Page 28 of Kiss of Ruin (Brutal Empire)

Dad takes the portable hard drive from her hand. “We’ll figure out who did this and if it has any connection to New York.” He glances at me, then back at Mom. “I already called someone to clean the window and front steps. You’ll be okay to go back to the boutique tomorrow, but I’m sending extra security with you.”

“I don’t need—” Dad stops Mom mid-sentence. “Yes, you do. I know that people have to be buzzed into the store, but I’m not taking any risks which means extra security.”

“Fine,” she agrees. “Let’s go inside.”

Miguel shuts the front door once he’s inside and goes directly to the security office to comb through the footage. I can’t stop pacing in the front room. Scarlett could have been injured again today and for the second time I wasn’t there to protect her. My feet come to a screeching halt when someone steps in my path.

“Go talk to her,” Mom says standing directly in front of me. “I know it seems like she’s fine, but I’m sure she’s remembering the last time she’s had to deal with the violence of our world.

My nerves are frayed. I can barely keep myself still. Without a word, I nod in my mom’s direction and make my way to Scarlett’s wing of the house. My parents had given her one of the only bedrooms on the first floor of the house. The rest were upstairs and they didn’t want to make things difficult on her while she was still healing.

I stop outside the door to her room. It’s closed but I can sense her behind it. She’s quiet. Too quiet. I knock on the door and wait for her to answer. She opens the door briefly, the slams it back in my face.

Fucking enough.

We’ve been here before. Her locking me out like she thinks it’s going to stop me. It didn’t work the last time and it wouldn’t work now.

I throw my shoulder into the door before she can engage the lock. She stumbles backward when the door flies open. I step inside and slam it closed behind me.

“Get the hell out of my room.”

“No.” I cross my arms over my chest. “You’re going to listen to what I have to say.”

“I already heard you in the hospital. Believe me, I don’t need to hear it again. I understood the first time.” She puts her hands on her hips, daring me to deny her words.

I want to argue, but I’m completely distracted by the dress she’s wearing. The briefest glimpse of her creamy breasts. Enough to make my cock hard.

“Now, since there’s nothing else to say, I would like to take a shower and relax after the afternoon I’ve had.”

She turns away from me to dig through her bag on the table, completely dismissing me. I don’t follow her instructions. She glances over her shoulder. “Well, it appears I’m not the one who struggles to understand things the first time. I said you can leave. I’m getting in the shower.”

“I’m not fucking going anywhere.”

Her hands ball into fists and she draws up to her full height, still shorter than me but impressive nonetheless. “I can assure you I am anything butboredso there is no reason for you to be here.”

“Goddammit, Scarlett.” Swiftly, I lurch forward and take her upper arms in my hands, ready to shake some sense into her. “Don’t you get it. I’m here because I love you.”

She snatches her arm out of my grasp. “Get your goddamn hands off me. I can’t believe you would stoop that low.”

“Stoop that low? What the hell are you talking about? I tell you I love you and you insult me.”

She scoffs. “I insult you? In what world, how does me being honest insult you. You’re the one standing here, lying to get me into bed. And what a beautiful lie it is.”

I grab her other arm again and give her a little shake. “Scarlett, you have to listen to me.”

She shoves me off her and takes a step back. “Go to hell Nico. I don’t need to listen to anything you have to say. I don’t have a clue why you came here, but I need you to go back to New York.”

Ignoring every word she says, I pull out a chair at the small table in the center of her room and cross my feet at the ankles. My nerves are shot. I pull a cigarette out of my pocket and light it.

She rolls her shoulders back and lifts a brow at me. “If your mother catches you smoking in her house she’s going to kill you and I don’t mean that facetiously.”

My lip curls in a smirk. As frustrated as I am trying to get her to listen, the way she holds her head up, refuses to continue to engage with me while yelling is her way of showing me that she’s stronger. It’s one of the things I love about her.

I pinch the cigarette off into the vase of flowers in the middle of the table and put the other half back into my pocket. “I’ll make a deal with you.” One hand on her hip, she’d regarding me with absolute disdain in the moment. Hopefully, it wouldn’t last once she heard what I came to say.

“I’m listening, doesn’t mean I’m going to agree.”

I gesture to the chair across from me. “You sit down and listen to what I came to say. And I mean actually listen, in turn if you still want me to go back to New York, I’ll be on a plane in an hour.”

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