Chapter 29
29
A s soon as King slammed the door on the suite shut, he exploded. “What the hell has gotten into you?! You donate the Bernini. You give Donahue god knows how much money to make my life harder. Then you parade your infidelity for all the world to see!”
His phone rang, but he ignored it and threw one of his suitcases from a chair onto the floor, scattering the contents everywhere. “Do you know what he does, Juliet? Is that what you want? You want to be a whore? Because that can be arranged!”
I laughed bitterly. “Now that’s an empty threat if ever I’ve heard one. Your fragile little ego wouldn’t be able to handle letting me fuck other people.”
He raised a hand to smack me but realized his mistake and dropped it again.
I lunged closer, getting in his face. “Do it! Hit me and make all this easier!” Any kind of serious violence between the auction attendees carried a potential death sentence, the kind where the body would never be found and no authorities would ever investigate.
He slammed a fist down on one of the dressers. “What the fuck do you want, Juliet? Another dog? A different priceless piece of art? I already buy you literally anything you desire. You’re spoiled and ungrateful.”
His phone kept going off, so he angrily picked it up and snapped, “ What? ”
He mostly listened, turning white with rage as the person on the other end of the phone spoke.
Then he exploded again, shattering his phone against the wall a few feet from me. “You had the government take my leopard?! The feds could prosecute me for that, Juliet.”
I cocked my hip, needing him to see I was in control and unafraid even if I was really terrified. My tone was vicious. “Oh, this is just a taste, Kevin. Minor inconveniences that you’ll sort through with enough money thrown at the problem. It only escalates from here if you don’t let me go.”
“Let you go where , for fuck’s sake?”
He seriously didn’t get it, hadn’t even considered my leaving him.
I threw my hands in the air, no longer able to hide my anger under a mask of control. “I want a divorce, Kevin! I want to be free of you. And I’m not going to stop tearing things down until you let me go. I’ll burn the fucking house down around me before I live one more day with you in it!” I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but I couldn’t hold back the rage that bled into my tone.
“That can also be arranged,” he said with seething menace.
I shuddered, taking a deep breath to make sure I was calm enough that he’d understand I’d planned for this. “If I die suddenly, a video will be sent to every major news outlet, not only detailing my belief that you intend to kill me but sharing every filthy secret of yours I’ve been privy to. And it’s a lot, Kevin, because you’ve never really thought of me as a person, so you speak freely around me if I lurk in the right places. I have enough to crush your empire and send you to prison for the rest of your life.”
“You think I don’t have my own insurance policy?” His smug smile made my stomach turn. “That I don’t have the skull of the biker you killed and the gun with your prints on it? It’s really too bad your sister touched the knife I used to cut off his head. It’s going to be hard to convince a jury the Bryson sisters weren’t out for revenge.”
Fuck .
I kept my back rigid, steady in the face of his threats. “I’ll fucking destroy you.” Divorce had never really been an option. He’d never let me go.
“Get out! I can’t look at you without wanting to snap your neck.” He yanked me by the shoulders and tossed me into the hall before slamming the door shut behind me. It was the most I’d seen him control his temper in all the time we’d been together.
I’d have to do better.
I could do this.
I had to do this.
The only mercy he’d given me since we’d gotten together was always wanting separate rooms, even when we traveled. He usually wanted me in a different part of the hotel, probably so he could party and fuck other people without the inconvenience of running into his wife. As though I cared.
With violently trembling hands, I opened the door to my suite and dumped my bag and keys on the table, heading straight for the fridge. I didn't bother making a proper drink. I just pulled a mini bottle of gin out and took a few gulps, appreciating the warmth that crept into my stomach and loosened the tension in my shoulders.
“Did you fuck him?”
I jumped so violently, I spilled gin everywhere as I whipped around to find Reaper sitting in the corner in the dark. His hair was a mess, like he’d been dragging his fingers roughly through it, and there wasn’t a hint of a smile on his face. He looked tormented.
I turned away so he wouldn’t see how rattled I was from the conversation I’d just had.
“Answer the question, Juliet. Did he touch you?”