She lifts her chin and assesses me, then slowly raises a well-trimmed brow at me. “What do you want, Ledger?” she questions, and her eyes crease near the corners when she narrows them. “If it’s not something that requires my immediate attention, then I’ll ask that you wait outside while I finish up here.”
Arrogant bitch.
Her jewelry glints against the surrounding lights, and as she waits for me to speak, I notice that there’s a stiffness in her posture, like she’s on edge and eager to know why I’ve disturbed her.
I’m rattling her right now, but she’s too stubborn to let it show.
I lean back in my chair and stretch my legs out against the table.
“Believe me, Miranda, itisurgent,” I tell her.
She notices how I address her, and she doesn’t like it.
“Did my brother send you?” she asks. “You should have gotten in touch with my bodyguard first, andthenmade yourself so…frank in my presence.”
“Hmm.” I cant my head a little. “My bad.”
She’s physically bothered by me, and I know that it’s absolutelykillingher to see me so calm.
I glance at Jayce. He taps a finger on his watch, silently asking me to hurry. He knows that if Miranda decides to call security, or worse – her brother, then me and the crew will get into a tight position. I have to be brief, and I have to make sure she understands what I have to say to her.
Miranda places her forearms on the table and gives me an annoyed look. “I’m running out of patience, Ledger,” she tells me. “If it’s money you want, you’ll have to go to Chase, because I’m not at the–”
“Cignette,” I voice the name with enough conviction that she stops talking and stares at me with a horrified expression on her face.
“My daughter sent you?” she inquires, and there’s a tremor in her voice that’s just so satisfying to listen to.
“Look, I can pay you ten times more than what she has,” Miranda says with an urgency. “You don’t have to go through with this, Ledger; you owe me and my brother your continued freedom, your–”
“Hold up,” I stop her. Then, because Ireallycan’t keep it in, I start laughing. “You think Cignette hired me to kill you? Is that why you think I’m here right now?” I laugh some more, and my crew joins in on it.
And here I thought that the woman who literally created an entire fashion empire from the ground up would at least have a fragment of commonsense. But nope, these elites continue to disappoint me. I guess I should just stop expecting much of anything from them.
If Miranda thinks her daughter can contract her murder, then she probably knows she went too far with Cignette this time. She realizes she overdid it, and that fact is settled somewhere inside her.
She looks utterly ghastly and dumbfounded as she glances between me and the others. “Then why are you…” She swallows. “If not to…W–”
I bang a fist against the table so loudly, that it not only clatters the items on it and makes Miranda jump in her seat, but also terrifies the nearby patrons and servers.
“I’m here, you senselessbitch,” I say between gritted teeth, earning a glare from her, “towarnyou – to make sure you hear me nice and proper when I tell you to stay thefuckaway from Cignette.” I lean in. “Your daughter is under my protection now, and if I find out that you’ve dared to touch her again, orhurther like you did yesterday, then things won’t end well for you. That’s a promise.”
“Howdareyou?” she hisses, having finally regained herself from the initial shock. “How dare you threaten me, or even think that it’s appropriate for you to interfere in my personal matters?”
“Abusing your daughter isn’t a personal matter, Miranda; it’s a fuckingcrime.”
“You are in no position to–”
“Just because your brother has kept my crew and I’s personal information out of the criminal database, doesn’t mean you get to treat us like we’re beneath you.” I arch a brow at her. “Because trust me, we’renot. We’ve more than shown our gratitude to you and Chase by eliminating your rivals and competitors at your request, so the least you can do is treat us,” I jerk my head towards Jayce and the others, “with somerespect.”
Miranda’s chest rises and falls at an erratic rhythm as she continues to glare it me. “Stop it,” she spits the words, then glances around in panic. “Just fuckingstop.”
“Don’t want the people to find out the kind of person you really are, do you?” I taunt. “Then do as you’re told, or I’ll make every single moment of your life a fresh kind of hell you’ll want nothing more than to escape from.”
She seethes at me and curls her shaky hands into fists. “What did she have to do to persuade you into doing this?” she asks. “Did she spread her legs for you, or suck your cock in some shit-stained alley?”
I clench my jaw and stifle the urge to drive my switchblade into her eye. “You’d really like to know, wouldn’t you?” I manage to keep my voice stable, because fuck if I’ll give her the pleasure of knowing that she’s hit a nerve.
Alex looks my way, so I nod subtly to let him know that I’m good.
