Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

"I was looking for a file. See? It’s right over there," I said, pointing toward it frantically.

"But then you came in, and I couldn’t just crawl out. You sounded so angry that I got scared. I didn’t mean to overhear anything," I added, trying to explain myself while he continued glaring at me.

"You said something to me the other day," he remarked.

I practically gulped. I wasn’t even sure what else I had said that could come back to bite me.

"About what?" I asked quietly.

"That you thought Gigi might be under a heavy dosage of wolfsbane. That it could explain why she was acting the way she was."

I nodded and gave him a sheepish grin.

"Yeah, because wolfsbane can really mess with someone’s personality," I replied, trying to maintain the excuse that that had been my only reason for suggesting it.

"Really?" he asked, tilting his head with unnerving calm. "Is that why you brought it up?"

I could already tell this confrontation wasn’t going to end well.

It never did with Ragnar.

Somehow, he always managed to say things that made it difficult to breathe, and right now, he was genuinely scaring me.

"Tell me something," he continued. "Why would you suggest that when you had already checked the data and found out there was no Wolfsbane in her system to begin with?"

A forced smile appeared on his face.

That alone was enough to tell me I couldn’t lie my way out of this.

"You do know there are cameras in my office, right?"

The second he said it, my gaze shot upward.

There was a camera.

Why the fuck had I not noticed it the other day?

Everything had happened so quickly that I hadn’t stopped to think properly.

"Yeah. I know. There are cameras," I muttered, pointing toward it as if that somehow helped.

Ragnar opened his laptop and began clicking through something, making me wonder what he was looking for.

Then he gestured for me to move to the other side of the desk so I wouldn’t be standing beside him and watching his screen.

I obeyed immediately.

"Okay, listen. The other day, Gigi was screaming so much that I got scared. When I came in, I checked the laptop because I thought maybe there was something on it. Some kind of blackmail material or something that had frightened her. You know, like what happened with Jenna..."

I kept rambling until Ragnar turned the laptop toward me.

And for reasons I couldn’t understand, in the middle of this very serious conversation, he had pulled up the exact footage of me sitting in his chair and mimicking him.

"Oh," I uttered, scratching the back of my neck.

"So you didn’t know there was a camera," he said, his voice dropping even lower. "Unless you wanted me to know how arrogant, conceited, and full of myself you think I am."

My entire body tensed.

I hated this.

I hated everything.

More importantly, I hated cameras.

Modern technology was useful, sure, but not when it was being used against me.

"Listen, she was crying that day, so I checked the data," I tried again.

"So you randomly assumed it had something to do with my laptop?" he asked.

Ragnar rested one elbow on the arm of his chair and brought his fingers beneath his lower lip, never breaking eye contact.

I, on the other hand, did everything I could to avoid meeting his gaze.

"Tell me something," he asked again.

Every time he said that, my anxiety spiked.

"What now?" I asked, visibly exhausted by his questioning.

A quiet chuckle escaped him before he continued.

"Do you think Gigi lied about the abduction?"

My muscles stiffened.

I tried to swallow the fear rising in my throat, but he was watching me far too closely.

"I’m not sure," I replied, choosing not to completely lie and defend her this time.

"That’s not an answer," he said. "Either you do or you don’t."

Silence stretched between us.

Since he clearly wasn’t going to let me leave without an answer, I finally gave him one.

"It’s complicated, okay?"

The moment the words left my mouth, the door flew open and Theodore rushed in.

"Brother, I have good news."

He stopped abruptly, realizing he had been so excited that he’d forgotten to knock.

"That deal we wanted got approved."

His tone changed almost immediately. The excitement faded as he looked at me, then back at his brother.

"Complicated?" he repeated, clearly remembering what I had just said. "Oh, so you already told him about me and Jaguar?"

Ah, damn it, Theodore.

He hadn’t held back at all.

I should have interrupted him. I wished I had.

How was I supposed to know that the same man who never told anyone anything, who hadn’t even let his brothers know he had been flirting with me, had suddenly decided to open his goddamn mouth?

How was I supposed to know that?

"Wait. What about you and Jaguar?" Ragnar asked.

The second the question left his mouth, Theodore realized we hadn’t been talking about that at all.

Ragnar rose from his seat with a tired sigh and looked between the two of us.

"Call Jaguar."

That was all he said to Theodore before turning his attention to me.

"We’re going home because we’re having this conversation," he hissed.

Before I could respond, or Theodore could complain, Ragnar had already walked out of the office.

I turned to Theodore and clenched my jaw.

"How was I supposed to know?" he asked.

Then his expression shifted as he seemed to remember how tense Ragnar and I had looked when he entered.

"What were you two talking about?"

"You shouldn’t worry about that. We have a bigger problem now," I snapped. "Because your brother is going to judge me too."

With that, I stormed after Ragnar before Theodore could start explaining that it wouldn’t happen.

I watched Ragnar step into the elevator and turn to face me.

I hurried toward it, then stopped.

Too much had already happened, and being trapped in an elevator with him would be painfully awkward.

So I stayed where I was, watching as he waited for me.

After a moment, he finally pressed the button.

I guess he realized I wasn’t getting in.