"Don't be melodramatic, Eleanor. It's just sex. An Irish syndicate offered me significantly more money to vote down the bill and restructure it in their favor. It's just politics."
I bit my tongue. No, it was dirty politics. Worse—she was trying to whore me out to the Russian mob so she could cash in with the Irish.
I waited for the cold numbness to creep over me like it always did. That passive survival instinct I'd honed for years, telling me to shut up and take the abuse until she left.
It didn't come.
That hollow place in my heart was filled with fiery rage now.
Darius had killed the scared little girl who just wanted to make her mother proud.
I was done being pushed and pulled around.
"Absolutely not. This is your fault. You've been playing both sides of the fucking mob. It's your fault I was kidnapped from work. It's your fault I have a bomb strapped around my neck."
My hands flew to my throat to grab the necklace.
Nothing.
Fuck. I'd forgotten Darius had taken it off.
My mother's gaze followed my hand. Her lips lifted in a slow, calculating smile.
She knew I was no longer under threat. Not that it had bothered her much before.
She raised a condescending eyebrow. "Well, it seems my request has come a little late. I see my dutiful daughter has already taken matters into her own hands."
My cheeks heated. "It's not what it looks like."
She strolled toward me, balancing on her hideous orange shoes in her chartreuse Armani pantsuit, and patted my cheek.
"You've been a big help to Mommy."
She left with a cackle, and the heated anger turned to frigid fear.
She was going to use this. I just didn't know how.
CHAPTER 31
DARIUS
Istood outside Peregrine Montgomery's luxury apartment, my knuckles already itching for contact.
Anna was right.
Getting to the rat bastard took more effort than usual. But impossible? Never.
Within minutes of getting his name, I had everything—his address, the security guard's schedule, the doormen's shift rotation. Andrei, desperate to redeem himself after his recent failures, had the building's security protocols cracked in seconds. He even calculated the bribe amount needed to make two guards disappear.
Arlington sat close enough to DC that palms didn't come cheap. But the investment paid dividends—these guards were mine now. Better yet, this high-rise housed half the political elite in the capital. Senators. Congressmen. Fixers. A goldmine of leverage for future use.
My blood thrummed with anticipation.
It had been too long since I'd felt bone crack under my fist, since I'd watched comprehension dawn in a man's eyes the moment before the light left them. Financial ruin had its place—watching a cocky businessman crumble in my conference roomsatisfied a certain hunger. But nothing compared to this. The wet sound of flesh splitting. The weight of a body going slack.
Especially when that body belonged to a woman-beating piece of shit who knew exactly why death had come for him.
I wasn't planning to kill him. Not yet. But he'd wish I had.
