“I am not…” Rosemary trailed off, her eyes widening in horror as Sylas shrugged and stared down at her feet. “What are you doing? Stop that!”
Sylas ignored her, moving his gaze to where her arms were folded over her chest. When Rosemary opened her mouth to scream, Sylas lifted his gaze again and I watched in amazement as her tongue seemed to freeze, silencing her.
“That’s better,” Sylas said calmly. Wrapping his arms around her waist, Sylas lifted rosemary and half-carried, half-dragged her to the table I sat at, maneuvering her into the chair across from me, the one that had its back facing the door.
Ignoring my stepmother’s angry grunting, Sylas pulled his cell phone from the pouch hanging around his neck and tapped on the screen. I watched the clock as he sent and answered texts at lightning speed before tossing the phone onto the table.
“Oh, one more thing,” Sylas commented, reaching over to lift her chin with his finger, closing her mouth so the mass where Rosemary’s tongue had been was no longer visible. “Now we’re all set.”
“Set for what?” I wondered out loud.
Sylas winked at me and dropped into the third chair at the table. “Now, baby, we wait.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sylas
As it turned out, the wait wasn’t even long enough to comment on.
I heard gravel shooting off moving wheels and stood, pulling a handkerchief and a prepared set of zip cuffs from my pocket as I stepped to Paul’s side.
“You trust me?”
Paul nodded and held his wrists before him, allowing me to slide the cuffs into place.
“I’m not going to tighten them down just in case you need to get them off,” I said quickly when I saw him test them. “So, you need to keep your hands still so it looks real, okay?”
“Right.” Paul stiffened when a knock came at the door.
“It’s okay,” I murmured against his lips as I stole one last kiss before tying the handkerchief around Paul’s head, careful to keep it light against his mouth.
Drawing in a steadying breath, I crossed to the door, throwing it open and stepping into the shadows before the Senator’s eyes adjusted to the change in light. Luckily, he was confident enough in his plan that he blustered into the room without much thought.
“Rosemary!” the Senator snapped when he saw her back facing him. “What are you doing?”
The woman twisted to glance over her shoulder, but with her mouth and hands frozen there wasn’t much she could do to communicate and I was counting on the Senator’s self-important attitude to blind him to her situation.
Shoving the door closed, I leaned against it, crossing my arms over my chest as the Senator spun around, his face twisting with fear before he was able to mask it with forced anger.
“What the hell areyoudoing here?” he snapped, taking a large backward step away from me into the room.
I raised a brow. “What’s wrong? Not happy to see your favorite son-in-law?” When the Senator’s nose wrinkled in distaste, I smirked. “Oh, don’t be like that. After all, Rosemary and I already reached a, well, shall we say, atruce, of sorts.” I had to hold back a laugh as the man’s eyes narrowed at the implication. When he started to turn toward her, I cleared my throat to pull his attention back to me. “And to be clear, she’s leaving the decision making in my hands, so there’s no point in trying to draw her into the conversation.”
“Rosemary?” the Senator snapped her name. “Is this true?”
When no answer came, the Senator responded exactly as I’d expected. He bristled and puffed himself up before glaring at me. “What exactly is it that you think you’re doing?”
I blinked in faux confusion. “Negotiating, of course,” I huffed. “You didn’t really think that your goon was going to just grab my golden goose and that would be the end of it, did you?” I clucked my tongue. “Come now, Stewie. You’re smarter than that.”
“Don’t call me that,” he huffed. “And I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
I snickered. “Oh, well, inthatcase, I guess your wife and me will get on out of your hair to decide what to do with all that money.” I stepped back from the door and reached for the knob. “You have a nice day, you hear?”
“What are you..” the Senator trailed off, his eyes hardening. “Where’s Sean?”
“Is that the goon’s name?” I asked casually. “He wasn’t feeling cooperative, so he had to go.”
“What?” the Senator all but yelled. “Rosemary! What the fuck is going on here? What did this fucker do to my son?”
