Chapter 36

Whitney’s biggest obsession was getting her precious daughter married into money. Now that Valeria had finally hooked Jasper Hale, Whitney couldn’t afford to mess this up. But something was bugging her. Valeria and Jasper’s relationship was still under wraps. How the hell did this lowlife kidnapper know about it? That was seriously weird.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Whitney tried to play innocent. She wasn’t admitting to jack shit.

Baldy checked his notes, then let out a cold laugh. “Oh really? Well then, I guess I’ll just send this little recording over to the Hale family. Be interesting to see their reaction, don’t you think? So what’s it gonna be, Mrs. Stone? You paying or not?”

Whitney almost had a coronary from sheer rage. She was completely fucked—trapped by these psychos. Through gritted teeth, she spat out, “I’ve only got fifteen million liquid. That’s literally every dollar I have stashed away.”

Anastasia gave Baldy a subtle nod. He caught the signal. “Deal. Fifteen million. I’m texting you my account info right now.” He hung up immediately and fired off his banking details.

Cassian watched the whole thing, impressed. “She’s actually gonna pay?” He’d been planning to completely destroy whoever was behind this, but Anastasia’s extortion angle was pretty brilliant.

Chapter 36

“Oh, she’ll pay alright. Getting her daughter into a rich family is the only thing that matters to her. That and money.” Anastasia knew exactly which buttons to push. Whitney had worked her way up from being some rich guy’s side piece, so she’d never been accepted by New York’s real money crowd. Since she couldn’t crack that world herself, she’d put all her eggs in Valeria’s basket. Whitney had been drilling it into Valeria since she was little—marry up, change your whole life. Now Valeria had finally delivered by landing Jasper Hale. Whitney couldn’t let anything screw this up now.

Sure enough, the money hit within minutes. Pretty ironic when you thought about it—this was basically her mother’s money anyway. When Sharpson divorced her mom, he’d made sure she walked away with almost nothing. Getting some of it back from Whitney felt like justice.

Anastasia looked at the two kidnappers matter-of-factly. “You guys actually did me a favor here, so you’re just getting a beating instead of something worse.” Both men went pale, but before they could start begging, Cassian’s people hauled them outside. Their screams started echoing from the alley pretty quickly. Then Cassian and Anastasia went home.

The whole thing had really rattled Cassian. He was already planning to have security tail Anastasia from now on. He never wanted to go through that kind of panic again.

Back at the house, Anastasia went straight for a hot shower to wash off the day’s nastiness. She came out with damp hair falling over her shoulders, water still dripping onto the hardwood. She’d thrown on a silk slip that moved with her body, showing off her curves. Cassian was on the couch nursing a glass of water. When he saw her walk out like that, his jaw tightened and he had to force himself to look somewhere else.

Anastasia grabbed a towel and started working on her hair. “You sure you’re okay?” His voice came out rougher than he meant it to.

Anastasia stopped toweling for a second. “Yeah, I’m fine. Whitney’s a sick bitch, but you got there in time.”

“From now on, I want to know where you’re going. Always.” It wasn’t really a request.

“Okay.” Something warm settled in her chest at the protectiveness in his voice.

“Hey, there’s this charity thing this weekend. You want to come with me?” he asked.

Anastasia paused, then smiled. “Yeah, sounds good.”