Page 34 of Vengeful Lies

“You don’t plan to give me my guns back, do you?” I ask.

“I do, but first, you have to do something for me.”

“And what is that?”

He nods to the food, and I take another bite. Chewing it, I wait for him to speak.

“Wine?” he asks, nodding to the two full glasses on the table.

“No, you probably laced it with something.”

A knock sounds on the door. “Come in,” he commands, and the double doors open. Two of his security guards enter,dragging in the man I’d smashed over the head with the glass at Lucy’s. His clothes are covered in blood, and he looks like he hasn’t changed them since that night. His face is beaten up, so he clearly, didn’t leave the club unscathed, and I’m wondering if instead of escorting him out, they trapped him in some little dungeon.

When his eye—yes, only one because the other is swollen shut—finds mine, he moans something that sounds like an attempted apology. I look back at Eli, who is watching me expectantly.

“You remember our friend, right?”

“Yes,” I say, slightly confused as to why he’s even here. He’s a nobody.What is this, some knight in shining armor bullshit?

“Good.” Eli reaches under his suit jacket and pulls out a gun. His gaze remains on me as he aims it at the man and shoots him in the chest twice. The man crumples to the floor, dead, most likely put out of his misery from whatever satanic torture he was going through up until now. “I told you last night that you now belong to me. And that means in every sense of the word. If someone moves against you, I take it personally. If someone so much as looks in your direction, I’ll remove their eyes and feed them to them.”

The man is twisted in thinking this is what I meant by a love letter, and the declaration is far from gentle poetry. But if Eli is good at one thing, it’s making a point.

“Now, Kitten, let’s discuss a deal. One that might get you out of this alive.” He puts the gun on the table within reaching distance from me and starts to eat again.

CHAPTER 17

Eli

The unfortunate man who thought he could provoke my property gets dragged out. We continue to eat as she stares at me with that less-than-grateful expression. Taking a sip of my wine, I lean back and take her in.

“What do you want from me?” she asks.

“I want you to marry me,” I say matter-of-factly.

She scoffs, and it looks as if she’s about to laugh until she notices the serious expression on my face.

“Marry you?” She shakes her head in disbelief. “That’s definitely never going to happen.” She goes to stand, and I tap the table twice.

“You’ll sit down if you ever want to see those guns again,” I say curtly. She freezes as if suddenly remembering why she came here in the first place.

She reluctantly lowers back on the chair.

When Hawke first suggested the idea that I marry her, the others thought he was an idiot. And although I don’t disagree with them about that most of the time, this might be his greatest idea. It’s so crazy; it might work. This little tigress might be the answer I’ve been looking for all along. I can keep her close, flushout her client, and inherit my family business all at the same time.

The kingdom will finally be mine. And I’ll decide how to deal with my new wife afterward.

Punish her. Definitely punish her.

“I don’t want to marry you. I don’t even like you,” she scoffs.

“That’s perfectly fine; you just have to pretend you do around my family.”

“Your family?” she chokes out.

“Did I stutter? Yes, my family.”

“Are you that out of your fucking mind? I’m the person who, at any moment, is going to kill you. I don’t like being in the same room as you, let alone marry you. How about we agree I make your death quick, and in return, you give me my guns back now.”

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