Page 117 of Seizing Control: Part Two

Hunter doesn’t agree.

He would prefer more distance between Cherub, her kids, and her husband.

I don’t truly understand his ongoing apathy toward his brother.

The younger man certainly forgave me for my role in Venom’s fake death.

For some reason, he refuses to extend the same grace to Slash.

“Unnecessary... considering... moving between.” Slash repeats the key words from my previous statement in a sarcastic voice. Eyeing me with scepticism, he quips, “Who the hell are you tryna fool with your dictation, your posh voice, and your perfect enunciation? You might wear a damn suit, nowadays, but you’re the same hot-headed lunatic you’ve always been underneath it.”

Even though I am inwardly seething at his snark, I play it off like it doesn’t bother me. Slash might know all my soft spots—the places he can push to evoke a reaction from me—but I can see that we have an audience. Almost every person watching has my woman’s ear, so my goal is to impress them with my maturity in the hope they’ll report back to her favourably.

Her husband is apparently oblivious to the witnesses.

That’s not my problem.

His lack of control is on him.

Unfolding my shirt sleeves, I button my cuffs. Every movement I make is designed to match the count I’m up to with my breathing rhythm. My parasympathetic nervous system better engage soon or I’m going to prove the dickhead right. I have a fragile grip on my control right now. Too much has happened in the past week, from my dad’s murder to Lily giving birth early to taking over the Adjudicator’s curia a lot sooner than expected.

A small dose of homicide would be a nice balm to my heartache.

As my gazes darts around us, I spot the shovel leaving against the digger. It’s mighty useful as a weapon. After I’ve bashed his head in with it, it’ll come in handy to bury the evidence. On second thought, the pigs at Dad’s farm must be hungry by now, so I can likely save on the time needed to dig a hole eight-foot deep.

If only I could magically make the spectators disappear...

There’s a tremor in my hands when I retrieve my cufflinks from my pocket and fix them back in place. As I exhale for the count of six, I make a show of gesturing to the crack in his drained pool. “The workers were a little over-enthusiastic... I’ll pay for the repairs, of course.”

A spring enters my step when Slash is rendered silent.

I make it across the property line before he fully grasps the situation. “What do you mean two houses? My wife and kids will live with me, you can sleep in a ditch for all I care.” Following me, Slash grabs hold of my shoulder. I wrap my fingers around his wrist and plant my feet when he tries to wrench me around to face him. “You own this place, don’t you? Well, you can fuckin’ sell it?—”

My grip on his arm tightens in warning.

“Lily owns this house.”

“Fuck off.” The colour drains from Slash’s face. His eyes shift from my face to his house to the new home that his wife purchased behind his back. “No. Fuck. She’s leavin’ me?”

Sympathy smacks into me like a freight train. It irritates me how easily Slash’s vulnerability gets under my skin. He’s turning into a weakness that I can’t afford to have. The last thing I need is a fault line in the impenetrable shield I’m constructing around my woman and kids. Any crack is a breach point.

Unfortunately, Slash is a fissure I’m stuck with for the foreseeable future.

“No, she’s not,” I tell him honestly. None of the understanding I have over his position show in my voice as I inform him, “Lily’s laying boundaries, but she’s keeping you close. This is a good thing.”

“But...” Slash lets go of me and spins in a circle. He links his fingers behind his neck and glares up at the sky. A sigh that comes from the pit of his soul erupts from his lips. “I’ve fucked this up... from day dot. The shit I’ve done, the way I’ve treated her. Of course, she’s movin’ the hell out. I should be thankin’ my lucky stars my duchess hasn’t put a bullet in my head, so she can be done with me permanently.”

“Get the fuck over yourself.” I thump him in the chest. As always, whenever I swear, a small section of my psyche ends up on high alert. Part of me doesn’t grasp that I’m the boss now, and I couldn’t care less how the members of the curia speak when they’re not on a job. “You don’t have a monopoly on mistakes. We’ve all made them.”

“Cherub’s gonna give up on?—”

“She’s literally laid out, plain as day, how we can regain her trust... all you’ve gotta do is follow her requests.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

My fist has a mind of its own, smacking into his chest a second time. “’Cause it is simple.”

When it becomes clear that he’s not going to comprehend my point, I shove him out of my way, then head for the back door of the house I recently sold to Lily. In my periphery, I see Nadia arriving home via the side gate at Slash’s.

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