He tore the laptop out of my hands, setting it down, and reached for the first box. He pulled on the red ribbon wrapped around it, letting it fall away, before pulling the lid off to reveal a small metal chess piece, platinum, just like the pawn, only this one was a Queen.
My heart skipped a beat.
He stepped up behind me, a pair of snips appearing on my right, and he grabbed my jaw with his other hand, easily clipping the metal holding the pawn on.
It fell straight to my lap.
He set the snips down and reached for the Queen, clipping it onto the metal loop and tightening the clip down.
Everett leaned over, my hand finding the new charm. “Good girls, even ones paying a debt, get upgraded when they behave,” he hummed, my breath catching at his words.
Evelyn had stepped back, watching the exchange with suspicion in her eyes, but she kept her mouth shut.
I glanced up as Everett straightened, my brows furrowing.Paying a debt? This just confirmed it. It was just another payment made. The marks we had carved, the words we had said, meant nothing. Nothing at all.
Everett walked back around the table and shoved the other box towards me. “Your gun.”
I forced my hand down, glaring at him, and reached for the box in irritation. I opened it up, finding a beautiful silver .45 ACP with an extra mag and a box of bullets. It looked exactly like the one he had shoved inside of me weeks ago. Exactly like the one I had nearly shot him with yesterday.
I frowned, shoved it back and found his eyes. “Take the collar off.” I had a signing in a couple of weeks, and I needed—wanted this collar off. I didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. I wanted it gone.
His eyes flashed before they hardened to ice. “No.”
“Why?” I asked. “I have a signing in two weeks and I’m sick of walking around this city looking like a goddamn dog.”
“Like I’ve said before; ‘woof woof’.” He cocked his head to one side. “If you want a more subtle collar, earn it.”
I shoved myself to a stand, nails digging into the wood. “You are insufferable.”
“We aren’t here to make your life pleasant,” he replied, leaning over the table. “We’re here to get what’s owed to us and figure out why the Delepski’s have targeted you. When all of that’s said and done—”
“You’ll kill me, I know the drill.”
His eyes flashed, but I was too angry to care.
I straightened, grabbed my laptop, and met his eyes. “Whatever you say,Master. Just tell me where you’d like me, how you’d like me, and when you’d like me. I’m here to fucking serve.”
The rage rolling off of him was palpable. “Evelyn, get out,” he ordered her.
I could feel her eyes on me for a few seconds before she released a breath. “Fine, but we actually have work to do, so don’t turn this into a huge session.”
I listened to her tapping heels fade away, each one causing my heart to beat a little faster, but I held my glare. I couldn’t keep doing this. I wanted it to be done. I needed it to be over with.
When the sound of the door shutting found our ears, Everett slowly prowled around the table, his unblinking gaze trained on his prey. “If you’re going to act like a brat, I’ll treat you like one,” he told me, his voice sending chills down my spine.
I took a step back, clutching my laptop to my chest. “You’re being a controlling dick,” I told him. “Just because you made some sort of sick claim over me doesn’t give you the right to treat me like shit.”
He tore the laptop out of my hands, placing it on the table, and continued his slow pace towards me. “I thought you liked being taken advantage of.Being used. You get off on it.”
I swallowed, my legs trembling in memory of what he had done to me yesterday. “You brought me gifts,” I spat.
“Use your words, Olivia,” he hummed as my back hit the wall. “I don’t do guessing games.”
I pressed myself into the wall, searching his eyes. “I doubt you actually give a shit about myfeelings.”
“I give a fuck about them when they affect how you react to me,” he replied icily, coming to a stop in front of me. “I don’t like when something happens in your head that I don’t know about, real or fake, it all matters to me. It’s all important.”
My shoulders fell an inch at his words. I couldn’t get a read on him.
