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What would I fucking give to have a gun stowed in this room? To have armed myself to the fucking teeth for this eventuality. Instead, I’d left the weapon concealment to my hired guards—all who’d been murdered.
A noise dragged my gaze to the left.
Shit.
Killing Drake wouldn’t be as simple with company.
My heart chugged as three men stood from their temporary resting area nestled against the wall by the bathrooms. They’d dragged the velour chairs from the guests’ waiting area and made themselves at home. The reek of cigarette smoke and evidence of midnight snacks littered my pristine villa.
They moved in unison, two raising guns while one snickered and looked me up and down. “Look what the parrot dragged in.” Their eyes followed Pika as he zipped around Euphoria, swooping to Drake to bite his nose.
I tensed, but Drake didn’t wake up.
Pika squeaked with pride and soared into the rafters, picking a perch to watch yet more drama unfold.
Eleanor grew heavy in my arms as the three men came forward. A blond with a bulbous nose snapped, “Where the fuck have you been?”
I shrugged, marching as firmly as I could toward them. “Dealing with business.”
I’d been able to buy off three of these bastards. If I had more liquid cash, I could attempt to do the same. Unfortunately, five million was all I carried, and I was shit out of luck for such an easy overthrow.
Regardless, I tried anyway. “I’ll give you a million each if you leave. I’ll wire you the money the moment I kill that cocksucker over there.”
The bald one muttered, “I’ll give you a bullet if you try to low-ball us again.”
“Fine.” My arms ached under Eleanor’s weight. “What’s your number?”
“We want what he’s promised.” The blond smirked. “This place.”
“It’s no longer operational.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
The short one of the bunch chuckled. “We’ll see about that when he wakes up.”
I looked over at Drake, loathing him all over again for ever touching Jealousy. I had no ownership over her apart from her paid servitude, but I liked her as a friend, and I’d seen things between her and Cal these past few weeks that hadn’t been there before.
She didn’t deserve to be Drake’s goddess last night.
She didn’t deserve anything that I’d done to her.
Guilt swamped me, and my temper rattled.
Fuck it.
I was done bartering.
I’d just do what I’d come here to do and be done with it.
Ignoring the mercenaries, I marched toward Drake and Jealousy.
“Oi, where the fuck do you think you’re going?” The blond followed me with his gun trained on my head.
“Providing aftercare.” I bared my teeth. “Not that you’d understand what that is.”
“Like hell you are. You’re going back in your cage. Her too.” He pointed the gun at Eleanor, coming close enough to nudge her cheek with the muzzle.
I lost it.
Finding strength hidden in broken muscles, I held her tight against me with one arm and lashed out to fist around his throat with the other. I squeezed, fighting through failure until his eyes flared with worry, and he held up the gun to my temple. “Let…me…go.” He coughed, trying to get free. “I’ll shoot.”
“No, you won’t ’cause you need me alive.” I squeezed harder as his two friends rushed to save him. “This is what’s going to happen so listen closely.” I pressed against his larynx with fingers unforgiving in their message even with a gun in my face. “I am going to take care of my girls. I’m taking them to Campbell—the doctor who is the only reason you’re here. He’s going to treat them. Alone. While I’m doing that, you can decide if you want to accept my offer of cash and leave with your life or if you’re staying and serving Drake until the end. Either way, I’m done with this shit.”
I pushed him away, shaking out the pressure in my hand. “Drake has been a pain in my ass for three decades. I won’t lie and say I wouldn’t happily kill him right now if you accepted my deal, but if you don’t, I don’t fucking care. I’ve waited a long time for our feud to be over…I can wait a little longer.”
The guy scowled. “Why do you think we’re gonna let you wander around as if you own the joint?”
“I do own the fucking joint!” I snarled. “And you mean nothing to me. You can’t kill me because Drake needs what I know, and you can’t kill my goddesses because if you do, I will tear you motherfucking apart. Your only choice is to stand there like good little puppets and wait until your master wakes up. Or…allow me to kill him, and you can walk away with a payday. Either way, I’m providing aftercare.”
Glowering at the three of them, I continued my path until I stood over Jealousy.
