Chapter 4
Hook
“She’s here.”
I stare at Nigel for a full three seconds before speaking. “You’re going to have to elaborate, cousin. There are a lot of ‘she’s’ in my territory.”
Nigel crosses his arms over his chest. He’s built bulkier than I am, courtesy of his giant of a father, but we share our mothers’ coloring.
I’ve been in this world long enough to know that family doesn’t mean shit unless you want it to, but I trust Nigel with my life.
There are reasons he’s my second-in-command, and cryptic statements aren’t one of them.
He relents before I do and snorts. “Short, curvy blonde. Mean as a fucking snake. You know exactly what she I’m talking about, so stop dicking around. ”
Tatiana. Or, rather, Tink. That’s the name she’s been going under since she got out.
I look at the old clock above the door. “That took less time than I expected.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll pay up.” He digs his wallet out and passes me a hundred-dollar bill. “You going to keep gloating or you going to go get your woman?”
My woman.
Not yet. Not in any true way. But the fact she’s here means she’s going to say yes.
She doesn’t have a choice if she wants to stay in Carver City, and the sooner she realizes it, the better.
Even Hades’s neutral territory won’t protect her if Peter decides to chase her down—and he’s already decided it.
I check my pace and head for the door. She came to me.
That puts me in exactly the position I need to get what I want.
If I play my hand too freely, she’ll realize my offer isn’t as simple as it appears.
She’s smart enough to connect the dots and understand I need her just as much as she needs me. That shit will not fly.
Nigel put her in his office, which is just as well.
I trust my men not to touch what’s mine, but loyalty has been wavering over the last few months.
I’ll need to make an example of someone soon to ensure they fear me more than they fear the memory of Peter.
The thought sits like lead in my stomach, but I knew what I was signing up for when I drove him out.
This is the price I pay for safety, mine and my people’s. I’m willing to bear the burden of it.
I should have killed him. I beat him within an inch of his life, but when it came time to finish him, I hesitated.
Murder is what monstrous people did—what Peter and my father did.
If I killed him, I’d be no better than him, so I had the few men loyal to him drag his bloody body out of the building and washed my hands of him.
Joke’s on me. Four years later and I am exactly as monstrous as Peter and my father.
Better that I’d lost my soul a few months earlier and removed the biggest threat to this territory, because my so-called morals didn’t last the first year.
One does not run an entire territory without being challenged, without being forced to make examples of people.
I’m no exception. I can talk circles around most people, but there are situations that I simply can’t charm my way out of.
Because of my weakness, Peter lives and now he’s knocking on my door, threatening everything I’ve sold my soul to protect. If I fail, everything I’ve done to keep my people safe will be for nothing.
I can’t let that happen. No matter the cost.
I step into the office and shut the door behind me. I’m not surprised to find Tink sitting at the desk and rifling through the unlocked drawers. She glares, silently daring me to say something.
I don’t have to say shit. She came to me. She knows the offer on the table. If she wasn’t willing to accept, she wouldn’t have crossed into my territory, let alone shown up at the house itself. I sprawl into the chair across from the desk and wait.
She doesn’t make me wait long. “I hate you.” Tink’s voice holds no heat, just a weary resignation.
“You’ve made that abundantly clear over the years.
” I only tried to talk to her once after she escaped Peter’s clutches, a few months after she made her deal with Hades.
She refused to see me, and every time since then, she has treated me like an enemy.
Someone to be cut down verbally every time we shared the same space.
I don’t blame her for that. I’m a walking, breathing memory of years I’m sure she’d rather forget.
And, fuck, but I enjoy seeing her snarl and snap instead of cowering like she did in the bad old days.
She props her hands on her generous hips. She’s wearing a cute pink dress with black polka dots that hugs her tits and torso and then flares down to stop just below her knees. It’s old school and a strange combination of prim and sexy that makes me want to sink my teeth into her.
She snaps her fingers next to her face. “Stop staring at my tits.”
“I like the dress.”
Her green eyes narrow. “I didn’t put it on for you.
” She turns to look out the window, and I mourn the fact that the dress hides her ass and thighs.
The woman is thick, and I fucking love it.
