CHAPTER 6: THE PROPOSITION

There was a deafening silence between them.

Isla's mouth dried a bit, too; a part of her still couldn't quite believe she stood here, staring this man down in the flesh, the man who had managed to destroy her father's reputation in a matter of hours. And now, he wanted more.

She should have walked away. She ought to have told him to go to hell.

But this time she was still here. Still listening.

"Say that I agree," she said carefully. 

"What if I help you take him down. What happens to me after?"

Damien's lips curled, but his face was not laughing. 

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On if you intend to be collateral damage, or something beyond."

A shiver ran down her spine.

There it was. The unspoken warning.

This was not merely about betraying Richard Lancaster. 

This was about entering a world she wasn't sure she was prepared for.

And Damien Cross?

He didn't do things halfway.

She inhaled slowly, struggling to think. If she did that, if she helped him, there was no turning back. 

Richard would never let her off the hook. She'd be severing all ties to everything she'd ever known.

But what if all this had ever really been hers, to start?

Her father had built his empire on control, on forcing people to do his will — including her. 

For years now, Isla had been telling herself that the price of being a Lancaster was loyalty, but loyalty to what? A father who viewed her as a pawn? A life she had never chosen?

Damien was giving her what Richard never did.

A choice.

She raised her eyes to his, scanning his face for some indication that he was deceiving her. 

"You want me to turn on him," she said. 

"But you're forgetting one thing."

He raised an eyebrow. "And what's that?"

"My father is not an easy man to destroy."

Damien's smirk deepened. "Neither am I."

The air between them crackled, a potent combination of challenge and understanding.

Isla hated how much she wanted to believe him.

Because, for the first time in her life, she wasn't only terrified of the enemy.

She had a terrible fear of how much she wanted to be with him.

***

He had expected resistance.

Hell, he had counted on it.

Isla Lancaster was not the kind of girl who could be bullied into submission. She was smart, but sharp-edged in a way that most people missed because of her last name. 

He had watched her for months from afar, observing the way she worked, the way she moved through a world she did not entirely inhabit.

But tonight, for the first time, he noticed something different in her.

A fracture. A question.

A woman who had been slowly starting to wonder if she was on the wrong side.

Good.

Because Damien needed her.

Not just as leverage. Not merely as another weapon in his war with Richard Lancaster.

But because Isla was the only one close enough to him to tear him apart from the inside.

They wondered if she would cross that line.

"You have some doubts," he said, observing her carefully. 

"That's good. It means you're still thinking for yourself."

She gave a mirthless laugh. "You say that as though that's a luxury."

"It is," he said simply. 

"The one your father has denied you for too long."

Her jaw clenched but she didn't say anything.

Damien moved in closer, his voice lowered. 

"Help me, Isla, and I'll ensure you'll never have to live in his shadow again."

She breathed out, slow and controlled. And then finally she stretched out her hand.

"Fine," she said. 

"You have a deal."

He held her hand, his grip firm but measured.

The deal was sealed.

And with it, the start of Richard Lancaster's undoing.

But when Damien gazed into Isla's eyes, one thing was absolutely certain.

And this war had just gotten more dangerous than he had ever envisioned.

Because now, it wasn't only about revenge.

It was about her.

And that?

That changed everything.

***

 This wasn't just another player in his game — she was the wild card. The wild card that would either give him everything he'd ever wanted — or ruin him utterly.

And as much as he had mapped out each move, plotted each angle…

He hadn't accounted for Isla Lancaster.

Didn't prepare for the way she pushed back. The way she stared him down, fearless, unswerving.

Hadn't reckoned with the way he liked it.

Dangerous.

Very, very dangerous.

His thumb grazed her wrist before he released it. 

"You won't regret this."

A sardonic smile pulled on her lips. 

"That remains to be seen."

Oh, she was sharp.

He liked that, too.

Damien took a step back, shoved his hands in his pockets, and looked over her. 

"If we're going to do this, we do it the way I want to."

Isla crossed her arms. "Meaning?"

"Meaning I give the orders. You follow them."

She chuckled softly and shook her head. 

"You really have no clue who you just partnered with, huh?"

His lips curved. "Oh, I think I do."

The halfway defiant, halfway intrigued way she was looking at him flooded him with some kind of electric pulse.

He had come to kill Richard Lancaster.

But he didn't expect that in the progress he might burn with the fire he lighted.

And the most dangerous part?

He didn't know whether he would stop it if he could.

That changed everything.