Free Dirtiest Lie by Cleo Peitsche

is Romeo’s love.
    He wants to save my life? Give me back my freedom?
    Well, I want to take away his loneliness. I want to give him a reason to leave work at a reasonable hour, to sleep past four in the morning, to go ten minutes without handling an urgent phone call.
    Yes, I want his love. Me, the woman who knows as much about romantic love as a monk living out a vow of seclusion.
    And it’s not just his that I want. It’s all of theirs. I want everything their ex rejected.
    “You can sleep in here with me tonight if you like,” Slade says. “Or you can have your own space.”
    “I like your bedroom,” I say even though I barely noticed what it looks like. My general impression is of solid, clean lines and nature paintings for artwork.
    His phone rings, and he glances at the screen. “Romeo and Hawthorne will arrive in twenty minutes with dinner. It can get chilly here at night. What do you think about building a fire?”
    I don’t think he could charm me more if he tried.

Chapter 9

    Dinner is takeout from one of the city’s most exclusive restaurants. One that I’m pretty sure doesn’t do takeout, at least not for mere mortals.
    While we eat, my bosses discuss work stuff.
    Whenever there’s a lull in the conversation, I make sure to take another bite of my dinner or a sip of the tart, almost astringent red wine.
    “Let’s discuss the fascinating and despicable Mr. Yorker,” Slade says calmly.
    Three sets of eyes turn my way.
    Thick pappardelle noodles, messily wound around the tines of my fork, begin to slide off. I shovel them into my mouth, then use my finger to wipe creamy sauce from the corners of my lips.
    I don’t realize my hands are trembling until I go to pick up my water glass. Immediately I set it back down.
    “What did you find out?” I ask.
    “He’s heavily in debt,” Romeo says, and I feel strangely ashamed. Like it’s not bad enough that my grandfather is cruel and manipulative, that he used kids to file frivolous lawsuits, that he tried to marry me off at sixteen to one of his friends so he could grab my trust fun, and he’s a murderer—though my bosses don’t know this last bit—but he’s also unable to control his spending habits.
    Not that it’s news to me.
    “Is that what drives the lawsuits?” Slade asks.
    “It doesn’t matter,” Romeo says. “It didn’t take our investigators long to discover a host of questionable schemes he’s involved with.”
    “Good luck trying to nail him on any of them,” I say. “He’s got low friends in high places.”
    Romeo smiles. “Not everyone can be bought. I have a good friend who intends to run for state’s attorney next year. We had an interesting conversation this afternoon, and he’s very interested in the things your grandfather has been up to. Not just one scheme. Everything.”
    Already I’m shaking my head. “We can’t bring in anyone else. It wouldn’t be fair—”
    “Matthew knows what he’s doing,” Romeo says smoothly. “This is a win/win situation. Your grandfather’s business practices will be thoroughly investigated. You have inside information about how he runs his schemes. You wouldn’t need to ever testify against him, but Matthew wants to speak with you.”
    “No,” I say. “I don’t want that.”
    Not surprisingly, my bosses look confused. They know how much I despise my grandfather.
    “Because of my sister,” I say, and I’m about to tell the truth, but then I think of other angles, things that are also true. “If they go after our grandfather, my sister will lose the house. If Layla was involved in his schemes after becoming an adult, she could end up with a record.”
    “Those are things that Matthew and I already discussed. We can protect against them,” Romeo says, frowning slightly.
    “It’s… I’d rather not go about things that way,” I mumble. “Can’t we just… scare my grandfather away?”
    The furrow between Romeo’s brows deepens as his eyebrows draw closer