Page 13 of Ruthless Beasts

The girl cleared her throat even as she kept her eyes trained on the orange slice on her plate like it was the most interesting thing in the room. When she didn’t speak, I asked her, “Was there something you wished to say, wife?”

The title slipped from my lips naturally, without thought, but the word made me uncomfortable. She bit her lip before slowly bringing her eyes up to meet mine. “No, sir.”

Were her hands shaking just from my appraisal?

“You can speak openly with any man in this room. Just because you are here under unique circumstances doesn’t mean you aren’t valued.”

There. That should be good enough to let her know not to be afraid of us. Not to be afraid of me.

She nodded her understanding, but no words were spoken, so I turned my attention back to Ace. “Inform the staff we’ve got an addition. Let them know they are to give her anything she wants within reason.”

Within reason, because I’m not about to get my eyes gouged out by a fire pick because our staff was careless in trusting my new little wife. “I’ll do it first thing.”

I turned my attention to Mercer. “Bump the meeting up to eleven. I wish to attend.”

I could use the distraction. It would be good for me to get out some of this pent-up tension that had been coiling in my body since yesterday, but noon was no good for me. As much as I liked to operate out of view of the law, I had legitimate business commitments to honor.

Another sound came from the girl. My head snapped toward her. “Speak.” She didn’t look up, didn’t acknowledge my order. The blatant disregard for my authority fueled the anger that had bubbled up since the whole situation that combined her life with my own. My palm slammed onto the table, causing the candle holder to tip and the plates to rattle. “I said speak!”

Mercer stood, ready to protect the girl. Didn’t he know I’d never hurt her? Had I changed so much over the years, become too unpredictable, that he questioned that one core value I vowed never to change?

Her eyes finally rose. The memorizing shade of green entrapped me for a moment while Mercer slowly lowered back to his chair. Her lip quivered, and I wasn’t sure if she was going to cry. I couldn’t handle tears. My life was complicated enough right now without them. But then she pulled her shoulders back, her lip steadied, and she found her voice.

“It’s just-“ She licked her lips, and I wondered for the briefest of moments if they tasted like the orange she just ate. Then I remembered I didn’t care. I shouldn’t care. She was mine in name, but I didn’t want her. “It’s just that you speak in code around me as if I’m naïve enough to believe that men like you spend your day in meetings, when I watched the death pile up around me in the church less than twenty-four hours ago.”

“We have meetings.” Mercer tried to soothe out the tiny fibs we told to appear normal.

She stared at him for a moment, something passing between them. The tiniest bit of softness in her eyes that made me jealous of my best friend. “You, I’d believe, had a real meeting.” The left side of his lip quirked up before she continued. “Them, not so much.”

Ace huffed, not willing to waste a single word to dispute, even if he was the one in this room with a civil meeting today and not the bloodthirsty bastard that Mercer was. How had he convinced the girl in such a short time that he was a gentle when he was the one with the bloodiest of hands and the darkest of souls? It made no sense. But if she wanted to believe I was the monster my scars portrayed me to be, then I’d let her. I owed her no explanation of my life.

“The priest will come this evening for the final papers to be signed. Be ready and don’t make a scene. He won’t help you.” I leaned back in the chair, grabbing the cup of coffee Mercer had placed in front of me and taking a giant sip.

“We never filed for a license.” Her chin tilted up defiantly.

“You think a person like me, with money and power, hasn’t already gotten around that?”

There was the smallest deflation in her confidence, though she tried to hide it. “You’ve made your point. You can let me go now. Drop me off at the nearest airport. Send me away.”

I leaned forward, bracing with an arm on the table. “What about your father?”

There was no thought to her answer, not a single second of hesitation. “I’d never go back there.”

Interesting. What had he done? Did I dare ask? I was never afraid of anything, but somehow my gut told me to fear her reason why. I was a coward. I didn’t ask, though I knew I’d be digging into the reason the second I got to the casino. “And the groom?”

“What about him?” If I had thought her face was cold with the mention of her father, then her face was like ice mentioning the boy.

“Did you love him?”

She blinked a few times, as if my question of whether she was at the altar with a boy for the reason of love was so outrageous she couldn’t quite grasp it. “I didn’t even know him.”

That fact was equally interesting. “Then why did you agree to marry him?”

“Why would you assume I had a choice? Isn’t it clear that no one asks me what I want?”

I shrugged, pretending to be indifferent. “You may not want to be here, little Belle.” Why did the nickname feel so right rolling off my tongue? “But if you didn’t want to go with your father, and you didn’t want to marry into the Accardo family, then why not just accept your position here? There is no need to fight us. You’re only the prisoner you create.”

“But I’m still a prisoner,” she whispered.

---