Page 38 of Regal Queen

Ten

I spentthe next few days doing every single thing in my power to convince Rose that she wasn’t some trophy to me. That she wasn’t something I’d won, like a prize at some kind of fucked up mafia fair.

She was right.

I’d rescued her, then pretty much ignored her since then, with the exception of demanding that she chose me, when I’d given her no reason to do so.

I thought I was protecting her but in reality, I was only protecting my own heart.

And I was done with that. I needed to step up and be the man that she deserved.

So everywhere I went, I took her with me, opening up all the doors to her that I’d never opened to anyone else before. I showed her exactly what I did and how I did it. If I was on my iPad, she was next to me. I explained to her how my transactions worked, how I manipulated men and money, and how I tracked Nero’s operations from here.

When I planned with my men she was in the room. I asked for her opinions and took her advice when I thought it was good. If I didn’t take it, I explained to her why so she could learn and understand. Honestly, the woman was smart as a whip and an asset to our team. She also wasn’t afraid to speak up and voice her opinion. As the only female in a group of made men, that took a lot of courage, and I was damn proud of her.

Two days passed and there was no immediate retribution from Dimitri, though we were prepared for it.

We thought that Dimitri was too focused on his new shipment with Nero and would plan his retaliation later. However, we underestimated him before and wouldn’t do that again. This time, we weren’t going to wait for him to come to us.

All our focus narrowed in on that shipment, hoping that we were able to catch him by surprise. We would strike, quickly and without retribution. We would light that ship on fire and watch the thing burn to the ground.

I was sitting in the large conference room, my laptop before me, going over the list of ships that would be nearby when we were attacked. We needed to make sure we didn’t alert the US military or anything else that would cause us any big issues.

I glanced at Rose, who was sitting next to me. The room was bustling with activity but she was quiet, had been for the last hour. Her eyes were unfocused, lost in thought, and she was lightly tracing over the gauze on her finger.

Once again, anger strummed through me, furious that she'd lost even a fraction of a skin cell to that man.

I reached over, placing my hand over hers and, startled, she looked up at me.

My eyes traced over her face, noting the tiredness around her eyes, the way they were dull and emotionless. A pang of sadness filled me.

I missed the snarky Rose, the one with the smart mouth who told me exactly what she was thinking, the one who didn't care that she was a prisoner but sassed off like there was no tomorrow.

In the moment, it had been frustrating as hell, but now, I missed the saucy creature that had grown on me.

I stood up, and all eyes moved to me.

"I'm going out." I pulled Rose to her feet. "Rose is going with me."

Coulter's gaze followed me but he said nothing from his position across the room. Torian began to protest but I cut him off with a wave of my hand. "I'll return sometime tonight."

“Liam, Noah, go with him." Torian barked at his men.

"But stay back," I commanded. I didn't need guards interfering with what I had planned for Rose.

Both men jumped to attention, walking behind me as I held her hand, leading her from the room. While we took the elevator up to our room, Rose kept to herself. I frowned. I didn't like it. Didn't like the distance she was putting between us.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, I stepped out, then turned to block the guards, barking at them. "Wait for us in the lobby."

“Yes sir," one of them answered, then hit the button to return them to the bottom floor.

As soon as the doors closed, I grabbed Rose's arm, who'd been attempting to go to her room and pulled her to me.

"I don't like this," I said, staring into her eyes and showing my displeasure by the ferocious look on my face.

"What?" she protested.

“This. The new walls between you and me.” I slid my hand up to the nape of her neck, tugging her closer. "I don't like you blocking me."

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