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“It’s not his fault,” I sob before releasing Blue and allowing Adonis to lift me to my feet. I’m covered in blood. I feel the stickiness of it on my face and neck, as well as my arms, and my top is practically soaked.
“Bullshit,” the man in Blue’s hold spits out. “This fucking mutt attacked me!”
“Because you attacked me!” I shout back. Blue growls, tightening his grip on the man’s arm.
“What’d he do to you, princess?” Adonis draws my attention back to him with a hand on my jaw. “Tell me.”
I hesitate momentarily, registering the anger in his eyes. I don’t know who it’s directed at, and that worries me. I will throw myself in front of Blue if there is another threat against him.
Licking my lips, I swallow, the dryness in my mouth and throat making it hard to. “I had hooked Blue’s leash on the door so I could grab his muzzle. He growled, and when I looked back, he”—I point to the man in Blue’s grip—“didn’t listen to my warning when I told him not to reach for Blue. Blue snapped at him but didn’t bite him.” Even though he could have. “When we went to walk out the door, he grabbed a chunk of my hair, and Blue only did what he was trained to do when faced with a threat.”
Adonis’ demeanor shifts. Unfettered rage contorts his features as he looks down at the man sprawled out in his foyer. “You fucking touched her?”
“Adonis, please, I just want to go home.” His glower swings around to laser me in place. He definitely doesn’t like that idea.
“Home.” He spits the word out like it tastes bad. “This is your home now.” I shake my head. His eyes narrow into deadly slits. “Yes the fuck it is, princess. From the second you begged me to be your Daddy, it became your home.” My jaw trembles, and I want to argue with him, but I sense now isn’t the time.
“Blue,” I whisper down to the dog, who would very much like to eat the man under his body. “Come here.” With another aggressive shake of his head, he finally releases his grip and sits at my feet.
“Clean him up,” Adonis snaps out the order. As soon as we’re left alone, he grips my chin and forces me to look at him. “I want to hear the words, little princess.”
I understand what he wants, but I’m just not sure I can give that to him—not yet, not like we both want. “You’re my home, Daddy.” I settle on that instead because, deep inside my soul, I know that to be true.
CHAPTER 5
Adonis
She gave me what I wanted but not quite. This thing between us is dirty, possessive, and consuming. I shouldn’t be so deeply invested in this girl. Not so fucking quickly. I don’t obsess over women. Ever. Aside from my territory, I’ve never laid claim to anything in my life. What I’m doing with Soren is new unchartered waters.
Unplanned and unpredictable, I find myself doing things I wouldn’t normally do. Like killing one of my men for putting hands on her.
“Tell me again why you were spying on her.” Soren told me the reason she woke up while I was taking a call in my office was because Blue started growling. That could only mean one thing.
He sensed a threat.
“I wasn’t,” he groans from the floor where I’ve beaten him to the point where he can no longer see out of either eye. His nose is busted, too, making his voice nasal.
“Yeah, Hudson, you were. You weren’t even supposed to be in the house. No one was permitted, especially while Soren was here.” Which makes a hundred different scenarios run through my head. “So, who were you trying to gather intel for?” Zak and Eli bristle beside me.
Hudson doesn’t realize it because he can’t see, but his body language gives him away. “I wasn’t doing anything of the sort.”
“You were going to betray the boss?” Zak pokes him with the cattle prod. His body lights up and twitches as it electrifies.
“Bad move, man.” Eli takes a more relaxed stance as he leans against the exposed brick wall in the basement.
“Tell me who, and I’ll end you swiftly.” The implication is clear that if he doesn’t, suffering is in his future.
He holds out for another thirty minutes before begging for mercy, begging to tell me who he’s betraying me for. Abdul Karas, a man who wants the Irvine region. I knew the location was coveted by a few, but I didn’t realize how much so. In hindsight, I should have anticipated others wanting a piece of it. Filled with all those rich soccer moms, I’m already making a mint off them. Others would want that as well.
Upholding my promise, I put a bullet in his head. The bank robbers are still confined in three of the four cells we keep down here. Weak, beaten down, and scared. Exactly as I want them to be. I haven’t decided their fate. Only one of them threatened to hurt my girl and shot me twice, but the other two were present. They didn’t have a care in the world about her. In my mind, they’re just as complicit.
As I make my way upstairs, my anger grows as I contemplate the betrayal. It’s not something I’ve ever experienced before. I’ve never had to worry about it. My wrath was enough to keep the men around me scared into complacency. The amount of money I pay them is another good incentive.
“Joe.” I stop him as he’s about to pass by. “Get Hudson’s computers and phone and find any correspondence between him and Abdul Karas. I need to know what he’s been telling the man.”
“On it.” He turns around and heads towards the garage. I’m confident Joe will find anything I need.
“Adonis.” Soren’s velvety voice calls to me from her spot in the kitchen where Sally is attempting to feed her everything she can. “I need to go home.” My eyes narrow.
