Page 207 of Sinful Desires
I lifted the gun and pressed it to his skull.
“When she got out and started parading around with Nicholas Preston like some glittery whore, I snapped. Followed you to France. Hid in the maid’s quarters at the villa, just past the garage. Dodged every camera. I was starving, but I didn’t care. I needed proof, just one second, something vile, something that would burn her entire career to ash.”
He was shaking now, his laughter turning to a hiss.
“Then that night. You took her to that cliff in Èze. I watched from the road. Saw her crawl on top of you. Saw you fuck her. And there it was.Bingo. The golden fucking bullet. International superstar on her knees for her bodyguard. That’s what I needed.”
Fucking bastard.
An angry growl rolled up my chest, dragging through my throat as my finger curled against the trigger.
My vision narrowed to nothing but his sweat-slick face and the hollow of his eyes.
“What about Lucius Harper?” Volkov’s voice snapped through the room.
Travis spat blood onto the broken glass at his feet.
“I went to him tonight,” he said, grinning through busted lips. “Asked for twenty million. Everything I had oftheScarlett Harper. His prodigal daughter. Videos. Pictures. Proof. Told him I was ready to sell it all.”
He coughed, chest jerking, spit and blood clinging to his teeth.
“Figured I’d walk away rich. But I was going to leak it anyway. Burn her down, even if no one paid a fucking cent.”
A sharp, broken laugh tore from his throat, more pain than joy.
“But to my surprise, the bastard told me to go ahead. Said he wouldn’t pay a fucking dime. Even shook my hand. Let me walk right out the door.”
His eyes lifted to mine, head tilted, blood streaked across his cheek.
“And that’s when I realized?…?thatwas her punishment. A family that doesn’t give a fuck if she lives or dies. That doesn’t protect her. That watches her fall and doesn’t even blink.”
He let out a shaky, bitter breath, half a laugh, half a cough.
“They don’t just leave her behind. They get off on her suffering. Sell her out, feed on her name, and pray she chokes so they can cash in on the corpse.”
He grinned, his teeth pink with blood.
“Tell me that’s not worse than anything I could do.”
I pulled the trigger.
The shot rang out, fast and merciless. His head jerked back, eyes still open, that sick grin frozen in place as the bullet ripped through his skull. Blood sprayed the wall behind him, leaking down his neck like ink from a cracked pen.
His body twitched once before going limp, ropes still holding him upright like a fucked-up puppet.
Putain de merde.
“Damn,” Volkov said, half laughing as he lit a cigarette with blood splatter still drying on his hands. “And here I thought I was the impatient psychopath in the room. Guess I just met my match.”
Lazzio stood nearby, arms crossed, the corner of his mouth twitching like he couldn’t decide if he was impressed or about to throw up.
“I don’t believe a fucking word that rat said. Why would Lucius do that? What’s the gain? No blackmail, no leverage. My uncle’s a bastard, yeah, but handing his own daughter’s reputation over like roadkill for free?”
He shook his head, deadpan. “Smells fishy.”
Volkov exhaled smoke, watching the blood trail under the chair.
“Smells exactly like family to me,” Volkov said, rolling his eyes as he stepped over the blood pooling near the chair. “My mother-in-law kidnapped my wife for twenty fucking years, pretending to be her real mother. And her father? Tried to have her shot in the head the second he found out he wasn’t the one who’d dumped his load into her biological mother.”
