Page 70 of The Broken Queen

His eyes met mine, but he didn’t say a word. I took a deep breath. “The wedding has been moved up.”

“To when?”

“Saturday,” which didn’t give us a whole lot of time since it was already Wednesday. I knew Anna and Father would worktheir magic. Not that I cared anyway. Even if Slade didn’t follow through with his plan, I would do mine.

I wasn’t going to go through with this marriage. I wasn’t a royal anyway, and somehow I was going to figure out how to make that known.

His gaze narrowed, “Whose idea was that?”

I slipped my feet in my boots. “Mine.”

His jaw ticked and I knew the anger was coming. “Why?”

“You pissed me off. Saying that you wanted me to go through with it, I figured if you weren’t going to do something, I would.”

“And marrying that fucker is the way to do that?”

“Nope.”

“Quit with your cryptic bullshit and tell me what’s going on.” I grabbed my keys from the nightstand. “You were taking too long, so I took action. I told him I wanted to get married on Saturday. The rest, well, I guess you’ll have to come to be there.”

I went and unlocked the door, leaving him in my room to ponder his thoughts. I just made my move, now it was his turn.

I MADE IT BACK FROMthe dress shop around two-thirty, right around the time that Julianna was being picked up from school. The estate seemed quite busy when I got back.

I walked outside in the courtyard to several people in business suits, along with women in short dresses. I immediately wanted to disappear.

What the fuck?

When people saw me, their smiles grew wide, as if they knew something I didn’t. I looked around for a familiar face in the crowd but didn’t see anyone until I saw Zeke standing in the corner, fornicating with a tall blonde.

Rolling my eyes, I tried to find Father.Nowhere in sight.Huffing, I decided it wasn’t worth my time and walked backinside to the quiet. I went into the kitchen and that’s where I found him drinking a cup of coffee.

“Who are all those people back there?”

He lifted the cup to his lips to take a sip, then glanced at me briefly, as if I was an annoying fly he wanted to swat. “They are here for the wedding ceremony.”

I scoffed. “It seems like they are here for something else, especially since Zeke is having his pick of the fucking liter. Can you get them to leave? Julianna should be home any minute.”

The death glare he gave me told me he didn’t give a fuck. “They are here for your wedding, they aren’t going anywhere.”

“This is bullshit.”

He raised a brow, “Excuse me?”

“They aren’t here for the wedding. The girls are here because you are trafficking them, and the guys are here because they are buyers. I’m not fucking stupid. Get them off the grounds. I don’t care what you do on your own time, but this shit is not okay around my daughter.” My breaths came out quickly.

He slammed his cup down and stood up. “Watch your tone.”

I don’t know what provoked me to do it, and I shouldn’t have said a fucking word, because once I did, all hell broke loose. “No. I’m not your daughter, anyway. I really don’t have to listen to a word you fucking say. Mother should’ve gotten out when she had the chance.” I walked away, but it was a big mistake.

There was some rustling behind me and the world went black.

MY HEAD POUNDED ASI opened my eyes. Black and white spots invaded my vision. The cold concrete felt familiar against my skin. The room was pitch black and there were screams in the next room.

Dungeon.

He’d really gone off the deep end, locking me in here so I could listen to the torture going on in the next room. A switch flipped and my eyes squinted from the brightness of the light. Once they adjusted, the man of the hour walked in with a look so cruel it could kill me.

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