Page 79 of Nest Of Lies

A fierce growl erupts from my throat, echoed instantly by the pack. Valen moves into the room, getting up in the face of the man who has Lia’s arm in a grip that is going to get him murdered.

Valen butts his head against the smallest man. I think he’s supposed to be a doctor. He’s wearing a white jacket. But he’s a weedy, little, shrivelled up ball bag of a man. He backs off instantly, his fear stinking up the air. I think he might actually piss himself.

“Let go,” Valen sings softly, glaring beadily at the colossal idiot holding Lia.

Lia’s eyes are blank. She’s crying, but there is something so broken on her face that I’m afraid for her. She’s also feverish again. I can see it from here. And she’s been hit, her cheeks are red, and I can see hand prints.

I focus my ire on the threats in the room.

“China Raines.”

She tries to smile, but her lips tremble, and she can’t hold my gaze. “Mirakill.”

I smile coldly. It’s good she recognises who I am. Then she’ll know who is going to bury her. China was once a washed out version of Lia, but no longer. She’s thin to the point of painful, her face pinched and mean. Her tits are flat and saggy, and her makeup is over-done and chalky. She’s nothing but a has been pop star.

And I’m thinking about making her life just that much shorter.

I glance at her henchmen. Arnold, the man who has been spying on Lia. He flicks me a glance. I don’t respect a snitch. No matter that he’s been double-crossing China and feeding me all the information for the last five years. He neglected to mention this, though, and that’s going to get him severely beaten.

No, that’s getting him dead.

I glance back, silently giving Ranger his orders. My VP just smiles coldly and cracks his ring-covered fingers.

The other people in the room are three muscled men who don’t look afraid, but I can fix that. And a terrified woman with a tablet who looks like she might pass out at any moment.

“What do you think you are doing here?” I return my attention to China and watch as she tries to rally under my hard stare.

“My daughter is sick. She’s been sick for a long time. Look at her, she’s clearly feverish. She needs medical intervention.”

I smile and continue to smile while the silence stretches. “If anyone tries to take her, I’ll put bullets in all your skulls and bury you in graves where no one will find you.”

“You can’t threaten me!” China shouts.

“I just did.” I refocus my attention on Lia. “Mills,” I instruct.

He moves past me at once, picking her up. She doesn’t protest. She doesn’t make a sound. Lia, our Lia, just curls herself into him and buries her face in his neck.

“Get her out of here.”

“No! Wait! You can’t! She’s sick! She needs my help!”

“China Raines, no one needs your psychopathic help. Fuck off. You left her alone all these years, do her a favour and go back to whatever cum hole you crawled out of.”

She stalks towards me and brings her hand back. I catch it in the air and grind her wrist bones together until she cries out.

“You have no idea how much I want to break you right now. I’d start with this bone right here.” I stare down at her wrist. “The problem is once I start, I don’t know that I’d stop.”

“You can’t do this. She’s my child. She needs my help.”

“No one needs your help. What Lia needs is you to fuck off out of her life and leave her alone.”

“She’s sick!” China hisses.

I smile widely. She doesn’t know. “She’s mine. Sick or otherwise.”

“You’re denying her medical aid?” China clarifies. “I’ll have you arrested.”

“Good luck trying. And the minute I see cops on my doorstep,” I whisper, “you better run because that will be the end of you, China.”

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