Page 33 of Ruthless Oath

“You don’t think so?”

“I’ll walk home.” She tugged on the handle.

I couldn’t help but admire her determination, even if it would get her nowhere.

I held up my phone. “The security system in this place is amazing. I control it all with my phone.”

“You can’t lock me in.”

“I already have.” I pointed to the family room. “You’re not going to be able to escape, so let’s cut the bullshit. You might as well make the best of this situation, because you don’t have a choice.”

What was I going to do with her? Collins wasn’t wrong when he said I couldn’t kidnap a rival family’s daughter. We were supposed to follow a code. Innocents were off-limits. But at the time, I wasn’t entirely sure Lissia was innocent. She had come onto my territory and provoked me. I did what I had to do.

“Why are we still standing in the hallway?” I moved toward her, but she turned and stomped back into the family room.

I had dated a few rich and entitled women in my time, but this one was over-the-top. She needed someone to put her in her place and teach her lessons on respect.

As she walked in front of me, I focused on her firm ass. How many squats did she have to do to achieve such a tempting bottom?

I joined her by the fire. “Don’t pretend you wouldn’t have come with me even if I didn’t hold a gun on you. You were running from something when you arrived at the dealership.”

She turned and looked into my eyes. The anger in them told me I had hit a nerve.

“Your little games and the way you teased me don’t seem so smart now, do they?” I asked. The night we first met, she challenged her father by kissing me goodbye in front of him. “Provoking me might not have been your best idea.”

She stared at me, but her confident expression wavered, and for once, she didn’t have any sharp words for me.

“You’re going to have to do something you’re not used to.” I inched closer to her. “Suffer the consequences. You poke a bear, and well, that bear might just devour you.”

She backed up, bumped into the stone hearth, and stumbled. I caught her arm before she could fall this time.

“You came to me because you wanted me to protect you,” I said.

The rage over her betrayal to her family festered inside me. Not because I cared about Gian’s family’s dynamics. This had more to do with someone like her intriguing me. I considered myself a good judge of character, and she wasn’t someone I would normally be interested in.

“You wanted the help of your father’s enemy,” I continued. “What could have been so horrible in your entitled life that you would defy him like that?”

“That doesn’t matter now.”

I thought she had come to me at her father’s request, but after seeing how hostile Danny was with her, I didn’t think that was the case. She didn’t even struggle when I removed her from the situation. She thought I was the safer bet.

She was wrong.

I grasped her hips. “I helped you get away from the arms dealer tonight. You’re going to owe me for that.”

“My father can pay the price,” she said.

“Oh, he will.” I brushed my lips along her jaw. “But the price he pays is to guarantee your safety. The price you owe is to repay me. That’s how you’ll gain your freedom.”

“You’re just as vicious as they are,” she whispered.

“You’re wrong.” I ran my tongue along the seam of her lips. “I’m worse because I have leverage, determination, and motivation.”

Nothing would stop me from protecting my family and the empire my father had built for us.

She pushed me away and turned toward the fire.

“Don’t worry, princess.” I tightened my hold on her. “I’ll let you have tonight to process.”

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