Page 37 of Vengeful Lies

I know she’s desperate if she’s messaging me as a last resort. But the timing couldn’t be any better. So I reply.

Me: Sure. Give me the time and place.

CHAPTER 19

Eli

Not even twenty-four hours out of my sight, my fiancée needs to be taught her first lesson.

“Do you want to tell us what this is about, boss?” Hawke asks from the passenger seat. Ford is driving and staring at me through the rearview mirror as I check how many bullets I have in my gun.

I had every intention of dealing with a business partner who’d gone stray, but the moment I was notified Jewel went to some run-down Chinese restaurant and is sitting across from three men, I saw red.

“No. Just be ready for cleanup.”

I’m thinking clearly, I know that.

It’s the most clarity I’ve experienced in a long time.

When I claim something as mine, it is deeply, irrevocably my possession.

Jewel will learn a lesson tonight: If she chooses to see other men, then she might as well be the one pointing the gun at their heads.

Ford pulls over at the curb, and I step out of the car without so much as giving them a second glance. I adjust my suit as I storm inside the restaurant. There aren’t many people here solate in the evening. A hostess approaches me, but the moment she sees the gun in my hand, she screams and runs into the kitchen. Customers begin to scatter out of the shitty restaurant.

Laughter catches my attention, and I turn toward the head of auburn hair in the private section of the room. It’s her friend Sage’s laughter, and some guy is smiling across from her, brushing his thumb against hers.

My little tigress, however, seems less fierce than usual. She’s throwing back a drink with three empty glasses beside her. The two men across from her greedily stare at her despite her dismissive attitude toward them.

I barrel up to their table, and Sage screams. Jewel looks up in a daze, and then rage quickly sparks to life in her eyes.

“You’re not invited,” she snarls.

I offer a tight smile. “I am wherever my fiancée is.”

That’s when her gaze drops to the gun and realization sinks in. “Don’t you fucking?—”

I aim for the first man on the left and shoot him between the eyes. Sage screams again as Jewel jumps over her. By the time I’ve shot the second guy, she’s standing in front of the remaining two protectively. Interesting. I didn’t take her to care much about her colleagues, but apparently, even she’ll draw a line somewhere.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” she growls, and if ever she’s looked like a protective tigress, it’s now. I can only imagine how fiercely she might protect her own.

My fiancée.

I wonder what it might feel like to have that same loyalty.

I try to shake the thought away, along with the humming in my veins. I don’t entirely understand it. But she’s mine, and no one will so much as look at her.

Her friend is sobbing behind her, and the remaining man seems perplexed as he mourns his friends but tries to also cower under the table.

“Ah shit,” Hawke says behind me, finally understanding why we’re here, but I don’t pay him any attention. I’m completely focused on the furious, amber-eyed woman sneering at me.

“What do you want?” she asks.

“Out. Now,” I command.

Her gaze narrows on me, but she straightens her spine and approaches me. I notice the slight wobble of her walk.Is she drunk?

She follows me into the main room, where almost everyone has cleared out. Ford is offering compensation to those who remain—most likely the owner and a few staff members. Hawke quickly steps into the room we just left.

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