Page 25 of Prince of Wrath

I took one of my cards from the dashboard compartment and slipped it through the sliver of open window.

He took it and put it into his pocket. “I’ll call you later.”

“Email only.”

His brow rose, but he didn’t argue.

With that, he walked away. Not back to the gym, but to his Lexus.

Fucking asshole.

My phone vibrated in my lap.

Seere

I made myself clear last night.

Black or red?

Sloane

You’re not invited.

Seere

How about you wear a black dress but red panties?

I can compromise.

It won’t matter. I’ll be ripping it all off of you by the end of the night.

I didn’t answer, but the image of that scenario followed me all the way to work.

Chapter 10

Seere

I watched from the front seat of my car as Sloane drove off from the gym. She’d given Ben her card, and all the wheels of that action spun in my head. She either wanted to lure him into some plan she’d come up with on her own or was genuinely curious about whatever he’d proposed to her. And he had asked her for something. Her lips formed the answer twice before he’d followed her out to her car.

My palms itched to make that man bleed for even looking at my spitfire. Depending on what information I found today while tailing him, he would be a bruised and battered pile by the end of the week.

Ben started to drive out of the parking lot. I gave him a head start and kept three car lengths between us until he pulled into the garage of a dingy-looking building on a sketchy road in the heart of the city. I kept to the shadows while I followed him into an underground elevator. This was where a very special skill came in handy. I let the light and shadows refract against my whole being, making me essentially invisible.

I slipped into the lift with him right before he punched the button to the top floor. He pulled his phone from his pocket along with the card Sloane had given him. His thumbs tapped out a message as he bit his lip like a smitten frat boy.

He wasn’t much better than some keg-chasing college asshole. He’d played professional hockey for years and had squeezed every advantage out of it. He’d slept with anything that moved, no matter that Sloane had been waiting at home for him for most of those years. Coaching or becoming an agent himself were the only paths left after his injury—by my hands, mind you.

Even now, his hip was cocked to alleviate the weight on the knee that he’d had replaced. I hadn’t stopped with his legs. His shoulder had suffered a horrifically painful tear that had taken months of rehab to repair. Three of his teeth were false. And when he breathed too deeply, the old cracked ribs he’d obtained still bothered him.

He was a mess. But he was still alive.

My mistake. I shouldn’t have allowed such a thing.

Sloane had wanted him to watch her succeed. She had wanted to be able to keep tabs on how far he’d fallen because of her.

Perhaps it was my fault that Ben had found a way to sneak up on us. She had been too preoccupied fleeing from me to see the snake in the grass. The deal she and I had struck kept me from killing him as much as it kept her soul bound to me. There were no loopholes like she’d accused me of.

“I want him to suffer for the rest of my life.” That was what she’d said. Which meant that as long as her body still held signs of life, so would his.