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It doesn’t stop the worry from filling me. Who is going around killing Vincent’s sycophants? Diego swears it’s not his dad’s doing and a call to Stella confirmed she, too, had nothing to do with it. It worries me, another unknown on the board. I don’t know if we can take any more surprise hits.
“Miss Stratford?” I look up from my laptop to see minion number one, Adam, at the living room doorway. Isabella and I stare in his direction, and I watch as he squirms with both our glares. “Yes?” I respond, my patience and agitation clearly evident in my strained voice.Poor Adam.
“Miss, there is a gentleman at the gate that is demanding to see you or your mother.”
“Oh? Who is at the gate, Adam?” Isabella inquires before I can get a word out.Of course, she knows his name.My sister knows how to make friends with all the security details so she can get her way around my grandmother’s rules.I should take a page from her book.Maybe I would be happier and not stuck in my current predicament. You know, the one where I am now living with my four enemies, slash fuck buddies, my ex from Manhattan, and a psychopath that bargained to marry me with the head of yet another damn enemy.
He nods and smiles her way, warmth bleeding across his features as he stares at her. I watch Diego scowl at poor Adam in malice from the corner of my eye.Yup, that is going to be another headache for me, guaranteed.Fuck. My. Life.
“He says his name is James Jarvis and insists Miss Mia will want to see him.”
My breath stutters in my chest, and my heart feels like it’s going to explode. Fear slithers down my body and I feel like I’m going to pass out. I try my best to stop my face and body from showing the impact that name has on me. The fear that name has always generated in me. Why is he here? Why is he looking for my mother? Thank fuck, she is thousands of miles away from that scum.
James Jarvis.I haven’t heard that name since I was nine years old. The last time that name was spoken to me, Jared, my stepfather, reassured me that I would never have to hear it again. But here I am, sitting in a glass prison without my knight in shining armor, Jared and confronted with a name from my past.I miss you, dad; I need you now more than ever.My heart aches at the loss of my precious stepfather, the only man to love me for me genuinely.
I school my features as I notice everyone else in the room has stopped what they are doing and is paying close attention to this conversation. Raegan’s eyes widen in fear, and then she looks down at her lap, and Isabella schools her features quickly into a mask of indifference. I catch Finn staring at me with curiosity across his features and Mateo staring down at Adam.
“I don’t know anyone by that name, Adam; that person is mistaken. Please have him removed from the property immediately.”
Adam nods and walks back towards the front door to follow my instructions. My hands are sweating and my body’s locked tight. I force myself to relax and continue with my history paper. The feeling of eyes still on me are like insects crawling across my skin. I want to run from this fucking room right now. I want to ask Tom to order Adam to shoot James Jarvis in the head and dispose of his body, preferably somewhere he can never be found. But I do nothing, keeping the rage tamped down by the self-control I have taken years to master. I’m a Stratford, and we don’t show fear.Get it together, Mia; they are watching.
I raise my eyes from my MacBook to meet dark blue pools across the room. Theo is watching me, his face in that statue mask he wears. It momentarily has my breath hitching in my throat. I haven’t seen that intense look directed at me since before he was tortured. I can almost see the wheels turning in his calculating head from here. He’s curious about who this man is. Maybe I wasn’t quick enough to hide my reaction to Adam’s words. If Theo is interested, he’s going to start to dig. That thought alone has the hairs on my arms standing on end. If I don’t contain this, everything will implode in my face.Isn’t it time they knew?My mind questions. No, we will lose control of the situation and them once they know.Careful, Mia, your fear is showing.
I pick up my cell phone and text my grandmother. I have no doubt she’s keeping tabs on everyone here in the house, but regardless, James showing up now is inauspicious.
Her reply is almost instantaneous, which confirms that she has detailed knowledge of everything going on here at the house.Ah, hell!I wonder if the security detail has picked up on Isabella and Diego, and my grandmother is aware of that?He’d be dead if she knew,my mind responds instantly.
