Page 92 of Unwillingly His

More importantly, I had forgotten that Brian was essential for that arrangement.

That didn’t mean I was going to let this little pissant go around my office talking about Stella. Frankly, I would have fired him if I heard him talking like that about any of my female employees.

But the fact that it was Stella’s name that was coming out of his vile little mouth, it was taking everything I had not to throw him out of the fucking window.

And this little bitch, instead of counting his blessings and running away with his tail tucked firmly between his legs, was actually trying to strong-arm me. Who the fuck did he think he was?

“I don’t give a fuck who your cousin is. You are done here.”

“You’re going to give a fuck when he starts retaliating. You fire me, I promise you that little bitch is going to be in his crosshairs first.”

“You can tell Ronan to go fuck himself. This arrangement is over.”

CHAPTER 34

LUCIAN

“My, my, your new little pet seems to be keeping busy.” Mary Quinn Astrid was sitting on my desk as I walked into my office first thing in the morning.

I had no idea what the fuck she was doing here, but whatever it was, I had not had enough coffee to tolerate it. I really needed to have a conversation with my assistant about allowing access to my office when I was not in.

“Leave. You have no business here,” I said, refusing to look at her.

Mostly because I knew that was what Mary Quinn hated the most.

She spent so much of her time, so much of her energy, looking the way she did. Perfectly polished and poised, somehow looking like she was aging gracefully but not aging at all.

I used to think it was a feminine power she had, but after a few years, I could just see it was a desperate attempt at appearing powerful. She was no more than a manipulative shrew. All it would take was one scandal to unravel all of the influence she had.

That wasn’t power. At least not the kind I coveted.

“I do actually have business to discuss with you.” She stood from the top of my desk and walked towards me, not even the faintest wobble on her sky-high stilettos.

“Then you should have made an appointment with my assistant.”

“No.” She sauntered up to me and placed her hand on my chest as if she somehow had the right. “This is personal business. I have been made aware that you are now in possession of the Deiderich heir.”

“In possession of? Do you think I keep her in a little box?”

I have never pretended to be a good person.

Mary Quinn pretended when it suited her, and I did not hold that against her. But after hearing how she treated her daughters, seeing evidence of bruises on my daughter-in-law, and hearing the stories about her drunken tirades and unprovoked violent streaks, it was abundantly clear that I needed to distance myself.

Mary Quinn was no longer an ally who came with more benefits than liabilities. She was a walking time bomb.

“Well, I don’t know what else you would do with a woman that stupid. But there are a few eligible bachelors that I could point you in the direction of. I’m sure you are eager to get her out of your house.”

I took a step back just out of her reach, hoping she would get the hint and not touch me again.

“And what exactly gives you the impression Stella is anything other than brilliant?” I asked.

“Well, I know she was friends with Amelia as a child, and she always seemed so simple. One-word answers never add any value to conversations. I hear the only reason she survived that hit was because she let the assassin feel her up.”

“She was found by the paramedics by crawling through broken glass half frozen to the front of the car and hitting a metal flask on the roof to make a noise. She was nearly dead,” I growled with narrowed eyes. “But what do you mean, assassin? It was a car crash. The driver was drunk.”

Mary Quinn rolled her eyes. “It was made to look like a car accident. But I assure you it was very much intentional. Deiderich has some particularly ruthless friends that your friend Ronan doesn’t want in the city, let alone this country.”

“So you are saying the car accident was a hit.”

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