Chapter 317: [4.135] We’ve Got a Billionaire to Destroy

And Sabrina. Sabrina had somehow ended up partially on top of the pile, her body draped across my chest alongside Cassidy’s, her dark hair spilling across my face and tickling my nose.

Four girls. One bed. Zero blood flow to my extremities because they’d all decided to use me as a communal mattress.

I was going to die. I was going to die happy, but I was definitely going to die.

"Good morning."

The voice came from the doorway. Mrs. Tanaka stood there with a silver tray in her hands, her expression carefully blank in the way that suggested she was filing this image away for future reporting.

I stared at her. She stared at me. Neither of us blinked.

"Coffee," she said, setting the tray on the nearest table. "Mrs. Valentine called. She has confirmed the meeting for three o’clock. She wishes to remind you that business attire is expected."

Then she turned and walked out of the room like she hadn’t just witnessed a scene that would make a romance novelist blush.

I exhaled slowly.

Cassidy stirred against my chest, making a sound that was halfway between a growl and a purr. Her eyes cracked open, purple and unfocused with sleep, and for a moment she just stared at me like she was trying to remember how she’d ended up here.

Then she registered the position she was in. The way her body was pressed against mine. The fact that she could definitely feel exactly how awake I was becoming despite my best efforts to think about baseball statistics and cold showers.

"Morning," she said, her voice rough with sleep.

"Morning."

She didn’t move. If anything, she pressed closer, a smirk curling at the corner of her mouth.

"Comfortable?"

"That’s one word for it."

"What’s another word?"

"Dangerous."

Her smirk widened into something that looked a lot like satisfaction. "Good."

Then she rolled off me and stretched, her arms reaching toward the ceiling in a way that made her stolen shirt ride up and exposed a strip of toned stomach and the edge of red lace that I was definitely not staring at.

The movement woke the others. Harlow made a sleepy sound of protest and burrowed deeper into my side, which would have been adorable if it hadn’t made certain parts of my anatomy even more interested in the proceedings. Vivienne sat up abruptly, her hair in disarray and her cheeks flushed, looking like a CEO who’d been caught sleeping at her desk. She took one look at our positions and her blush deepened to approximately the color of a fire truck.

Sabrina was the last to wake. She lifted her head from my chest, her dark hair falling across her face in a curtain, her purple eyes still heavy with dreams. For a moment she just looked at me, her expression unreadable.

Then she leaned down and pressed a kiss to my lips. Soft. Brief. Achingly tender.

"Thank you for staying," she said.

"Wouldn’t have missed it."

She smiled. Actually smiled, without any of the walls or masks or careful distance she usually wore. It transformed her face into something so beautiful that I forgot how to breathe.

Then she climbed off me and headed for the door, presumably to shower and prepare for the day ahead.

Vivienne followed, muttering something about schedules and document preparation and the importance of proper planning. Harlow pressed one last kiss to my cheek before bouncing up with an energy that seemed frankly unfair for someone who’d slept on a floor, chattering about breakfast and coffee and whether anyone wanted waffles.

Which left me alone with Cassidy.

She stood by the window, the morning light catching her wine-red hair and turning it into something that looked like fire. She’d pulled on a robe at some point, but it hung open over her shorts and stolen shirt, revealing more than it concealed.

"You know what happens today," she said without turning around.

"Yeah."

"And you’re still going through with it."

"Yeah."

She turned then. Her purple eyes found mine, and for once there was no anger in them. No challenge. Just something raw and honest and real.

"Why?"

I thought about the question. Thought about all the reasons I could give, the logical explanations about protecting my scholarship and my job and my future. Thought about the romantic answers about love and loyalty and choosing to stand with people who mattered.

But in the end, there was only one truth.

"Because you’re worth it," I said. "All of you. And I’m not going anywhere."

Cassidy crossed the room in three strides and kissed me.

Not like last night, desperate and hungry and full of all the things she couldn’t say. This kiss was different. Softer. Like a promise being made in silence.

When she pulled back, her eyes were bright.

"Don’t die today," she said.

"Wasn’t planning on it."

"Good." She stepped back, and just like that, the vulnerable girl disappeared behind the mask of the troublemaker. "Now get your ass in gear, Angelo. We’ve got a billionaire to destroy."

She walked out of the library without looking back.

I stood there for a moment, surrounded by the remnants of our makeshift camp, the fire now cold ashes and the blankets tangled from four bodies sleeping too close together. My phone buzzed in my pocket.

Iris: You alive?

I typed back: Somehow.

Iris: The internet says the Valentine mom eats people for breakfast.

I snorted. Not far off.

Iris: Bring me back something expensive if you survive.

I will.

Iris: Also Felix called seven times. He wants to know if he should activate his dad’s lawyers.

Tell him to standby. Things might get interesting.

Iris: Things are ALREADY interesting, dummy. Be careful.

I pocketed my phone and headed for the shower.

Six hours until the meeting that would determine whether I got to keep everything I’d built over the past few months, or lost it all to a woman who treated her own daughters like chess pieces.

Six hours to prepare, to plan, to gather weapons that couldn’t be taken away.

Better make them count.