Those tears, though. They did something to me. I sigh as I think of her sweet little face turned splotchy, her full lower lip quivering, her violet eyes sparkling with sadness. I made her cry. Tears don’t usually get to me, and heaven knows I’ve caused a lot of them. You don’t become a Devil without fucking over a whole bunch of people.
I like tears. I thought I’d want to make her cry. And I do. But not like that. Not in a way that shows me how broken her time in Devil Tower has made her.
It bothers me more than I want to admit.
-
Everest doesn’t let up, though he insists in the politest way possible.
“Look, man. We’ll go in the limo and stick to private venues. I’ll only take her out on Mondays. No one will see her. It’ll be safe.”
“I’m sure it will be. This isn’t about safety.”
“Then what is it about?”
I stand up, clenching my teeth, and before I can stop myself, I blurt out, “She’s mine.”
He sniggers. “Does Vale know this?”
I sit right back down and turn back to my phone. “Fuck Vale.”
Today, the girl has found a stack of magazines, and she’s flipping the pages. I frown, wishing she’d do something a little more… intellectual with her time. Like read some Tolstoy or something. I smirk at myself. I really have become a snob. It’s a far cry from the Oakley school days, when Logan and I spent our time copying off each other.
Then my smirk widens as I realize she’s looking at the Astley Business Magazine. There’s a 90% chance she’s reading about me. That magazine is basically one big piece of publicity for Devil, and as its leader, I’m pretty omnipresent in its pages.
“Okay, so you don’t mind me repeating what you just told me? She’s ‘yours’?”
I turn to him, scowling, and he takes a step back politely.
“Obviously, I won’t do that,” he adds quickly.
“Good,” I grunt.
“But seriously, be careful. You know Vale would love nothing more than to call out your weaknesses. And refusing to kill someone who tried to take us down because you’re obsessed with her would do it.”
“She didn’t try to take us down, and I’m not obsessed.”
“I also think she’s innocent,” he agrees. “But as for your being obsessed…”
He leaves in a hurry, before my fist can make contact with his pretty boy face.
-
Everest holds off for a few days, but his stormy eyes, every time we meet, serve to remind me that he’s pissed off. Doesn’t matter.
On Monday morning, we meet as we always do to discuss the week’s business. Usually, we talk about acquisitions, but today, we’re focused on the Cole situation. It’s giving me a permanent migraine. It’ll blow over, we all know it. But it sure is taking its time.
“There’s a rat,” comments Logan, leaning back in his chair as casually as if he was discussing the weather. And he might as well be. Everyone knows Devil is untouchable. A rat isn’t anything we can’t conquer. Just a mild, temporary annoyance.
Made a little worse by the fact that the Feds are currently investigating the Cole fuckup, and the nanochip that would point them in our direction is still missing.
I keep an eye on my phone, watching my pet sleep. She sleeps far too much. It’s already ten a.m., and I’ve been up for the past four hours. I’m going to need to have her woken up earlier. I know it’s silly, because what else can she do to pass time, other than stare at the walls? But I want her to feel that she’s under my control. Waking up, going to bed, eating, showering, reading. Everything according to my rules. Because she’s mine, and she needs to know it.
I scribble instructions on a blank sheet of the notepad I’ve been writing on, shielding it carefully from them behind my laptop.
Tomorrow, wake up at 7 a.m. Wear the blue dress.
I hesitate a moment before adding:Or else.
