Page 72 of Billionaire Dragon King’s Rejected Mate

For a split second she thought she saw something shift in his expression. But it was gone as quickly as it came, replaced by something colder and harder.

A harsh laugh broke from him. “You think I regret anything?” He stepped up to the bars. “Let me tell you how life works. I did what I needed to do to keep my people in line. In return, I kept them safe.”

“By being cruel to them?”

“Life is cruel, honey. The quicker you learn that, the better off you’ll be. Your little boyfriend is going to rule with a weak hand and a soft heart. The people will overthrow him in a year. A little fear never hurt anyone. Sometimes you have to be cruel to get them to understand.”

Randi’s chest tightened. Not because of the words but because of how easily he said them.

“I think you should,” she replied, and this time there was just truth. “Because you didn’t just lose a throne.” She stepped closer to the bars. “You lost your son.”

Something in his expression darkened but it wasn’t guilt. It was anger.

“You mean the boy who betrayed me?” Gunner shot back. “The one who came back to steal what is rightfully mine?”

Randi flinched despite herself but she didn’t step back.

“No,” she said, her voice sharper now. “I mean the son who needed his father but instead watched him kill his brother and his mother.”

Gunner reacted but not with remorse. It was something far uglier that made her stomach turn.

“And now,” she continued, “you will never see a day without these bars. And he will never look at you again.”

Silence stretched between them.

Randi searched his face one last time but there was nothing. No guilt or remorse. She doubted he even had any recognition of what he had done. Just that same unyielding, bitter man.

“You don’t deserve him,” she said finally. “You don’t deserve a family. You don’t deserve loyalty. You don’t deserve anyone.”

“You think I care?”

She took a step closer to him, almost as if a challenge. “What you care about is irrelevant. You’re a disgusting, despicable old man who never needs to be heard or seen again. You make me sick.”

Gunner didn’t flinch. If anything, his expression hardened further. And at that moment, Randi understood. There was nothing to find.

No hidden piece of goodness. No buried regret waiting to be uncovered. With only a sad shake of her head, Randi was done. There was nothing left to say.

Chance found her not long after she returned. “You shouldn’t have gone alone.”

“I wasn’t alone,” Randi replied lightly and gestured back toward the corridor. “Your very intimidating guard made sure of that.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

She softened at that and stepped closer. “I know.”

“Are you okay?”

Randi considered the question for a moment before nodding. “Yeah,” she said. “I think I just needed to see the evil for myself.”

Chance studied her. “I’ve been thinking about Tampa.”

Randi’s brow lifted slightly. “Okay…”

“I don’t want you to feel like you gave something up to be here,” he continued. “Your life there mattered, and I don’t want this to become something you resent later.”

“Chance,” she said gently and reached for his hand, “I didn’t leave Tampa because I had to. Well, technically because of the attempted kidnapping, I did. But that’s beside the point. I left with you because I chose to.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but she held up a finger.