”

His mother must be so damn proud.

“Nah.” I handed Daphne her water. “She tried, but I never touched her. She was too desperate for my liking.”

Daphne ripped the bottle from my hand. Water splashed straight across my lap.

I looked down at the wet spot spreading over my pants, then sideways at her.

Daphne took the most innocent sip of water I’d ever seen.

“Duuuude,” Polo Shirt said. “You said no to that? She’s hot as fuck! Crazy family or not, I’d still hit it.”

I eyed the drink in his hand.

It’d be so easy to slip something lethal into it.