Page 34 of Relentless Oath

The water ranred as I washed the blood off my knuckles. Joseph handed me a towel, and I thanked him as I carefully dried my hands.

The man behind me, tied to a column in the old, abandoned warehouse next to a factory I owned, was barely breathing. The blood on my hands was his.

“Want me to wake him up?” Joseph asked.

I shook my head. “Let him sleep. Then deliver him back to his boss with a note, of course.”

“Of course,” Joseph replied.

Joseph walked off to see about the unconscious man, and I turned my sights to a missed call on my phone.

It was from Ivan. He was my house manager and also on “Mya detail”, as I called it, while I was gone.

Ivan was always around, in a separate wing of the house, monitoring surveillance both inside and outside the house, excluding the comings and goings of our bedrooms.

I kept his presence secret from Mya. She already knew about the cameras. I didn’t need her to distrust me further, but she would if she also knew about Ivan. I hated being away from her, but this particular emergency needed my immediate attention.

A rival gang was encroaching on my territory. They’d even gone as far as eliminating two of my men. I couldn’t have that, so I had one of my guys go find the leader’s right-hand man so I could teach him some manners.

Normally, I didn’t get my hands dirty these days, but I honestly believed if you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself.

I liked to believe that I was above the violence I’d been exposed to all my life, but deep down, I knew I was a monster like all the rest.

I wonder if that was what Mya saw when she looked at me.

My phone went off and I reached for it. It was a status update from Ivan. It seemed that Mya was snooping around in places she shouldn’t have been. I’d even received an alert when she turned on my computer.

I figured she would get around to checking it eventually. I’d deliberately left my computer on and she hadn’t passed the test.

Part of me wasn’t surprised. After all, I’d taken her from the life she knew against her will. I hadn’t expected a show of disloyalty so soon after we had tried to make up.

For me, sex was a physical release, and maybe I was being sexist, but I thought women were prone to have feelings toward men they were physical with.

It seemed the only feelings she had for me were lust and distrust.

Sighing, I stood up. Maybe I had made a mistake, forcing her to marry me. I wasn’t the type to doubt myself, but our relationship wasn’t growing like I had expected.

Maybe I was asking for too much, too soon. I was a patient man, but she was testing me.

I called Ivan. “Where is she now?”

“Near the dock.”

What was she doing there?

I frowned, “Really?”

No boats left or approached the island without my permission. What was she doing at the dock? Had she managed to contact someone somehow? I checked her phone daily. Could she have found a way to get around me?

Had I underestimated her? Between my frustration with Mya and a rival trying to step on my toes, I was in a mood. A bad one.

“Bring Mya to me tomorrow evening.”

The limo was dark and quiet as we pulled up to our stop. She didn’t say a word to me as she sat next to me in the limo. I didn’t know if that was a bad sign or not. I couldn’t dwell on it.

Tonight was special. Tonight, she would get a taste of my world.

Joseph opened the door and I climbed out. Then, I turned around and reached a hand forward for her to take. I could see her hesitation, but she took it, still not meeting my eyes.

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