The Inheritances Game (Jameson Hawthorne)

Grayson Hawthorne...

I glanced around the room, it was blank and depressing. The only source of light was a flickering bulb overhead, casting eerie shadows on the worn-out furniture. 

Suddenly, a creaking sound echoed through the room, and the door slowly swung open. I pushed myself up to see Grayson walk in. "Gray? What are you doing here?"

"I traded me for you. You need to leave." 

I scoffed. "No way am I leaving you here. You can't just take my place you need to leave."

"No, I deserve this. You don't you need to go."

"Grayson, stop thinking of yourself like that. You haven't done anything wrong!" He didn't answer. "If you think I plan on leaving you here your deluded, besides I'm too exhausted at this point to leave."

"What do you mean, you've been sitting in a room all day."

"For someone who came to save me you're really rude."

"I'm just trying to protect you."

I sighed. "Eve drugged me to get me here and I'm still feeling the effects."

Grayson's eyes widened with a mix of concern and realization. "Drugged? Are you okay? What did she give you?"

"I don't know, but I'll be fine" 

"I'll help you out of here, I promise." 

Avery's Pov

What did you just do?" Jameson looked at me surprised and worried. 

"I called the authorities and reported that human remains had been found at Hawthorne House." That much had probably been obvious if they'd overheard me. What Jameson was really asking me was why. 

"Far be it from me to state the obvious," Thea cut in, "but wasn't the point of digging that up to make a trade?"

"I have another call to make," I said.

"To Blake?" Rebecca asked.

"No, I don't have time to explain," I told all of them.

"You're playing him." Jameson didn't phrase that as a question.

"Blake said to bring him the body, and it will be returned to him. Eventually. And when it is, I won't have broken any laws." It was easier thinking of this like chess. Trying to see my opponent's moves coming before he made them. Baiting the moves I wanted, blocking attacks before they happened.   

Xander's eyes widened. "You think that if you'd taken him the remains, he would have held the illegality of that move over you?"

"I can't afford to hand him any more leverage."

"Because, of course, this is all about you." Thea's voice was dangerously pleasant—never a good sign.

"Thea," Rebecca said quietly. "Let it go."

"No. This is your family, Bex. And no matter how hard you try, no matter how angry you manage to get—that's always going to matter to you." Thea lifted a hand to the side of Rebecca's face. "I saw you back there with your mom." 

Rebecca looked like she wanted to get lost in Thea's eyes, but she didn't let herself. "I always thought there was something wrong with me," she said, her voice breaking. "Emily was my mom's world, and I was a shadow, and I thought it was me."

"But now you know," Thea said softly, "it was never you." Mallory's trauma was Rebecca's trauma—probably was Emily's, too.

"I am done living in the shadows, Thea," Rebecca said. She turned to me. "Bring on the light. Tell the world the truth. Do it." That wasn't my plan—not exactly. There was one move that would let me protect the people who needed protecting. One sequence, if I could execute it. If Blake didn't see it coming. Reporting the body was just step one. Step two was controlling the narrative.

"Avery." Landon answered my call on the third ring. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but our working relationship came to an end quite some time ago." I'd had other publicists and media consultants since, but for what I was planning, I needed the best. 

"I need to talk to you about a dead body and the story of the century." 

Silence—enough of it that I wondered if she'd hung upon me. Then Landon offered up two words, her British accent crisp. "I'm listening." I threw Tobias Hawthorne under the bus. Thoroughly and without mercy. Dead men didn't get to be picky about their reputations, and that went double for dead men who'd used me the way he had. Tobias Hawthorne had killed a man forty years ago—and covered it up. That was the story I was telling, and it was one hell of a story.

"Where are you going?" Jameson called after me once I'd hung up with Landon.

"The vault," I replied. "There's something I need before Igo to confront Vincent Blake."

Jameson ran to catch up with me. He made it past me, then turned back stopping me.. "And what do you need out of the vault?" Jameson asked.

"If I tell you," I said, "are you going to try and stop me?"

"Is it risky?"

"Extremely."

"Good." 

"To best Blake, it will have to be."