Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 106312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Jenny makes the smart decision to leave, and the door clicks behind her. I open the card.
Wear the ring.
In the coming days, we will announce our engagement.
Congratulations on landing the most eligible bachelor in New York.
Sincerely,
Your soon-to-be husband.
I crinkle the note, and within seconds, I’m growling and screaming as I tear it up into tiny pieces. Which is frustratingly hard, considering how thick the fucking paper is. My fraying nerves snap, and I throw the flowers and ring across the room.
This guy thinks he has a fucking collar around me. And even if he might have the means to kill me, I refuse to be told what to do or to be treated submissively. Maybe it’s the serious aversion I have to commitment, but I can’t even fake it at this point.
He’s stepping into my space, and no matter how much distance I try to put between us, he’s caging me more and more.
I bite the edge of my nail, thinking.
I need out of this room. Right now.
Looking down at my phone, I read the message from my client from two weeks ago. No updates. No further instructions. Nothing.
My phone pings with a new message, and it’s like the ray of sunshine to push away these dark clouds. I never saved Sage’s number on my phone but she tries to text me from time to time. This one, for once, grabs my attention.
Agreeing to join her might be reckless. But that’s my middle name.
As luck would have it, it’s just the reminder I need that I’m not someone’s property and I can still do my own thing.
Unknown Number: Jewel, please help. I’m supposed to meet up with three guys with some of my girlfriends, but they just bailed on me. You said you’re still single, right? Please come just as a filler. I really like one of the guys. I’ll make it up to you and take your shitty shifts. Prayer hands emoji.
I know she’s desperate if she’s messaging me as a last resort. But the timing couldn’t be any better. So I reply.
Me: Sure. Give me the time and place.
CHAPTER 19
Eli
Not even twenty-four hours out of my sight, my fiancée needs to be taught her first lesson.
“Do you want to tell us what this is about, boss?” Hawke asks from the passenger seat. Ford is driving and staring at me through the rearview mirror as I check how many bullets I have in my gun.
I had every intention of dealing with a business partner who’d gone stray, but the moment I was notified Jewel went to some run-down Chinese restaurant and is sitting across from three men, I saw red.
“No. Just be ready for cleanup.”
I’m thinking clearly, I know that.
It’s the most clarity I’ve experienced in a long time.
When I claim something as mine, it is deeply, irrevocably my possession.
Jewel will learn a lesson tonight: If she chooses to see other men, then she might as well be the one pointing the gun at their heads.
Ford pulls over at the curb, and I step out of the car without so much as giving them a second glance. I adjust my suit as I storm inside the restaurant. There aren’t many people here so late in the evening. A hostess approaches me, but the moment she sees the gun in my hand, she screams and runs into the kitchen. Customers begin to scatter out of the shitty restaurant.
Laughter catches my attention, and I turn toward the head of auburn hair in the private section of the room. It’s her friend Sage’s laughter, and some guy is smiling across from her, brushing his thumb against hers.
My little tigress, however, seems less fierce than usual. She’s throwing back a drink with three empty glasses beside her. The two men across from her greedily stare at her despite her dismissive attitude toward them.
I barrel up to their table, and Sage screams. Jewel looks up in a daze, and then rage quickly sparks to life in her eyes.
“You’re not invited,” she snarls.
I offer a tight smile. “I am wherever my fiancée is.”
That’s when her gaze drops to the gun and realization sinks in. “Don’t you fucking—”
I aim for the first man on the left and shoot him between the eyes. Sage screams again as Jewel jumps over her. By the time I’ve shot the second guy, she’s standing in front of the remaining two protectively. Interesting. I didn’t take her to care much about her colleagues, but apparently, even she’ll draw a line somewhere.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” she growls, and if ever she’s looked like a protective tigress, it’s now. I can only imagine how fiercely she might protect her own.
My fiancée.
I wonder what it might feel like to have that same loyalty.
I try to shake the thought away, along with the humming in my veins. I don’t entirely understand it. But she’s mine, and no one will so much as look at her.