Page 106 of Call You Mine

Her taunting demeanor aggravates me beyond reason. This is the woman Damon has spent the last three and a half years working for. He’s spent endless hours by her side doing God knows what and her knowing smirk says it all. Jealousy creeps inside me, threatening to make me lose control, but I won’t give her the satisfaction she so desperately craves. She twirls the ends of a strand of her bleached blonde hair, as she looks me up and down, her distaste of my current state obvious as she clicks her tongue.

“Nope, I don’t see it.”

“See what?”

“What my Draco sees in you. You’re nothing special. Sure you’re beautiful, but with the right amount of money and incredible surgeons, anyone can achieve that.”

“Is that what you were going for?” I spit out, allowing the jealous bitch inside me to take her shot. “Tell me, what is it you lacked? The money, or the surgeon?” Luke lets out a sharp chuckle, and it only irritates Clarissa more than she already was.

I bite my tongue to hold back what I really want to say, knowing I’m the one that’s in danger here. If I say the wrong thing and piss her off, who knows what the bitch is capable of?

“Damon came to me a few weeks ago. I assumed you two had an argument of sorts if he came to find consolation in my arms. He paused our arrangement, one that began the day he started working for me and continued till the day you came back into town.”

“What are you talking about? What arrangement?”

“Sit down, you might need to for this.” Clarissa moves around the room, the tail of her black gown trailing behind her as she walks over to sit on the couch beside where my mother and Luke have now gone. The three of them sit before me, glaring at me with the same expression. One of hatred yet a knowingness that they’re the ones who hold the power rightnow. “From the beginning,” Clarissa continues. “The moment Damon began working for me at Kingsman, he and I formed a relationship of sorts. Strictly sexual, we fulfilled each other's wants and needs, so to speak. His need for dominance and control, my need to be dominated and desired. There were no feelings or any of that other bullshit he swore he’d never allow himself to feel, regardless it was something special, something we both cherished.” Her wicked smirk turns angry. “Until you came back.”

I can’t breathe. Clarissa’s lies ring too close to the truth for me to ignore, yet everything inside of me is telling me not to believe it. Damon wouldn’t be capable of having any sort of relationship with this woman. She’s everything he hates about this world—fake, pretentious, manipulative. A man like him would never be involved with a woman like her. He couldn’t be, because that would mean that Clarissa knew the truth about him and the demons that lurk in the shadows of his mind. And I can't deal with someone knowing him the way I do.

Though if what she’s saying is true, then Clarissa began this so-called arrangement with Damon when he was just eighteen, and with her being at least eighteen years older than him, everything about it just seems so sick. She took advantage of the broken boy who needed to lose himself in whatever twisted arrangement she coerced him into. And that’s a kind of monster unlike any other I’ve ever come across.

“You’re lying!” I shout, tucking my hand back into the pocket of my sweater and pulling it out to aim at her. Their eyes go wide, neither one of them expecting this, though Clarissa quickly brushes off the shock. She tries to play nonchalant, standing up as she catches my hand waver slightly. Willa joins her, the two of them not thinking me capable, and frankly, I wouldn’t blame them. I’m as surprised as they are to be holding the gun up at them, but they’ve pushed me too far. The three of them schemedto ruin my life, to destroy me and everything I care about. I can’t allow them to get away with him.

Now that I know for a fact Enzo is not a threat, there is no fear stopping me from protecting those I love. Protecting my brother and his family from the monster my mother has become. Protecting Damon from this vile woman who preyed on his weaknesses and his need to be seen. To protect my unborn baby from any further hurt from them.

Luke is the only smart one who stays put, his gaze flicking back between the gun in my hand and the two women beside him. He looks as if he’s ready to run and I wouldn’t put it past the coward to try to. I won’t go after him. He’s a pawn in all of this, just like the rest of us. Willa and Clarissa are the ones that need to pay each for their own part in coming between Damon and I.

