Page 34 of Devious Kingpin
“Let’s hope you survive to see it,” Priest yelled after me.
Their chuckles followed behind me.
“What in the fuck are you wearing?” I hissed under my breath. “Every man is staring at you, stripping you with their minds.”
She shrugged a slim shoulder. “I can’t control what men do.”
I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “Juliette, I’d rather not kill anyone today for gawking at you.”
She started walking, heading for the exit.
“Nobody’s asking you to kill anyone,” she answered, staring straight ahead.
I took her elbow and pulled her to a stop. “Juliette, go change,” I gritted out.
“No.”
“Now!”
She jerked her arm out of my grip. “Give me an annulment,” she countered.
“No.”
Her feistiness would end up driving me insane, if I wasn’t there already.
She lowered her eyes to her little shoulder bag that matched her dress, then started rummaging through it. She pulled out a car key.
“There you have it.” The smile she gave me could freeze an active fucking volcano over. “I don’t get my way and you don’t get yours. Now, let’s go or I’ll skip this damn birthday party altogether.”
My jaw clenched so fucking hard it hurt my eardrums. “Put the fucking key away. I’m driving.”
We resumed walking, my car already waiting for us. When the valet’s eyes landed on Juliette, he ran to open her door but my glare stopped him short. I opened the passenger door to my Bugatti and she slid into the leather seat angrily. The hem of her dress hiked up and she quickly tugged it down.
My lip curved. It reminded me of our first meeting and that midnight-blue dress she wore. As she ran away from me after kicking me in the balls, I caught her tugging on the dress. Even back then I somehow didn’t think she liked to wear minidresses but insisted on it for whatever ridiculous reason.
The drive to Emory’s place passed in silence. It didn’t bother me, but the constant sighs coming from the passenger’s side told me something bothered my wife.
* * *
My muscles tensed when I pulled up my car in front of Emory’s massive stone-and-stucco villa.
I parked at the front entrance and came around the car to open the door for Juliette. She hadn’t said a single goddamn word the entire way here. I’d attempted conversation, even tried to get a rise out of her but gave up pretty quickly.
Nothing.
The woman refused to react.
I held out my hand, a silent order, and her eyes flashed with that defiance I’d come to know since I met her.Good, I thought silently. I’d been starting to worry.
She put her fingers into my palm and I wrapped my hand around them. She stood up, barely reaching to my chin. It always surprised me to realize how short Juliette was. Her personality was so damn big, I’d expected her to reach my six foot three.
I regarded her. She was angry. Of course, she had every right to be, even more than she realized. She narrowed her eyes, then took a deep breath in, only to slowly release it.
Thud-thud. Thud.
Her pulse raced in an erratic rhythm. It was a novelty. Juliette Brennan was always the wild one. Fearless. Yet, ever since she woke up with my ring on her fingers, a switch had been flipped.
She had been acting like she had been given a death sentence.