She’s always been beautiful, but when I knew her before, it was a fragile kind of thing that seemed on the verge of shattering.
Too skinny. Too afraid. Not taking care of herself, though it was no fault of her own.
I’ve watched her find herself over the years. Find her style. Find her confidence. Find her Don’t Fuck With Me attitude. The fact she won’t give me the time of day only makes me respect her more. The woman she’s become doesn’t fuck around.
I’m putting her in one hell of a position, but I’m not a good enough person to be sorry for it.
She moves around the desk and perches on the edge of it. It puts her a few inches higher than me while I’m sitting, and I let her have the power position. Tink finally curses. “It’s in your best interest for Peter to disappear. Explain to me why I need to marry you in order to make it happen.”
Something went down since I saw her last. I study her expression. Evidence of it is there in the tight line of her mouth and the tense way she holds herself. I missed it before because I was too busy ogling her. She’s scared.
I go still. “He got to you.”
“He made an appearance,” she agreed.
Fuck. I hadn’t expected him to move so fast. She’s been out from under Hades’s thumb fewer than twelve hours. I thought we’d have more time to figure shit out, but I should have known better. “Agree to my bargain, Tink. I’ll take care of it.”
“I still don’t get what you get out of it.”
“I get you.” I get safety for my people … until the next supposed badass with a grudge comes calling. I wait for her to look at me and give her a slow grin. “I think we can both agree that you’re worth it.”
She shakes her head. “You can’t honestly think I’m naive enough to believe that.”
No, I really don’t. She’s always been too smart for everyone else’s good.
She won’t believe me if I tell her the truth.
Tink has already cast me as the villain, and I’m more than happy to play to type.
Easier than trying to explain what being the leader of this territory has cost me, what it will continue to cost me.
I’m selfish enough to want a reward for all the sacrifices I’ve made, and that reward looks a whole lot like the pretty blond glaring at me right now.
I shrug. “Believe what you want. I laid out the terms. Agree or don’t.
” I make a conscious effort to stay relaxed and keep my breathing even.
As if everything isn’t hanging in the balance while she considers me.
“Let me see if I have this straight. In return for his head on a platter, I have to marry you, fuck you, and submit to you.” She ticks each item off a finger, leaving her middle one up. “Sounds like bullshit from where I’m sitting.”
“You submit in the bedroom. I’m not looking for a fucking slave.
” That kind of submission, the sort that bleeds over into every part of life, is exhausting just thinking about.
I have enough people to worry about without adding that to my list. Beyond that, I like Tink’s attitude and her determination to be a little fucking brat.
“I don’t want to have sex with you.”
I burst out laughing. She looks so cranky, I can’t help it. “Lie to yourself if you want to. Don’t lie to me. You most definitely want to have sex with me. It pisses you off, but it’s the truth.”
She looks like she wants to chuck something at my head. “Am I going to have to repeat every single thing I say to get it through that suffocating ego of yours? I. Do. Not. Want. To. Have. Sex. With. You.”
“Fine. Sex is off the table.”
If anything, she looks more suspicious. “You agreed to that too easily.”
I want Tink in my bed, yes, but I want her there willingly.
Breaking this woman isn’t on my agenda. It never was.
I stretch my arms over my head and fight a grin at the way she tries so hard not to check me out.
“Here are the updated terms. I will not negotiate further. You marry me. I kill Peter. When you decide you’re tired of playing hard to get, you’ll crawl to me and beg for my cock.
I’m all too happy to give it to you any way you like. Every way you like.”
Her pretty pink lips form a perfect O of shock. “You’ve lost your mind.”
“Wrong. I’m simply not in the habit of lying to myself the way you are.”
She wipes the surprise from her expression and is back to glaring at me again. “What’s the point of forcing me to marry you if it’s a total sham of a marriage?”
I lift my brows. “Not all marriages have sex, Tink. That’s a very narrow worldview you have.”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it. Stop baiting me.”
“Stop making it so easy.”
She makes a sound like a pissed off teakettle. “If you force the matrimony issue, and then turn around and fuck your way through the territory, it’s going to make me look like a fool.”