Better Off Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

head.  She sat up and glared into Tara’s big, pretty eyes.
    “Well then, he’s all yours,” She moved forward until their faces were almost touching.  “But did he tell you what I had him doing when the FBI crashed the party?”
    Tara’s eyes opened wide and her mouth turned into a grim line.  “What do you mean?”  She stood up straight again and glowered down at her.
    “Just...if Jeff really is yours, then he’ll tell you what we were doing that night.”  She smiled even though her head throbbed and her arm screamed for mercy.  “And if he really is all yours , then he’ll let you do it to him too.”
    Tara huffed and folded her arms over her surgically enhanced chest.  “Why would I want to play one of your tired old games?  I already said I’m satisfying all his needs.”
    Lucy leaned back, exhausted but feeling the old satisfaction she’d get from manipulating other’s lives.  “Well, every need but...that one .”
    Raw anger drew a hard blank stare on Tara’s face.  It made Lucy feel just a tiny bit better.  Impoverished, working at McDonalds, covered in special sauce, she could still knock someone down a peg or two.  But then Tara’s smile came back, and it wasn’t fake.  She was suddenly very happy.
    “Too bad your convict father left you so high and dry you have to work in a grease pit like this.”  She flipped her golden locks as she turned to walk over to where Jeff stood mute, and still red-faced embarrassed.  “You used to be so pretty.”  She stopped and slowly peered over her shoulder at Lucy, her smile brilliant.  “Have a nice life, you dumpster-diving freak!”
     
    ~*~
     
    Gabriel hadn’t slept much all week.  He had entirely too much on his plate, and far too many concerns whirled around in his mind.  Ever since Delia concocted her plan, things had gone all wrong.  The instant she unveiled her scheme to him, to hire some woman to play the part of his secret fiancée, his mother declared that she knew he was hiding something—and she correctly guessed that it was a girl.
    Thus, procuring a false fiancée became not just an insane idea, but seemingly their only option.
    But Gabriel didn’t have the contacts or the expertise in such covert, dishonest, and probably illegal enterprises.  That was why he’d hesitantly enlisted the aid of his most trusted advisor and friend, his Uncle Dante.
    Though Dante was his father’s brother, he had always taken Gabriel’s side in matters, even encouraging his brother to relinquish the CEO position at Enoch Industries to Gabriel in the last year.  When Dante had inadvertently found out about Delia, he’d raged at Gabriel for such poor judgment, and for endangering everyone he held dear, including Delia.
    He was also a lawyer, Gabriel’s lawyer, not to mention the head of Enoch Industries legal division, so covert wrangling and deception were nothing new to him.
    Yet above all else, Dante was his uncle, and his closest ally.
    That said…he was currently having a hard time overlooking his uncle’s abrupt loss of his senses.  He hadn’t expected Dante to go out trolling for potential brides-to-be, but he had never imagined he would recruit someone of such low character to subcontract to.
    “Francis?”  Gabriel groused, his gaze burning a hole through his uncle.  “Of all the scum-of-the-earth degenerates you could have reached out to, you picked him?”
    They were in Dante’s office at Enoch industries.  The walls were painted a warm brown that was almost a peach.  The furnishings were antique art deco, with clean lines carved out of rich woods.  And though not cluttered, the entire room was used—photos of family and friends, Dante’s law degree, Chamber of Commerce awards, a few pieces of avant-garde art, even a pewter wolf sitting on its haunches, muzzle raised as if baying at the moon.
    Dante raised one eyebrow in mock surprise.  “He is loyal to me.”
    “Loyal!  Are you joking?  My entire life I