Page 113 of Vicious Vows

“Not even if I could provide information that could help your father?”

“You have nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“Stop the fucking games.” I squeezed the handle of my gun. “I don’t need to find the good in you. Lissia wants more than anything to make peace, but we both know that will never happen.”

“If you kill me, you’ll never know.” He stepped around his chair and paced from side to side, making himself a harder target for me to hit. “I was going to give the information to Lissia, but I can’t trust that she would honor her end of the bargain.”

“If you mean having her come back into this house, I’ll chain her to the wall before I let that happen.”

“How noble of you.”

“It’s far better than what Collins has planned for her, and you know it.”

“She didn’t give him a chance before she ran off with you.”

“He’s never going to get that chance.”

“I know you’re curious as to what I might have.” He grinned. “Otherwise you would have pulled that trigger by now.”

I clenched my jaw and steadied my hand. I wouldn’t let him get inside my head. Any information he had on my father, I could get on my own. Once Gian was no longer a factor, I could get back to business.

“I’m going to give you the information you’re looking for,” he said. “Then you’re going to throw my daughter out of that penthouse and send her back home.”

“And if I don’t?”

“She might not survive the outcome.”

“This is your daughter you’re talking about.”

“The same daughter who betrayed me when she got into bed with Nico Accetti’s son. I can only forgive so much. I need her to understand that what she did is unacceptable. There has to be consequences.”

“I’ll never let you hurt her.” I tightened my hold on my gun.

“Then again, she might not even be at the penthouse.” He smirked. “It wouldn’t be the first time I lured her away. Didn’t you think it was strange that Danny has been so quiet? Perhaps he’s been lying in wait. Biding his time for just the right moment.”

Get out of my head.

“You were preoccupied all night.” He strode around his desk to stand inches from the barrel of my gun. “Shoot me and you’ll never find her.”

I glanced at his gun, then glared into his eyes, ignoring the fact that I hadn’t heard from Lissia all night.

“Is that a chance you want to take?” he asked.

I wanted this over, and the only way I could protect Lissia was to kill her father.

“Go for it,” Gian shouted, pulling the trigger and firing at me.

Fuck!

Gian’s bullet whooshed past my head as I hurled myself over the sofa behind me, setting off my gun in the process. My bullet hit the lamp on his desk, causing it to shatter in a spray of glass and smoke.

“See what happens when you allow yourself to get preoccupied?” Gian laughed. “You miss the target.”

“I won’t miss this time.”

“She’ll never forgive you if you do this,” Gian said. “Every time she looks at you, she’ll see the monster that you are.”

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