Sleeping with the Enemy

The First Ripple

I forwarded the document to a secure address Ms. Ortega had set up and watched, stomach tight, as she acknowledged receipt. The first ripple had been made.

That night, Damon met me on the twenty-third floor in the atrium where the lights spilled like liquid glass. He didn't look angry. He looked tired and a little hollow, like someone who had been awake too many hours and realized his hands were stained in ways he couldn't scrub off.

"You're playing a dangerous game", he said quietly.

"So are you", I replied. "You don't get to call the shots".

He stepped close. Close enough that i could hear the soft rasp of his breathing. "If you continue, you'll destroy more than my company".

"Is that what you're afraid of? I asked. "Your company? Or your secrets?"

He closed his eyes for a moment. When they opened, the look wa small and naked and more dangerous than rage. "There are people who will come for you if you touch what I'm trying to hide".

"Then let them", i said. "If they were the ones who took Ethan, then maybe letting them find me is exactly what i want".

His hand found my wrist gentle, almost pleading. I should have pulled away, but the world seemed to compress to the heat of his skin.

"Why are you doing this to me?" he whispered. "Why can't you just let me fix it?"

Because fixing it would mean forgiving him. Because fixing it would mean pretending Ethan's fixing life had been worth a ledger entry.Because fixing it would mean i was nothing more than a woman whose heart could be bought back with apologies.

"I can't", I said.

He closed his mouth, tasting the word as if it was poison. "Then be careful", he said finally. "For both our sakes".

I wanted to tell him that for both our sakes he should have thought about the consequences years ago. I wanted to tell him that the world didn't owe him a second chance. I wanted to tell him i still loved him even as i planned to break him.

But i didn't say any of that.

Instead, I stepped back into the corridor and let the distance between us be a promise and a threat both.

At home late, I opened a drawer where i kept a photograph of Ethan. I had worn it under my dress the night i met Damon; now it lay faceup on the table, his smile a soft aberration against the jagged edged of my hatred. I touched the corner and felt my plan hum like a live wire under my skin.

Love had made me soft once.

Now love would be my weapon a bait he would bite because he could not help himself. And when he did, there would be no mercy.

Outside, the city glowed, oblivious as ever. Inside, i wrote the next item on my list.

Make Damon choose: love or empire.

The storm wasn't over. It had only just begun.