Page 34 of Cruel Vows

If steam could pour out of Ellie’s ears right now, it would be.

She slams her fork down on the counter. “Now you even have my sisters turning against me?”

“They’re not turning against you. They’re trying to keep you safe.” I slide the credit card closer to her. “This is yours. Use it for whatever you need. It’s tied to my accounts.”

Her soft pink-painted nails scrape against the card, sliding it closer to her. “I’m going to buy a plane since you changed my name without my damn consent.”

“Buy whatever you want. There’s more than enough money on that card to cover it.”

Ellie shifts, tucking the card into the back pocket of her linen shorts. She grabs her knife and fork, eyes narrowing as she looks at me.

“You’re going to stop manhandling my life, you know that?” She cuts into the waffles like they’ve personally offended her. “I had enough of Aiden doing that when I lived at home. Now, I’ve gone from one house to the other and it still seems like I don’t get to control my own life.”

I finish eating breakfast, depositing my dishes into the dishwasher. “We’re not having this conversation again. I have places to be, and I don’t have time to keep doing this with you.”

As I leave her standing in the kitchen, I’m sure that I’m seconds away from getting a knife in my back.

I pressthe knife to the man’s throat, lip curling at the tears rolling down his cheeks. “You’re pathetic.”

He looks up at me, eyelashes sweeping rapidly across his cheeks as he tries to hold back his tears. “You don’t have to do this. I have a wife and a family.”

“Sure, so do I.” I press the knife harder, breaking the skin. “That doesn’t change what’s about to happen. You crossed me when you decided to threaten my wife, Logan. That’s a problem for me.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just doing my job. Noah told me that I had to do it.”

“And that’s the issue, isn’t it?” I drag the knife slowly from just below his earlobe to a fraction of an inch from his vein. “You were just doing your job and now I’m just doing mine.”

“Noah was planning on kidnapping her originally. He thought that it would be fun to take her and torture her.”

Logan’s throat bobs as he swallows hard and looks around. His eyes squeeze shut for a moment, his lips moving as if he’s counting to ten.

He shifts slightly, but he can’t move too far with the knife pressed to his throat. “He thought that if we sent her body to Aiden in pieces, he would come after Noah out of rage instead of sitting back to plan an attack.”

I pull the knife away slightly, giving him room to breathe as a reward for turning on his boss.

One way or another, he’s still going to die for putting his hands on Ellie, but for the moment he can think there’s a chance he might survive.

Crossing my arms, I wait for him to say more.

One of the foghorns sounds just outside the warehouse in the marina. It’s a miserable day outside—perfect for getting information out of the man who wanted to hurt Ellie.

Logan’s mouth curves up at the corner. “I told him that we should hold back. Just scare her a little and see what happened. He listened to me. I saved her from being killed.”

I scoff, crouching down so my gaze is level with his. “Am I supposed to be grateful to you for that?”

“You should be.”

The knife finds its home against his throat again. “Nobody lays a hand on my wife and survives.”

I slit his throat, smirking at the fear in his eyes as the blood drains from his body.

The door to my interrogation room opens and Dominic walks in, not sparing the body a second glance as he stands beside me.

Dominic’s entire body tenses as he blows out a long breath. “We have a problem at home.”

“Thank you for stopping her, Kara.”I nod to the bodyguard outside Ellie’s bedroom door.

She gives me a half smile, but I’m sure she feels guilty right now.

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