“Interesting. If you had an evening to yourself, what would you do with it?”
“I’d go to the cinema, on my own, and sit at the back with a tons of snacks, and watch whatever I wanted.”
“You like films then?” I checked.
“I like all forms of fiction, whether they’re films or books. I prefer them to real life.”
Fair enough. There were plenty of times when I wished I could vanish from reality.
She stared at me, a challenge in her eyes. “Anything else?”
“Did your family have anything to do with Harvey Cornell’s murder?”
Shit. Where did that come from?
Her lips thinned, and for a moment I didn’t think she was going to reply, but then she shook her head.
“Are we just your general get-out cause? Blame everything on the Gilligans so you don’t need to worry about either searching farther afield or maybe even closer to home?”
“I guess it’s just that if something looks like shit and smells like shit, it’s normally shit.”
I’d taken things too far.
Ivy turned away from me. “Goodnight, Jayden.”
Considering I’d wanted to keep her around, I hadn’t done a very good job of it. I considered calling her back again but changed my mind. Ivy might be leaving my penthouse, but she wouldn’t be leaving the city anytime soon. I had ways of tracking her down again. It was probably best to do so after she’d calmed down.
She reached the lift and punched the button without facing me. She must have forgotten that her face was reflected in the mirrored walls, however, and I could see how red she was and that her eyes were glassy. She was upset, but whether it was anger or misery, I couldn’t quite tell.
The doors slid shut, closing her off from my view.
I sighed and sat back.
What exactly was I planning to achieve by screwing with Ivy Gilligan? Despite what she’d said, it wasn’t all about sex, was it?
Could I use her to help me find out who’d ordered the hit on my father? I didn’t want her to pity me, but if I could make her feel something for me, then maybe she’d want to help me. A twist of guilt went through me at the thought of using her like that. I had to remind myself that she was a Gilligan. I wanted to destroy her family. She’d been a fool for coming to me in the first place.
But this was a war, and there were always going to be casualties.