Page 46 of Protect Me

“I won’t ever accept it,” he says.

I pull a knife from my pocket and press the blade to his throat. “Then I’ll have to kill you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

I would. I really fucking would. But we can’t run from them forever.

I rip the knife from his throat and go for his dick. All men value that over their lives.

“Wait!” he yells, a mere centimeter from me giving him a bloody new piercing. “Let’s talk, you fucking psychopath.”

“I’m not a psychopath. You and your people just don’t like anyone willing to challenge you.” I gesture toward Isabella. “For her, I’ll challenge any one of you. All of you.”

“What about your affair?” Isabella’s sing-song voice comes up behind me.

“My what?” her father asks.

“I know you’re fucking that twenty-something-year-old you hired,” she says. “I saw it.”

“What the fuck does that matter?”

She smirks. “If my mother’s family found out, it wouldn’t go over well for you. You’d lose anything you didn’t create yourself. And that’s quite a lot, isn’t it, father? Grandpa’s investments got you to where you are today.”

Angelino’s eyes narrow. “Are you kidding me, Isabella? Blackmailing your own father?”

Isabella laughs. “Let’s not play who has more morals here.”

He exhales, low and slow. “What do you want to keep your mouth shut?”

“To be left alone.” She looks at me. “With Vance.”

“Then you will have absolutely nothing from me. You know that, right? Nothing.”

She scoffs. “I want nothing from you, aside from turning a blind eye.”

While they talk, I walk into my kitchen and draw up a quick contract. It states that Isabella is mine, that they are to fuck right off about us, and that he, as the head of his family, gives us his blessing to exit the life.

I return to the living room and throw the contract into his face. “Sign this. It says that you’ll leave us alone. For good.”

His dark eyes narrow on me. “I need my fucking hand for that.”

I release one hand and throw the pen into his lap. Once he’s scrawled his signature on the line, I whip his hand upward, take the knife, and cut his palm. “Sign it with blood, too. We know how important that is to your families.”

That’s an oath he can’t go back on, though we all know how much integrity the man has. But I’ll be ready if he goes back on it. I will always be ready.

“You sure about this?” I ask Isabella, before we both sign.

“I’ve never been more certain about anything, Vance,” she says with a confident nod.

Isabella is willing to throw away everything she knew about her old life to build a life with me that will never offer the luxury and grandeur she was used to. I can offer her different things, though. I just hope I can make her happy.

And I hope she’s making the right choice, because there’s no coming back from this.

With all three signatures on the paper, a satisfied smile slides onto her face. She turns to me and raises her eyebrows. “Now kill him.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Isabella

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