“Hello?”

Alan’s voice came from the other end of the line, and I bit my lip, wondering just what I was doing. I’d called him impulsively after I’d taken some time to think by myself. I’d come to the decision that I couldn’t leave our relationship the way it was—tattered. Plus, his brother would apparently die if I didn’t offer any sort of help, and that wasn’t the sort of thing I wanted on my conscience.

My father would be so pissed at me if and when he found out about this, but I was far past caring.

“Alan? It’s me,” I said and wanted to smack myself. He must have known that already; he had my number saved on his phone. I ran my free palm down my thigh to wipe away the nervous sweat, and tried to gain some confidence. “Sorry to call at an awkward time, but I didn’t want to wait. Can I talk to you, or are you busy right now?”

There was a short silence, then: “Even after all the stuff I told you?” he asked, voice low with a hint of awe. “After I lied to you and used you… You still want to talk to me?”

I wrinkled my nose. I didn’t need him to say it like that, as if I had somehow forgotten. What he had done wasn’t okay, and never would be, but there were other things that pissed me off more.

I took a deep breath to fortify myself. Now or never.

“Actually, it’s more than that. I want to make a deal.”

This was where things got tricky. Technically, I had the upper hand in this negotiation, but I still worried he might say no. But I was just so fed up, that whatever it took, I was more than ready to face it now. Hopefully, he would help me out, if I returned the favor.

“So, what is it?” he said finally.

“Before I come to that, there is one thing I’m curious about.” I winced. I was curious, but this question was more about stalling than anything else. “You said someone was blackmailing you and…”

“And my older brother, Leonard Tate. Originally, the bastard was just going to send us to jail, but now the price is my brother’s life.”

Hatred dripped off his words. I arched my eyebrows, surprised and even more curious about who could make Alan this mad. He hadn’t seemed like an angry person in the short time I’d known him, but then, I had to wonder just how much of his behavior around me had been genuine.

“Tell me the name. I might know him.”

There was a heavy sigh. “I’m pretty sure you do know him. He’s your dad’s biggest competitor, and holds a grudge against him for some shit that happened a few years ago.”

It didn’t take me long to connect the dots. I frowned. Of all people…

“Do you mean Dan ‘the man’ Gamble? That guy?”

Alan sucked in a breath. “You sound like you know him better than I would like.”

I chuckled bitterly. “Oh, you could say that. The incident that made him resent my dad? The bastard was drunk and started hitting on me. My dad got pissed at him and punched him in the face. I was showing off some of my dad’s jewelry at the time, at some big party, so a lot of people saw Gamble get humiliated.”

There was a short silence as I chewed on my lip, feeling old anger and resentment for that man rise up again. Before him, my dad’s parties had been tolerable. After, all I could think about was the same thing happening again, and it opened my eyes to how the other men at those parties treated me.

“How old were you, Arielle?” came Alan’s voice, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“What?”

“The incident with Gamble.”

I grimaced. “Fourteen.”

Something crashed loudly on the other end of the line.

“Alan?” I said in alarm. “Alan, are you still there?”

“I’m fine,” he said abruptly. “That fucking bastard. I can’t say I’m surprised, though I’d really… I’m doing my best to try and figure out how to turn the tables on him and rescue my brother. But I could really use some help, to be honest.”

Frustration was thick in his voice, and my heart went out to him. He sounded really worried for his brother.

“That’s actually what I called you about,” I started, rounding back to the real topic. “This is my deal: If you help me get free of my father, I don’t care how, I will help you steal the Heart of Mary and save your brother.”

I waited for a reaction. If there was one, though, it was totally silent.

It was probably shocking that I would jump to this kind of rash plan, after all my years of endurance. But the past year had been harder on me, since I had nothing to do and nowhere to go. At least in high school, I had classes as a distraction, and even that was lost to me when my dad wouldn’t let me go to college.

I would miss my dad, but I was making the choice I thought was best for my future. Here was a man who had travelled the world, knew how to take care of himself, and would owe me a favor if I helped him out. When would I ever find such a perfect opportunity to escape the confines of my home and find true freedom?

Alan may have deceived me, but I felt he was a decent person, deep down. He’d been put in a tough situation, and his brother was in danger…I was still hurt by his actions, but I understood them.

Eventually, Alan replied, “Are you sure about this, Arielle?”

“Positive,” I said. “Plus, taking the Heart isn’t simple for someone on the outside. My father has ten copies of decoy jewelry made for every piece in his collection. The Heart is in a special setting that allows it to be popped out and replaced with one of the decoys as a security measure whenever I model it, or we have guests over.”

“That sounds like overkill,” Alan said, astonished.

“Well, he gets paranoid, remember? And he likes keeping his things close and safe.” My fist curled at my side. “So he has a lot of contingency plans to make sure nothing gets stolen. But I promise you I can get my hands on the real one. My dad would never anticipate me stealing something, so I’ll be allowed to walk right into the vault when I get ready for the party.”

He quickly asked, “How easy would it be for you to steal one of the fakes while you’re at it?”

I paused and hummed, thinking it over. “Well, the real Heart has an external tracker on its setting that can be removed or disabled, but each of the fakes has an embedded GPS tracker, so you wouldn’t be able to get away with stealing one in the long term. “

“That’s perfect,” he said.

“Uh, for what?”

“My brother and I had a fake made so we could swap it out with the real one during the heist,” he replied, the barest hint of amusement in his voice, “but if you already have one with a GPS tracker in it, then that’s even better.”