“You should be resting, angel,” I said, my voice echoing through the room. She jumped, and I refrained from smirking, despite the need to.
“Collin,” she snapped as she turned to face me fully. She was still in the standard patient gown provided for her when she arrived. That also pissed me off; I'd provided her with enough clothes for a small country in that closet. I kept my eyes on her face as hers seemed to trail down my body.
Ever the eager little angel…
“That’s my name,” I drawled as I took another step inside, letting the door fall closed with a slam behind me.
“Let me go.”
“You are in no position to be making demands. You seem to have forgotten your place, Karina.”
She took a moment to look around the room I had prepared for her. A small part of me, the flicker of light in my dark soul, hoped she would like it, and I loathed that part of me. “My place seems to be a bit unclear, Collin,” she snapped, attitude dripping from her sweet voice.
My hand itched to spank her. She held up her hands and began counting off the last weeks with her fingers.
“First, you drugged me, you choked me, then you left me to die of starvation in an abandoned building, and now, you bring me here to this pretty little palace on an island for what?” she hissed.
“If you would have just died in the building, we wouldn’t be having these issues,” I said, shrugging a shoulder, trying to ignore the twitch of pain in my chest at the thought of her death.
Her hands formed fists at her sides, her sky-blue eyes darkening, allowing her anger to float up to the surface. Yes angel, show me your darkness. Show your demon you aren’t made of glass, prove to me I didn’t break you.
I beg of you.
“If you want me dead, just kill me,” she barked.
The thought of killing her just made my stomach twist. I rebuked the thought, wiping it from my existence. “I need you alive,” I replied.
“For what? Your master plan to take over the baseball world with Ray Fuckface?”
“Watch your tone, Karina. I won’t tell you again,” I warned, taking two steps closer, my body yearning to be near her.
I hated it almost as much as I hated his name on her lips, giving me the same feeling I used to always have around her, and it started the moment I laid eyes on her in that low-life burger joint nine years ago.
Present Day.
I shook my head, letting out a low growl as I walked down the hall to my study.
I had been summoned. Throwing the doors open, I sauntered in and sank into the chair behind my desk.
A moment later, my phone rang, and I tossed it on the surface of my desk as I sat back, watching it ring.
He was calling about the attack in St. Louis, an attack I didn’t order. An attack that left nearly thirty of his loyal soldiers dead on the streets. I let the phone go to voicemail as I swallowed the nails in my throat, my thoughts drifting to the redhead on the opposite wing of the house.
Haley Austen.
James Garner’s lover.
The best FBI agent in the country, one of the most decorated Marines. Still, I didn’t think his father would appreciate his little love fling. Haley was beaten and kidnapped by men, then stripped nude and strung up in my torture room like a piece of meat, ready for inspection and approval beforeshipment.
Bile rose in my throat.
Romano kept secrets from me after everything I had done for this empire. This was only pushing me to pull the fucking trigger, one I had been hesitant to pull.
Haley Austen would have been sold if she hadn’t been brought here, but I wasn’t her salvation. I wasn’t her hero. Her lover would come for me, no doubt. He would try to kill me, but he wouldn’t succeed. I would have to kill James Garner, and in turn that would put Haley in hell.
The phone started ringing again, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. I released a steady sigh as I reached for the device, answering it on the third ring.
“Yes, sir,” I drawled. I loathed his phone calls, and he seemed more irritated since the death of his son.
