Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 81937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
My woman.
Not yet. Not in any true way. But the fact she’s here means she’s going to say yes. She doesn’t have a choice if she wants to stay in Carver City, and the sooner she realizes it, the better. Even Hades’s neutral territory won’t protect her if Peter decides to chase her down—and he’s already decided it.
I check my pace and head for the door. She came to me. That puts me in exactly the position I need to get what I want. If I play my hand too freely, she’ll realize my offer isn’t as simple as it appears. She’s smart enough to connect the dots and understand I need her just as much as she needs me. That shit will not fly.
Nigel put her in his office, which is just as well. I trust my men not to touch what’s mine, but loyalty has been wavering over the last few months. I’ll need to make an example of someone soon to ensure they fear me more than they fear the memory of Peter. The thought sits like lead in my stomach, but I knew what I was signing up for when I drove him out. This is the price I pay for safety, mine and my people’s. I’m willing to bear the burden of it.
I should have killed him. I beat him within an inch of his life, but when it came time to finish him, I hesitated. Murder is what monstrous people did—what Peter and my father did. If I killed him, I’d be no better than him, so I had the few men loyal to him drag his bloody body out of the building and washed my hands of him.
Joke’s on me. Four years later and I am exactly as monstrous as Peter and my father. Better that I’d lost my soul a few months earlier and removed the biggest threat to this territory, because my so-called morals didn’t last the first year. One does not run an entire territory without being challenged, without being forced to make examples of people. I’m no exception. I can talk circles around most people, but there are situations that I simply can’t charm my way out of.
Because of my weakness, Peter lives and now he’s knocking on my door, threatening everything I’ve sold my soul to protect. If I fail, everything I’ve done to keep my people safe will be for nothing.
I can’t let that happen. No matter the cost.
I step into the office and shut the door behind me. I’m not surprised to find Tink sitting at the desk and rifling through the unlocked drawers. She glares, silently daring me to say something.
I don’t have to say shit. She came to me. She knows the offer on the table. If she wasn’t willing to accept, she wouldn’t have crossed into my territory, let alone shown up at the house itself. I sprawl into the chair across from the desk and wait.
She doesn’t make me wait long. “I hate you.” Tink’s voice holds no heat, just a weary resignation.
“You’ve made that abundantly clear over the years.” I only tried to talk to her once after she escaped Peter’s clutches, a few months after she made her deal with Hades. She refused to see me, and every time since then, she has treated me like an enemy. Someone to be cut down verbally every time we shared the same space. I don’t blame her for that. I’m a walking, breathing memory of years I’m sure she’d rather forget. And, fuck, but I enjoy seeing her snarl and snap instead of cowering like she did in the bad old days.
She props her hands on her generous hips. She’s wearing a cute pink dress with black polka dots that hugs her tits and torso and then flares down to stop just below her knees. It’s old school and a strange combination of prim and sexy that makes me want to sink my teeth into her.
She snaps her fingers next to her face. “Stop staring at my tits.”
“I like the dress.”
Her green eyes narrow. “I didn’t put it on for you.” She turns to look out the window, and I mourn the fact that the dress hides her ass and thighs. The woman is thick, and I fucking love it. She’s always been beautiful, but when I knew her before, it was a fragile kind of thing that seemed on the verge of shattering. Too skinny. Too afraid. Not taking care of herself, though it was no fault of her own.
I’ve watched her find herself over the years. Find her style. Find her confidence. Find her Don’t Fuck With Me attitude. The fact she won’t give me the time of day only makes me respect her more. The woman she’s become doesn’t fuck around.