The mistake was mine. I had become soft. Even at work I didn’t immediately go for the jugular. What had been interesting, even thrilling had grown into a sham for me. Sometimes, when I had the upper hand, when my opponent had not even seen my advantage, I had pulled back and compromised.
I went closer, shocked by the state she was in. I could not feel her soul, her personality. As if she was gone and there was this empty creature watching me. But as I got closer her eyes suddenly glittered and for a second something else flashed across her face, dark, oppressed, torn, but that too vanished. I realized then: she was dangerous in a way I had never imagined.
She was criminally insane.
I became still. I was in some way responsible, but I found it almost impossible to stay in the same room as her, let alone show compassion. I never wanted to see her again. I began to turn away from her, but she flew off the chair and landed with a thud at my feet, clung tightly to my leg like a monkey. I looked down at her, both startled and repulsed.
‘I saw you first. She’s not having you,’ she snarled like a wild animal.
I experienced the irresistible desire to kick her in the ribs. To hear them crack. But she then said something that stopped me cold.
‘We are both ugly,’ she croaked. There was no joy in her eyes. She was crumpled and dwarfed by her surroundings, a creature made deplorable by her poisonous hate.
And suddenly my spectacular anger dissipated. She was right. We were both ugly. The only beautiful things in my life were Lana and the child she had created inside her body. I looked again at Victoria and tried to remember her when we were first engaged. Nothing in my life sang or danced, but certain little things dropped into the gray picture. Her sneering at the crockery, grumbling at the wine, sulky in a red coat and hunting boots, a miserable fashion worship, and an existence of being preoccupied, yet apparently doing nothing.
Lana changed all that.
I looked up to Brian. It took them a few minutes to pull her away from my leg.
She was screaming abuse and insults as I walked out of the room. It was far, far more serious that I had thought. I stepped outside into the evening air and taking my phone out of my pocket scrolled down my address book. All the lanterns were being lit and from the marquee came the sound of music and celebrating.
Victoria’s father answered. His voice was surprised.
To my AWESOME readers,
As a writer it was always my intention to engage with my readers and keep them immersed in my characters. As such I am truly humbled by your continued support for the billionaire banker series, and particularly by your love for both Lana and Blake. With your feedback in mind, there will be one final installment to the Lana and Blake story. It will be available around early August as a free download for a month. Hope you enjoy it.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to humbly thank every amazing reader who went out of her way to leave precious reviews for any of my books. To show my deep appreciation I am running a raffle. Leave your review at the place where you purchased this book before the 29th of June 2014. Then let me know here: georgialecarre@gmail.com. And get put into the pot to win USD100.00.
Table of Contents
Blake Law Barrington
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
Twenty-eight
Twenty-nine
Thirty
Thirty-one
Thirty-two
Thirty-three
Thirty-four
Lana Barrington
POV