Page 60 of A Vicious Love

He turned away.

“No.”

I followed him two steps. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means you speak with confidence about contracts you have not earned the right to read.”

“I earned the right when you shoved the merger into my hands.”

Damius looked back over his shoulder.

“You were given access to the public ledger, debt schedule, and the marriage enforcement terms.”

“What else is there?”

Silence.

Fucking, old bastard. My pulse kicked.

“What else is attached to Sienna?”

Damius walked toward the windows again.

I hated him then.

Truly hated him.

But not in the automatic way all Crow grandsons hated the old man who taught them pain before mercy. In a personal way. Because he had placed Sienna in the room between us and then closed his hand around information I didn’t have.

“Answer me.”

“I do not answer heirs who have disappointed me.”

I laughed.

“Oh, that’s rich.”

His gaze stayed on the city.

“Why the fuck are you in Harlan and not in Villain haunting my cousins?”

“I came to Harlan because disappointment has become expensive. And, Nikolai is getting Kingston ready for school.”

I stopped. The sentence was so absurdly casual, so disconnected from the threat sitting under every word before it, that my hangover missed a step.

“What?”

Damius adjusted one cuff. “Kingston’s dormitory required crest approval.”

I stared at him.

“You left Villain because of a dorm room?”

“I approved the Villain crest for placement over his bed. The school objected to the dimensions. I overruled them.”

Marcel was going to fucking furious when he found out. I rubbed a hand down my face. Blood dragged faintly over my cheek.

“I haven’t had enough to drink to deal with this kind of mind-fucking so early.”