Page 50 of Degrading Her

“This has nothing to do with Roth,” he growled. “Who just texted you?”

“None of your business.”

“A woman?”

I scoffed, but Wilder already knew. We might not have been close, but we were brothers, and he understood what my lack of answer meant.

“You’re joking,” he muttered. “You, of all people?” He shook his head. “Get a hold of yourself. Our men didn’t have to die because you can’t keep your dick in your pants.”

Oneof our men had died.Onehad been injured. That was hardly a concern.

But that made me sound like Roth. They were our men, not our assets.

And yet I couldn’t stop myself from arguing. Couldn’t admit what she had done to me.

“I didn’t do shit,” I yelled back.

“And that’s why this could have been avoided in the first place,” he said. He grabbed my shirt, shoving me to the ground, and I punched him, my fist bashing his face. His next punch landed on my jaw. Pain churned inside of me. “Fix your head. This isn’t about some slut you can fuck in your free time. This is about the business we’ve been fighting for, to make it our own.Your own,Sawyer. You’re the one who wanted this business. Don’t let it implode from the inside because of some woman.”

I clenched my fists at those words. The only person who could call hersome slutwas me.

He was lucky he had corrected himself.

“She means nothing,” I said.

“Then fix it,” Wilder demanded. He pushed himself off of me. “You wanted to be the boss. Be a boss. It comes with sacrifices?—”

This time, I railed forward, knockinghimto the ground, the wind expelling from his chest. He coughed, and I hurled a punch at his nose. Blood dripped from his nostril.

“Say it again,” I said in a low voice. Veins throbbed in my forehead, red clouding my vision. In the Feldman Offering, the men of our family were expected to kill their own wives once they were finished producing offspring, for thesake of the business. Women were a distraction, and the best way to prove that the business came first was to get rid of them.

But our father was dead.Iwas the leader now. That ritual was over.

“Tell me again what I have to sacrifice,” I growled.

“Calm down,” Wilder shouted. He threw a punch at me, and I kicked him in the chest. His breath caught in his throat. In the end, Wilder hadn’t killed his wife like he was supposed to. And I had already killed someone to prove to my father that I should be the next leader. If those were the games my father wanted to play, then so be it.

“We got rid of our father so we didn’t have to follow those rules anymore,” Wilder said.Ihad gotten rid of our father.Iwas the one who put that final bullet in his body. “But now we have our own rules. New rules thatyouhave to follow to show that you can handle the business. Fix this, Sawyer. Do whatever it means to be a leader.You wanted this.”

He was right.

I had sworn to myself that I would lead the Feldman Farm into a new era, and while I had done that, I had been side-tracked. Breaking Fiona was supposed to be a way to strengthen my manipulation over others, but instead, I had let her get in my way.

I relaxed my hold on my brother, then stood, offering him a hand to hoist him up. We walked back in silence. As Wilder parted for his new house, I found my driver, ordering him to take us back to the city. At the penthouse, I stayed in our private garage, sitting in the car. Lost in thought.

“Boss?” my driver asked.

Without even questioning myself, I addressed the driver: “Go to her apartment.”

I pictured her running across the parking lot of that old building, screaming as a landmine tore her legs from her body. Bullets nailing her in the head and chest until she was flung against the asphalt, her skull cracking open. Then I fixated on her inside of that burning building, punching the windows, afraid to burn alive. And that haunted me. I couldn’t unsee it. The way she screamed. The way her skin melted from her bones.

I wouldneverlet anything like that happen to her.

I did have feelings for her, didn’t I?

We went through the open gate, then parked. I called her. It rang once, then she picked up.

“Hello?” she asked.

---