Chapter 45
VAUGHN
“There’s the small matter of compensation.”
My jaw grinds. “For?” I growl thickly.
Xavier d’Auvrelle clears his throat through the phone. “Bertrand, Jean, and Pierre all needed fairly extensive medical assistance after your brutality, Monsieur Bancroft.”
“And I fail to see how that’s my problem,” I say thinly. “Monsieur d’Auvrelle, we have a saying in my country. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
Xavier chuckles. “Touché, Vaughn. Touché. Obviously I was hoping for a reaction. But you…surpassed expectations,” he murmurs.
“In any case, my people are looking over your proposal now. I don’t foresee us having any issues with what you’ve put forward, though, and I would expect you’ll be hearing from me again shortly.
” He clears his throat. “I do hope you’ll pass my sincere apologies to Ms. Nikitin for the… subterfuge?”
As it turns out, Xavier’s “indecent proposal” was a test, meant to measure my drive for success against my merit as a man. Should I have agreed to let him touch Evelina—not that that would have happened in a million years—our proposed deal would have been immediately passed on.
I was meant to show my “honor” by refusing. Unfortunately for Xavier, he vastly underestimated the fury and wrath that would come alongside that honor.
“I’ll consider it,” I growl quietly.
Xavier chuckles. “Well, hope that you do. And I hope she appreciates the sort of man she’s bound herself to.”
Oh I don’t think she’s under any illusions about who and what I am…
“Again, Vaughn, my apologies for the dramatics. But I’ve always believed that in our world, a man’s heart and honor matter more than his wallet and greed.”
He takes a deep breath.
“Monsieur Bancroft, the d’Auvrelle family looks forward to a mutually beneficial relationship with the Obsidian Syndicate.”
***
“You’re sure.”
A bit later, Gideon sighs heavily on the other end of the line. “Positive. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I say tightly, exhaling heavily. “Just—shit.”
“You were hoping it wasn’t true?”
I nod. “I figured it was. But I was hoping for a miracle,” I sigh.
Fuck.
I drum my fingers on the edge of my desk.
“He’s going to fucking hate me for this, isn’t he?”
Gideon exhales. “I doubt it will be a fun conversation—”
The door to my home office suddenly bangs open. For a fraction of a second, when I see Evelina standing there with a wild look in her eyes, my dick misreads the situation and immediately jumps to the conclusion that she’s here to play.
…but then I see the gun in her shaking hands, pointed right at me.
“Gideon,” I mutter quietly. “I’m going to have to call you back.”
Evelina is shaking like a leaf, her trembling hands making the barrel of the gun jump wildly. I hang up and slip my phone into my jacket pocket.
Her face crumples, her lip quivering as tears bead in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she chokes, her voice breaking.
“Is that loaded?” I growl quietly.
She nods quickly.
“What’s going on, baby,” I murmur, keeping my hands flat and spread on the desk in front of me.
Evelina chokes back a shudder, her throat bobbing. “Diego Torvallés’s heir,” she blurts, her wide eyes stabbing into mine. “I need to know who it is. Right now!”
My jaw tenses. “What do you mean, Diego’s—”
“I know you know, Vaughn!!” she blurts, sucking in a lungful of air. “Please, just tell me who it is, okay?! Just tell me!”
She’s wound so tight, a car horn outside might have her jerking that trigger.
And with that barrel swinging all over the place in my direction, I’m not sure that’s a roulette wheel I’m willing to spin.
She flinches as I stand slowly, keeping my hands in view. “Tell me what’s going on, princess,” I murmur.
“Goddammit, Vaughn!” She chokes as tears flood her face. “Just tell me!”
“Is this you asking,” I growl, “or someone else.”
“Does it matter?!” she shrieks.
“It very much does.”
I step out from behind my desk, hands still up, and start to move toward her.
Evelina chokes out a wrenching sob, the gun still wildly shaking in her trembling hands.
“Dammit, Vaughn!” she screams. “STOP! Just tell me who it—”
“You saw Andrés.”
The second I say it and see the way she flinches, I know I’m right.
“Evelina—”
“I don’t care that you helped him fake his own death!” she wails. “I don’t care that you didn’t tell me—”
“I didn’t want to involve you,” I growl, walking toward her. “I didn’t want—”
“Vaughn!” she screeches, wildly brandishing the gun at me as tears run down her face. “I need that name, now!! I don’t have any time! He’s going to kill Val and Roman!”
I keep walking.
“He’s got them!” she screams frantically. “He’s got them both tied up, and if you don’t give me that name, he’s going to—”
“He’s not going to do anything, princess,” I murmur.
I take another step closer.
Then another.
“Goddammit!!” she chokes, jamming the gun at me. “STOP. WALKING!”
“Or what.”
I take another step. She starts backing away, but quickly hits the doorframe behind her.
I don’t stop advancing.
She chokes, her face crumpling as I step right into her space, until that shaking gun stops trembling and presses against the underside of my jaw.
“You’re not going to shoot me, princess,” I say quietly.
“My brother—!” She breaks, crying as the tears stream down her cheeks. The metal of the gun drags across my throat. “Your brother—”
“I’ve had them both under near-constant surveillance ever since your father dragged them into a basement,” I growl. “They’re both fine.”
“You don’t know that!” she chokes. “You—”
I slide my phone from my pocket, tap a contact, and put the call on speaker, my eyes locked with Evelina's.
“Mr. Bancroft,” Thomas says through the phone. “What can I do for you, sir?”
“Status update.”
“Of course, sir. Mr. Nikitin and your brother are enjoying a dinner date at Atera and have just ordered dessert. Creme br?lée to share, I believe.”
Evelina's body curls in on itself like she’s just been punched in the stomach.
“Thank you, Thomas.”
I hang up and slip the phone back into my pocket. I lift my hand and wrap my fingers around the barrel of the gun, gently pulling it from her shaking grip.
“I will never let anything happen to anyone important to me,” I growl quietly. “That includes my brother and yours.”
I slip the gun into my belt, then wrap my arms around her.
“And that very much includes the woman I love.”
She shatters, her fists clinging to my shirt as she sobs into my chest.
“He showed me a video—”
“Whatever he showed you was fake, princess. You know what AI can do now. And you just heard Thomas. Our brothers are currently sharing creme fucking br?lée.”
She shudders, gasping for air. “He—he—”
“What he did,” I rumble, “was take a giant fucking step too far.”
Getting into bed with a snake like Andrés was a lapse in judgement for me.
But threatening what’s mine?
That’s a fatal fucking error for him.
I grab Evelina's hand and storm out of the office, pulling her after me.
“Come on.”
“Where are we going?” she asks, her hand tight in mine.
“To give Andrés his gun back,” I growl. “At least, the bullets inside of it.”