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“God, woman. I can’t wait to see ye throw down. From everything ye told me yesterday?—”
“Yelled at you, you mean.”
He grinned. “With absolute justification. It wasn’t just my shite I took away. Their da hurt ye.” He tilted his head at the room holding the Winchesters, his voice low in a whisper.
I cast my mind back to what I’d said. “You mean how he got me into bed?”
“Aye. It was an assault. Getting a lass so drunk she can’t consent is rape.”
He mouthed the word.
I sighed. “You’re right. I made my peace with that a long time ago for two reasons—I would’ve said yes if I’d been sober—he was the boss and I crumbled under his presence—but mainly because what he did brought me Tobi. I can’t regret her in any way. I was also too meek to even recognise it, let alone challenge him.”
Valentine’s eyes flashed with venom. “But now you’re a warrior, ready to claim what you’re owed.”
I was. Stronger than I’d ever been and here to do battle for my girl.
Holding his hand, I marched back into the room.
Every single gaze flew to us.
Peter the chairman goggled. “You can’t bring a stranger in.”
“Please stop telling me I can’t do things when it’s patently untrue.” I pointed at the man beside him taking notes. “Frank. Please add to the meeting list Mr Valentine Graham. See? Not a stranger anymore.”
Frank dutifully made the note.
“This is most irregular,” Peter sniffed.
Fearless, I cocked my head at him. “Is it? Then buckle up, because things are about to get super irregular from now on.”
Valentine dragged a heavy chair from the edge of the room, the legs screeching on the polished floorboards, and forced the people to my right to budge over for him. He winked at me, and I returned my attention to the chairman.
“I have a question. Is everyone here legitimately allowed?”
I spoke to them all but watched Greg and Simon.
Greg schooled his features, suppressing an interesting glare at Valentine that looked like a challenge. “Mia, please. I wouldn’t expect you to understand how this meeting works, but we follow an agenda, then you’ll get to contribute to the vote. I think my mother made herself clear in her guidance to you?”
“Oh, she did.”
He held his gaze on me, an arrogant tilt to his chin. “I’m glad to hear it. You and I always were on the same wavelength. After this, I’ll take you for lunch so we can catch up properly. How does that sound?”
Simon snorted.
I wrinkled my nose. “Sorry, George, I’m not interested.”
He made an off sound and gestured to Valentine, his expression slipping into ugly derision. “Surely you’re not interested in this—” Then he stopped. “What did you call me?”
“George. It’s your name, isn’t it?”
Greg, because I couldn’t change his name in my head now, though someone else had done so long ago in real life, switched his astonished gaze to his brother.
“I was never interested,” I continued. “Even when you begged for a date. I agreed to go out with you as a friend but I’d never settle for someone as average as you.”
“Average?” Greg sputtered.
“Unexceptional,” I offered an alternative.
