Chapter 4: My Ex’s Enemy  

Dana’s POV

“What the hell are you doing here?”

He didn’t answer. He pushed a black folder across the metal table. “Sit.”

As I made to move back to the door, three armed men came out from the shadows. They were obviously his men. 

“I’m fine standing.”

“Suit yourself. But the bail clock’s ticking. Once you’re logged as released, my offer expires.”

“Offer?”

I stepped forward. I didn’t sit. “You think Mateo sent me here and I know that he's the reason you are behind bars. Either way, you want out of Rikers and I want him to suffer. Let’s use each other.”

I laughed, brought out the chair that was offered to me before and sat down. “You want to use me to get back at Mateo?”

Now we are talking business. 

“I want to watch his face when he sees you.” He leaned back. “Two million dollars says you’re curious enough to hear how.”

Two million to get me bailed?

Is that how high Mateo placed my bail?

“You bailed me out.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because my father cut my inheritance three years ago. Mateo advised him and I’m returning the favor.”

He said it flatly.

“What do you want, Remy?”

He tapped the folder. “Open it.”

I did. It was an employment contract with the Tovar Group letterhead. My name typed at the top. 

*Position:* Executive Assistant to the CEO.  

*Term:* Twelve months.  

*Termination Clause:* Early resignation or termination for cause results in immediate bail revocation.

I read it twice. “You want me to work for him.”

“I want you in his building. In his meetings. In his line of sight. Every day for a year.”

“If I quit, I go back to Rikers.”

“If he fires you without cause, you walk free. But he won’t. Firing you means I win.”

I closed the folder. “No.”

“You haven’t heard the rest.” He slid another paper out. 

It was a photograph. I leaned forward and picked it up from the table.

It was a picture, a side view taken unaware of Jade.

“Where is she?”

“What if I told you that I have tabs on where your friend is and I can take you to where she is.” He said, looking me dead in the eyes. “So far as you’re where I can see you.”

“Where you can control me.”

“Where I can protect your only friend. Same thing.”

“Wow,” I said, smiling like a crazy psycho. 

Remy’s eyes didn’t even flicker. He was waiting for the other shoe. Waiting to see if I’d cry, or beg, or break. He didn’t know the new me. 

I set the photo of Jade down on the metal table slowly like it was glass. 

“You think you’re the first man to blackmail me?” I leaned in, elbows on the table, close enough that the armed men behind him shifted. Let them. “Mateo did it first. Difference is, he didn’t know how well to execute it. He just lied and watched me crawl.”

His jaw ticked. Good. 

“You want to protect my only friend,” I said, tasting the words, spitting them back at him. “No. You want a leash. You want me close so when Mateo looks at me and sees his guilt, you get to sip champagne off his misery. That’s not protection, Remy. That’s theater.”

He didn’t deny it. “Call it whatever helps you sleep. The deal’s the same.”

I laughed again, and this time it scraped my throat raw. “Two million dollars bail. A job. A year in hell. And the promise that you won’t let my friend disappear. You think that’s expensive?”

I stood up so fast the chair screeched. One of the armed men stepped forward. I didn’t even look at him. 

“Expensive,” I said, “is what Mateo paid when he put me in Rikers. Expensive is the three nights I spent listening to a girl two cells down scream because withdrawal was eating her alive and the guards took bets on how long she’d last. Expensive is the lawyer he sent to tell me to plead guilty, because ‘it would be easier for everyone.’”

My hands were flat on the table now. The folder between us. 

“You want to know why I hate him, Remy? You think you know?” 

I pushed the folder back across the table. It slid, stopped at his cufflinks. 

“I don’t hate Mateo because he destroyed my company. I don’t hate him because he had me arrested on charges he invented. I don’t even hate him because he smiled at the press while they perp-walked me.”

I picked up the photo of Jade again. My thumb brushed the edge. She was laughing in it. God, I hadn’t seen her laugh in three years. 

“I hate Mateo,” I said, “because three years ago, he decided I was cheating and that was the end of it.”

Remy’s face was stone. But his eyes… his eyes weren’t.

“Two years together. And he didn’t ask me one question. Not one. He took someone else’s word, called me a liar, got my friend stabbed, framed me, and walked away like I was nothing.”

The room went quiet for a minute.

I stepped closer to the table. “So no, I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it because he didn’t trust me, and then he let me rot for something he helped make happen.”

“And when I was inside this Riker rotting, his company’s legal team sold my father’s house out from under my mother. Maybe he didn’t sign the papers. But he didn’t stop it, either. So tell me, Remy–what’s the difference?”

“So no, Remy. I’m not curious enough for two million dollars.” I leaned closer, and my voice dropped until it was just for him. “I’m furious enough to burn his whole kingdom to the ground for free.”

For the first time since I walked in, Remy blinked. 

“You didn’t know that,” I said. It wasn’t a question. “You thought this was about money. About your daddy’s will. You thought you were hiring a woman scorned.”

I sat back down, slow, deliberate. Crossed my legs. Picked up the pen he’d left beside the contract. 

“I’m not scorned, Remy. I’m scorched. There’s a difference.”

I clicked the pen at once.

“You want me in his building? Fine. You want me in his meetings? Better. You want me in his line of sight?” I signed the contract without reading the rest. My name, sharp, angry strokes. “I want to be in his nightmares.”

I shoved the folder back to him. “But we’re changing the terms.”

His brow lifted, just a fraction. “The bail clause is non-negotiable.”

“I’m not talking about bail.” I tapped the photo of Jade. “You said you have tabs on her. I don’t want tabs. I want proof of life. Tonight. Video. Timestamp. Newspaper in frame. You get me that, and I’ll be at Tovar Group at 8 AM Monday, smiling like a goddamn employee of the month.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then you can take your two million and your armed men and your revenge, and you can shove it so far up your ass that your father’s lawyers will need a search party.” I stood again, grabbed my wrinkled jacket off the back of the chair. “Because if you’re lying about Jade, you and I are not allies. We’re enemies. And I promise you, Mateo is not the only man I know how to destroy.”

One of the men near the door moved. Remy raised two fingers without looking. The man stilled. 

“You’re either very brave or very stupid, Dana,” Remy said quietly. 

“I’m very done,” I said. “There’s a difference.”

I walked to the door. My legs were shaking, but I’d be damned if I let him see. Hand on the knob, I stopped. Turned my head, just enough. 

“You said you want to watch his face when he sees me.” My smile came back, and this time it had teeth. “You should worry about your own face, Remy. Because when Mateo falls, you’ll be standing right next to him. And I don’t leave witnesses.”