I let the breath that was threatening to choke me escape. Stella will make sure he disappears; whatever he wants now, she will make sure James regrets the day he came to my gate. Meeting Theo’s intense gaze once more, I raise an eyebrow in his direction in a challenge until he finally looks away from me.Damn it, why can’t ghosts from the past stay the fuck there!
I keep my eyelids as close to shut as possible while watching my sister rise and sneak out of my room, barely closing the door, so she doesn’t wake Raegan and me. The minute she’s out of the room, I’m up and trailing behind her at a silent and deadly distance. I watch from the shadows as she makes her way down the hall and disappears down the stairs. A few seconds later, a door in the other wing opens quietly, and I watch as Diego slithers down the stairs on silent feet after her.I’m going to fucking kill both of them.Her because she has no sense of self-preservation and him because he’s a devious opportunist.Hey Mia, this is your mind reminding you that you’re the kettle calling the pot black.
I slip back into my room on silent feet, not wanting to wake poor Raegan. Going to my walk-in closet, I reach into one of the shoe boxes on a shelf and pull out the gun I hid there after we returned from burning down the Saint-Lambert mansion. I make my way out of my room and slip down the hall to Diego’s guestroom. Carefully I proceed into the room, not bothering to turn on the lights and plant myself on the edge of the bed to wait for the snake.
Don’t get me wrong, Diego is good-looking and deadly charming when he wants to be. He reminds me of that character from that showSupernatural, Dean Winchester, handsome, charming, and likely to murder you with no regrets. Once again, I question my sister’s sanity while ignoring the fact that I should also take a look at mine.
An hour later, I hear faint steps moving towards the door. My anger is palpable, and I have worked myself up to a murderous rage. While I sat here waiting for the man trying to trap me into marriage. I shift myself to the wall behind the door, and when he slips into the room on silent feet, I press the gun against the back of his neck before he can take another step.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t pull the trigger right now, you devious conniving snake.” My voice skates across the silent room filled with malice.
“Mia…”
“Yes, Mia, the Stratford princess you’re forcing into marriage, although it seems you think you can play both princesses simultaneously, asshole.”
“I can explain….” His breath comes out in a harsh whisper.
“I don’t need to hear your lies, Diego. You think you’re so cunning, having your dad force me into marriage for Vincent’s head, all the while playing with my sister. Did you honestly think that Stella or I would allow that? You’re a dead man standing here. You’re just waiting for the bullet.”
“I don’t want to hurt either of you, Mia. I didn’t know my dad was going to force that part on you.”
I take a step back and watch as he slowly turns around, his hands raised in the air before him, a grimace visible on his lips even in the shadows. That scar down his face looks malicious in the gloom. He’s a villain waiting to destroy everything in his path.I could end him right now, one less headache. Stella would help me hide the body.I steady the gun, taking the safety off while he watches me with large green eyes, eyes like my Mateo, but filled with a hardness and ruthlessness that Mateo doesn’t possess. I don’t believe a word that is coming out of his deceitful lips.
“You’re going to shoot me, little princess?” He smirks. “Somehow, I don’t think you’ll pull that trigger, especially when I know who James Jarvis is.”
What. The. Fuck. My hand shakes holding the gun, just a slight tremor, but it’s enough to show Diego that he’s made an impact with his words. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Diego.” I spit through clenched teeth.
“Why are you still hiding, Mia? Don’t you trust my cousin and the other kings’ feelings for you are true?” He takes a step towards me and I hesitantly take a step backward, needing the space between us. My heart is galloping in my chest, fear is making its way to all of my limbs.What does he know?How the fuck does he know?He’s lying. He’s grasping at anything because he knows you are more than capable of putting a bullet in his head.Do you want to take that chance?
“I know, little queen of Casbury, that you came here to destroy the four of them. That your aim was to hurt them any way you could, and you did to a certain extent, didn’t you, little Mia? Somewhere along the way though, you caught feelings…for all four of them.” He takes another silent step forward, a graceful predator playing with his food. “That put a wrench in your plans, didn’t it? Do you even still want to hurt them?” I hear the laughter in his tone; he thinks it’s amusing that I have feelings for the kings.