I take two steps forward, the gun now steady in my hand as I keep my arm extended toward them. They don’t move or say anything. All they do is stare at me with knowing glances, testing my resolve and how committed I am to seeing this through.

I don’t know if I can go through with it—to end someone’s life like this. But I lived the last months believing I’d done it to Enzo, and I’d survived. Just like him, they deserved it. That was justification enough for me. For playing with my life and my feelings like it was meaningless.

Suddenly, the front door is thrown open, jolting me and making me drop the gun from my hands. Damon pushes through, his gaze immediately finding mine as a look of relief flashes in his eyes. His whole body relaxes the moment he finds me unharmed, but it quickly shifts when he looks down at the gun that’s fallen to the floor and then back at the three who stand behind me. Though they don’t seem equally shocked. Willa looks almost expectant, like she knew he’d come..

Damon is jolted forward as Ace comes in rushing behind him, but my brother freezes the moment he looks at me. Fromthe corner of my eye, I catch Luke sprint off toward the back of the house, rushing out a door that leads to the backyard. Damon’s eyes follow him, but Ace is the first to move. “I’ve got him. You stay with my sister,” he says as he rushes past us and toward where Luke ran off.

I take a few steps forward, unable to speak as my eyes remain glued to Damon’s. He came for me. Despite everything Willa and Clarissa said, despite what Luke tried to fool him into believing, Damon came for me. Without a word, he rushes to my side and closes the space between us, the agony in his gaze so intense it immediately makes me sob. His hands run rampant over my body as if trying to find any injuries, before tenderly cradling my face in his palms.

Rough fingers hold me close, caressing me like I’m the most precious thing to him. I can’t hold back any longer and I let out a sharp breath between sobs, unable to control it. Despite everything that’s occurred in the last six hours, this feels different. “I’m fine, Damon,” I whisper and immediately feel him relax. He leans forward, inhaling into my hair as he kisses me.

“Baby. I…” his words fail him. The guilt in his eyes reflects the same agony in mine at the way things have turned out.

“Well, if this isn’t just precious,” Willa mocks, and when I look back at her, I find she’s picked the gun up off the floor and is pointing it directly towards us. The hatred in her stare is so palpable it’s not shocking that she’s willing to go to these extents. Beside her, Clarissa scowls. Her jealousy is clear in the way she watches Damon’s worried expression, and the way he’s holding onto me like I might disappear again if he lets go.

Whatever they tried to make Damon believe about me didn’t work. He’s here, he came here for me, to save me, to be with me—with us.

“This isn’t the way I wanted things to end my darling daughter.”

“You can’t say that as you're holding a gun to my head and expect me to believe it, mother.”

“You should have just given me the money when I asked you to. You should have listened to me and all of this wouldn’t have ever happened.”

“Fuck you, you lying bitch,” Damon shouts, tucking me behind his body to block me as he stands in front of me, the gun now pointed at him. “I gave you the money and yet here you are after I explicitly threatened you if you ever came back. Turns out you never left.”

Willa’s anger rises and she walks toward us, her hand not wavering as the gun remains pointed at us. Behind her Clarissa cowers down, unsure of what their next move is, only confirming they weren’t expecting Damon to show up regardless of what Willa’s trying to make us believe.

She raises the gun toward Damon, her finger terrifyingly steady on the trigger as her gaze turns wicked. I clutch his hand in mine and my breath hitches, fear paralyzing me as I stare at the woman who raised me, holding a gun to the temple of the man I love. “You think that was enough?” she scoffs, her tone mocking. “A mere twenty million was going to send me packing. My dear daughter will inherit five hundred million dollars and you expect me to be content with a measly twenty?” A sharp, sinister chuckle leaves her, as if his insinuation is so absurd. Damon trying to pay her off is news to me. “It's so blatantly obvious that you're new to this lifestyle. You may be a millionaire, but you don’t know the first thing about this kind of wealth.”

“I know enough to understand no amount of money will ever be enough for a greedy bitch like you.”

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