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A naive idiot who was no doubt going to end up right back in the basement cell with a tanned ass and a broken heart.

My gaze dropped to the desk, and in my periphery, my attention snagged on the gun resting on the paperwork detailing Jenson’s arrest, his terrified face peering up at me from the police report. Movement made my head whip up again; Jacob had taken another step closer.

“Why did you tell the police the bag belonged to Jenson?” The question fell unbidden from my lips, but I wasn’t sure why I asked. Perhaps my subconscious thought it was a delay tactic to avoid what was inevitable.

Jacob glanced at the papers on his desk before he met my gaze again, his eyes glinting with malice. “Okay, angel, I’ll answer your questions. So long as you answer mine.” He paused, giving me an expectant look. I figured I had nothing to lose; if he already knew what the USB contained, I was certain it wouldn’t be hard to work out from him to find out how I came to be in possession of it. At my nod, he smirked. “I told the police because it was the truth, was it not? The drugs belonged to that boy.”

“That boy happens to be my friend, Jacob. And now he is going to spend the next ten years in prison!”

Jacob shrugged. “Can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”

I blinked at him, but it wasn’t Jacob I was looking at. It was the cold-hearted monster who resided in him, glaring back at me. “How can you be so callous?”

“Callous?“ he snarled, all traces of amusement fading from sight in a heartbeat. “Your so-called friend left you to take the rap for his drugs. If I hadn’t pulled the strings to get you released, it would be you locked up.”

I gaped at him, not sure my brain had processed the words. “You…pulled the strings?”

His jaw clenched, his entire body vibrating with fury. “Yes, angel. Even back then, I was protecting you. I paid a fucking fortune to get you out of the shit; your parents sure as hell weren’t going to lift a finger to secure your release.”

Angry tears stabbed behind my eyes, but I didn’t know if they were from the vicious bite in his tone or from acceptance that he was right; if it hadn’t been for Jacob, I would be currently rotting in a prison cell for a crime I didn’t commit.

“How did you know I’d been arrested?” I replied meekly, the information I’d read in the report about him providing visual evidence to the police swimming in my head.

Deep down, I knew the answer. I just didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Angel, you’re far too intelligent to play dumb. I knew because from the minute I made the deal with your parents, I had people watching you. How else would I have learned everything I needed to know about you, hmm?” Shock held my tongue quiet; his casual confession that he’d had me watched for the past year turned my body numb. “Good job too; who knows what would have happened to you if my men weren’t watching you the night Elton Rothborn tried to kiss you.”

At the mention of Elton’s name, my mind swung back to the night at the Mayor’s party, and the man who had pulled Elton away before he could kiss me. Bile crawled up my throat; it was the same man who had led me out to the garden a month ago at Jacob’s parents’ house.

My knees threatened to buckle as understanding dawned. Jacob had set that up so he could swoop in and be the hero, claiming that he had saved me from an assault, and I would see him once again as my savior instead of my captor.

Another game in his manipulation of me.

Caught in the web of his lies, I barely registered his question. “Who gave you the USB?”

I didn’t answer immediately, stuck between a rock and a hard place. I was in enough trouble as it was; if I lied, I’d feel even more of Jacob’s wrath. If I told the truth, I dreaded what Jacob might do to his brother.

“Edward,” I whispered, throwing him under the bus.

My cheeks burned with heat as I watched Jacob piece together that I’d had the USB for weeks and hadn’t told him. He closed the remaining space between us, and although the desk still separated us, I couldn’t help but take a step back, fear gripping me in its vice-like clutches.

“When?” Jacob growled, his tone full of an unspoken threat.

“The morning after the ball at your parents’ house.”

Disgust curled his features, and subconsciously, I stepped back again, my gaze dropping to the table and landing on the gun. A little voice whispered to grab it, that I had a way to protect myself against this monstrous side of the man I loved.

“And what did my dear brother tell you?”

“He…he said it contained the information to prove you were lying to me,” I replied, my voice quivering with every syllable. I sucked in a deep breath. “And he was right.”

Jacob’s brow lifted. “Was he now? And tell me, what part have I lied about?”

“You had sex with her.”

He released another humorless chuckle. “Sounds to me like you’re jealous, angel.”

I hated how he could read me without me speaking a word because he was right. I was jealous at the knowledge of him sleeping with someone else. “I’m not jealous,” I protested feebly. “But you did lie about it, and if you lied about that, what else did you lie about?”