Page 78 of The Devil's Hunt

He held my stare, but I saw the way his jaw clenched in barely contained anger.

"While your confidence is sexy, I wonder if you'll still be so confident when your father gives you to me, and it's my cock you're sucking."

"My father doesn't own me."

"But we own your father," he chuckled, the sound grating on my nerves.

"Archer will kill my father and you before he ever lets you touch me," I said between gritted teeth.

"Oh, I'm counting on it," he countered, clicking his tongue in mock disappointment.

I could have stabbed him right there—stabbed him right in his stupid face and watched his blood soak the pristine oak of the bar. But I held myself back.

"Here's your drink."

The bartender's voice broke through our tense standoff. I gave her a small smile and reached for my glass, grateful for the distraction. No sooner had my fingers touched the cold glass when Archer came up behind me, pulling me back into his body and wrapping a protectivearm around my waist. His grip was tight and overbearing, but I was comforted by it.

Theo and Kai weren't far behind him, positioning themselves strategically around us. Off to my left, our bodyguards were maneuvering toward us, scanning the room for potential threats, protecting theirkings.

The tension in the air was electric.

"Impeccable timing, King. I was just telling your newest plaything about the agreement we have with her daddy," Alexander taunted.

"I'm going to fucking kill you," Archer growled, stepping toward him. "I'll fucking rip your eyes out and feed them to you for daring to even look at her."

"Ah, ah, ah," Alexander scolded him with condescending amusement. "You can't touch me here, and you know it."

"You think I care who sees?" Archer spat back, his tone laced with murderous intent.

People were starting to glance in our direction, and as much as I wanted Archer to make good on his threat, there would be an opportunity without so many witnesses. The last thing I wanted was to be looking at Archer behind a glass window.

"Go ahead, King. Lay your hands on me," Alexander goaded with a twisted grin. "And when you're rotting in prison, your precious little bitch will be on her knees praying to me instead of you."

I felt the shift in Archer's body. A shift that meant he was about to cause a scene. Instinctively, I stepped between him and Alexander, placing my hands gently on his chest. The look in his eyes was scary. He was something else entirely. The beast inside of him was fighting to be released, and I was small in comparison.

"Not now, Archer," I pleaded, trying to calm him down.

"Mila, move out of the way," Archer growled, his jaw tense and his hands clenched tightly in fists beside his side.

"No. This is what he wants. He wants you to lose control," I reasoned, desperate to turn his focus to me.

"I'm going to do more than lose control. Theo, please get Mila andbring her back to our table. She doesn't need to see this," he commanded, his anger seeping into every word.

Theo looked at Kai. Then, they both looked at each other and back at me. Theo started to walk toward me, and I gave him a death stare.

"Don't fucking touch me, Theo," I hissed.

Theo stopped in his tracks, put his hands up in surrender, and his mouth turned up in an amused smirk. I put my hands on Archer's face, begging him to look at me. "Babe, look at me. Don't look at him. He doesn't matter," I whispered, pushing my body into his, using what I had to pull his attention to me. "It's you and me. That's it."

After a couple of painstakingly tense seconds, Archer finally shifted his gaze from Alexander to me, and I sighed with relief. His gaze softened, and he took a deep breath, his anger fading slightly.

"You're lucky she's here, or you'd be a dead man," he told Alexander before taking my hand and pulling me to him as we walked away.

"I never thought I'd see the day that Archer King needed some whore bitch to defend him," Alexander shouted after us.

I don't know what came over me, but I didn't think twice when I let go of Archer's hand, grabbed a steak knife from a table on my way past it, and marched back toward Alexander. I moved stealthily through the crowd that had resumed dancing and laughing around him. By the time he realized I was in front of him, I plunged the knife into the top of his hand, pinning it to the bar top with a sickening squelch. His face went from joy to pure shock as he stared at his bleeding hand against the bar.

"Now, every time you go to touch your shrimp dick, you'll think aboutthis whore bitch," I whispered in his ear before imprinting his face into my core memories. I left him there, disappearing back into the crowd, no one paying attention to me or the fact that I had just assaulted someone.

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