Page 114 of Seduced

“Can I see her, please?” The vicar looked like a shadow of his former self, but he still had that stubborn, vain look about him. His voice was trembling as he spoke, and so were his hands. Alexei couldn’t care less.

“No,” he said and turned his back on the vicar, busying himself at his desk.

“I would like to see her,” the vicar repeated.

“I should think you’d be too ashamed,” Alexei said bluntly.

“Please,” the man insisted, ignoring Alexei’s comment.

“The answer is no,” Alexei said, suddenly terribly tired. What time was it? It must be close to midnight. “And I won’t send her back to you, not unless she expressly asks for it. And if she does, I’m coming with her to knock your teeth out.”

“Your Highness, I am asking you…”

“Would you like them out now?” Alexei asked kindly.

“I would like to see her.” The man’s insolence had no bounds. He was not used to being denied, was he? Well, it was time for little boys to grow up.

“I won’t let you in, unless she specifically asks for you,” Alexei said in a final tone. “And then I shall do my damnest to persuade her to never to set eyes on your miserable face again.”

Something akin to rage lit up the vicar’s eyes. “You have no right to keep her from me,” he started saying, becoming heated. It would be amazing how quickly the cloak of respectability dropped and left him exposed for a coward and a bully—except that it was revolting. “You have no right to—”

“Oh, you want to talk about rights, do you?” Alexei was seated and Poppy’s brother was on his feet, but Alexei was still taller. “What right have you to starve and torture her, then? To sell her? To ruin her health, her self-esteem, her very will as a human being? To reduce her to the state she was in when she first came here? Let’s hear it.”

“I,” the vicar drew himself up, “have a right to do with her as I seem fit. I am her brother.”

Alexei wasn’t aware of the fact that he’d moved, until he found himself face to face with the vicar, clutching his shirt in an iron grip and tilting his face up, in order to punch him in the face. He let all of his anger and frustration pour out of him, hitting the man again and again, knuckles crunching on bone, blood spurting, until one of his guards had to rush into the room and forcibly restrain him.

“Stop it, my lord,” he heard the man’s voice command through the haze that filled his brain. “Stop now. He’s unconscious.”

Alexei was panting, but no air was coming into his lungs.

“Get him out of my sight,” he commanded. “While he still breathes.”

They kept the vicar in the Underworld, but put him up somewhere far away from Alexei’s rooms. He could barely stomach the idea of the man being somewhere in the vicinity of Poppy. Which made him think of other things that were going on in the Underworld right now.

They always had, every single night for years.

But all of a sudden, he didn’t know why, but his skin was crawling at the very idea.

Oh.

He knew why: the sleeping girl on his bed held more power over him than anything ever had. He could not stand the thought that money was exchanging hands in that vulgar manner while she was under his protection. While she was fighting for her life.

For once, maybe he would do whatshewanted. After all, all his own desires had been fulfilled. Eradicated. Wiped clean. And only she remained; she was all he wanted. And she would be obeyed.

“Wilder!” he called.

“I’m here,” his friend materialized out of nowhere, as if he were hovering close by, ready in case he was needed. “What do you need, my lord? Patrons have started arriving upstairs, and the gaming rooms are already filled to capacity. Do you want to join them?”

“Don’t you my-lord me now,” Alexei said. “We are way past that, don’t you think?”

“I do,” Wilder smiled. “What do you need, Mikailoff?”

“Throw them all out,” Alexei said.

“What?”

“Throw them all out,” Alexei repeated. “I don’t want them in the same establishment as her. I don’t want money exchanging hands, or girls…women, our women, being pawed at, gawked at in here. We’ll find something else to do. Hell, we have enough money to survive on doing absolutely nothing for years, if that’s what we want.” Laughter was bubbling up in his throat, as if a great weight had been lifted from his chest.

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