Page 36 of Vengeful Princess

I ground my teeth at the thought of Thea being arrested. “No.”

“No?”

“You’re not throwing Thea under the bus to delay the engagement. Or me, for that matter. If the body pops up and it turns into a murder investigation, there’s no guarantee they won’t find my DNA on it somewhere.”

He scowled at me and slammed his empty glass down on the table. “Fine!”

Some of the tension left my shoulders with his assurance he wasn’t about to do anything we’d all regret. “Good, I’m glad we agree. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some sleep.”

I dropped my empty glass in the dishwasher but left the vodka bottle for him. From the deep lines etched across his forehead, his need was greater than mine. The fucker needed to be careful before all his hair fell out from stress.

“Kyril?” he called, just as I reached my bedroom doorway.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t get attached to her. She’s trouble.”

“Not a chance,” I scoffed, knowing full well it was a lie, and also much too late.

I’d already fallen for her.

19

Thea

Istrode out of my class with a massive headache. Everything the professor told us was utterly pointless. To me, at least. If I wanted to start a business - and there was zero chance of this happening - I’d hire someone to do the marketing bullshit like write press releases.

What a waste of time. That was two hours of my life I’d never get back.

And I wasn’t the only one who’d been less than invested in the lecture. Cassian had arrived late, much to the ire of the professor, and then spent most of the class tapping away on his phone. He seemed more than a little distracted.

I’d seen Lucian Forsyth in the news again this morning, crowing about the success of his operation to foil the organized crime gangs trafficking people and drugs into the UK. No doubt my father was furious about that. If NCA officers were stepping up, it would directly affect his bottom line.

My father had many income streams, but drugs were his most profitable one. He distributed cocaine from Colombia andheroin from Afghanistan and produced a range of synthetic drugs like Fentanyl in labs near home.

While the UK was not his primary market, he had links with gangs in this country, and disruption to his supply chain affected the wider operation.

Was I surprised that my father wanted to silence Lucian Forsyth? No. But I was curious about why he was going to such great lengths to do it. There had to be more I wasn’t seeing.

My gut told me Lucian’s involvement was greater than my father was saying. Yes, he was the figurehead at the forefront of the government’s renewed attack on organized crime, but this was nothing new. And more to the point, Dad was accustomed to pushback from the authorities.

So why was Lucian such a threat to him?

It made no sense. But as my father liked to remind me, my job was to do as I was told, not worry my pretty little head about our business.

I rolled my eyes as his voice popped into my head, patronizing as fuck. Was it any wonder I was so puzzled he’d enrolled me on a business course? Given his misogynistic attitude to women, which was still firmly stuck in the 1950s, I’d have expected to be here studying English or some other bullshit subject.

“Thea!” A familiar voice cut through my thoughts as I reached the glass doors of the cafeteria. The place was busy, which didn’t fill me with joy, but I was hungry and all out of protein bars.

“What do you want?” I snapped as Landon reached me.

“That’s no way to talk to your future husband,” he pouted.

His voice was like honey. It did bad things to me. Things I shouldn’t be thinking about in the middle of the day.

“Look upmariticidein the dictionary. It’s what you have to look forward to if you marry me.”

I tried to shoulder-barge him, but he was an immovable object. Yes, I could have tried harder, but my head ached and I was tired.

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