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“That’s not your call. You may beEl Tigreand have people bow and scrape to you, but I’m not one of them.”
“No. You are my mate, and you will be treated with respect and bask in my loving care.”
She rolled her eyes and snorted. “You are seriously delusional.”
“I am not. I will send some of our people to your flat to fetch your personal items. Other than your clothes or toiletries, if you know some things off the top of your head that you want, give me a list and they’ll be brought as well.”
“Listen up, Lambeau, you can’t just walk into my life and steamroll me like this.”
“As much as you aren’t going to like my answer, I just did.” Anger surged through her body. “Before you do something you’ll regret, answer me two questions: have you ever responded to any man the way you did to me?”
“I’ll admit that the sex was pretty spectacular. You’ve got a big dick, and you know how to use it.”
He chuckled. “Do not think to provoke me, mate. You may not like how I respond.”
“Stop calling me mate; I don’t like it.”
“You’ll need to get used to it. My second question is, if you search your feelings, do you not feel the truth of what I say?”
She was quiet for a moment. “That’s not the point.”
“That is most definitely the point. You know I’m right. You can feel the truth I speak.”
“It doesn’t matter. I have no intention of ending up as your personal sex toy.”
“You will be so much more than that. You will lead the ladies of this clan and be equal to Navarro in rank, answering only to me.”
“Why do you call it a clan?”
His mate had a sharp and focused mind. Bodie could almost hear the wheels turning and the gears clicking into place.
“Don’t you people usually call yourselfla familiaor a syndicate or a mob?”
“La familiais usually reserved only for the Italian mob. And while law enforcement officials may seeEl Tigreas the leader of a syndicate or a mob, my people see me as the alpha of their clan. Unlike a lot of gangsters, there is no one who works for me who is not a member of my clan. Most reside here, where they are safe and provided for.”
“Can they leave if they want?”
“Most can, but don’t want to. I ensure their lives are as good as I can make them. Having you at my side would help ease the burden of leadership.”
“Can the women leave?”
He’d known at some point the sovereignty of the tigresses would come up. Bodie had hoped it might be a ways down the road. But he refused to outright lie to her.
“Technically I could tell you that some do leave, but not to just live on their own. Ours is a somewhat closed society and we do what is needed to protect them from those who might want to harm them.”
“Then in other words, no, they can’t leave. Do you have any idea the trouble I could make for you if I went public with that information?”
“You will not do so.”
“You let me leave here and never bother me again, and I might be persuaded to do so.”
“I will not make deals with you that involve your leaving. Besides which, I do not believe you would leave our females to suffer if you truly believed they were being abused, which they are not. You’ve already incurred the wrath of some of the human traffickers with the story you wrote last year about women who are smuggled into this country to be sex workers. By the way, your article led me to those who were the masterminds behind that trade. They are no longer active in the Crescent City.”
“If your women can’t leave and you plan to keep me regardless of my feelings on the matter, what makes you any different than they are?”
“I am not like those men, and you know it. I do not abuse women, nor do I tolerate it in my territory. Even if they are not of my clan, I try to keep those who would harm our citizens at bay. I do what the law cannot.”
“But you won’t let me leave and there are women in your clan who are kept here against their wishes.”
