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“I always heard you were a bully and a sadist.”
“Is that any way to talk to family?”
“You’re no family of mine.”
We crested the top of a small hill, and the Morelli mansion came into view. It was giant and medieval looking, made more sinister in the moonlight. My bravado withered a little and I pressed my hands together in my lap.
“What does Bryant want?” I asked.
“For everyone to follow his orders.”
I remembered who I was before Ronan killed the senator and unlocked me from my prison. I’d been grateful and submissive. Confused and easily led. I gave away every bit of my power thinking it would keep me safe. Now, I had to be smarter. More cunning. More ruthless. I didn’t have the money but I had the account numbers. It had to buy us some time. It had to buy me Ronan’s life if it came to that.
The car stopped in front of the house, and I opened the door before anyone could do it for me. Ronan’s car was behind us and he was getting out of his car, too. “Ronan!” I cried and he turned, and stumbled, his hands tied behind his back. The collar of his shirt wrinkled and torn. His face…
“What the fuck!” I screamed and wrapped my arms around him like armor. The two men he’d been traveling with crawled out of the car after him, each of them looking a little rough. Ronan, it seemed, had gotten a few punches in before his hands were bound behind his back.
“It was a bumpy ride,” said one of the assholes as he braced a hand against his rib.
“I’m fine, Poppy,” Ronan said through a split lip. His eye was swollen and there was a gash on his cheek, covering his face with blood. All my brave words in the car crumbled and I wanted to be the mouse I’d been, promising anything to keep him safe.
Except it never worked that way.
We were shuffled out of the night into the foyer, and I blinked, trying to get my eyes to adjust. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Ronan was there and he was. Walking, chin up, battered face lifted.
I thought of Pikey Tom and what Ronan had learned from the priests. We owe them nothing. We give them nothing. Right. I lifted my chin and pulled my elbow from Tiernan’s hand.
“I’m not a dog,” I said to him. “You don’t need to pull me.”
He chuckled in his throat, pushed open a door and shoved me into an office. Moonlight poured through a window and settled like poured silver over Bryant Morelli.
I watched him, breathing through my panic. Ronan was pushed into the room beside me, his hands still tied behind his back.
“Well, it seems Ronan put up a fight,” Bryant said as he walked around the desk to the comfortable leather chairs in front of it. A fireplace was to my left. Bookshelves to my right. There was only the door at my back. No other way out of the room that I could see unless I went running through that window. We were on the second floor.
“I’m Bryant Morelli,” he said, approaching me, with his hand out, like we were at a cocktail party. “We haven’t officially met.”
I stood there, shaking with rage. But I looked at his hand and then back at his face. There’d be no pleasantries while Ronan was tied up. He dropped his hand. His eyes narrowed and I felt a chill down my spine.
“I thought the senator taught you better manners than that,” he said.
“Untie Ronan and then we can show off our manners,” I said.
Bryant shook his head. “He’s the most dangerous man in the room. Only a fool would let him go. And I am no fool.”
“Why don’t we cut to the chase,” I said, and out of nowhere, Bryant backhanded me across the face.
“You are not in charge here!”
I stumbled backwards and Ronan roared, lunging for Bryant with his hands still tied behind his back but Tiernan and the other two men were on him. Ronan fought, but Tiernan kicked his knee, sending his leg out from under him and he fell down hard on his other knee. I swallowed my scream and stared at Bryant.
“Three men against one? You really are scared of him.”
“I’m not scared of anything, Poppy. It’s one of the pleasures that comes from being the apex predator.” He leaned back against his desk. “What I am, is angry. I gave you a chance, Ronan. An opportunity to be a part of a dynasty. To become a king. And now… you’re taking meetings with Leo?”
“We just had drinks,” I said.
“Stupid girl, drinks are meetings. Dinner is meetings. Golf is meetings. When you’re wealthier than God, business happens all the time. In fact,” Bryant held out his hands. “This is a meeting. Why are you meeting Leo?”
