Page 64 of Hayes
I’ve gathered three knives and one gun in the weeks I’ve spent here. They’re strapped to my thighs, ready to use.
“Good evening, Lilith. I’ve missed you. I hope you had a relaxing day,” Titus says as I enter the dining room. He stands from the table to greet me.
“It’s been as relaxing as any other prison, I suppose.”
He chuckles at that. “I’m sorry about that. As soon as we’re married, you’ll have all the freedoms you desire.”
My eyebrows raise. “So I won’t have bodyguards?”
Titus’s smile drops. “Everything is negotiable. I would prefer you to be safe, but ultimately, the decision will be yours.”
“So if I choose not to marry you?”
He sighs, running his hand through his thick strands. “Then we won’t be married. I hope I can change your mind, but I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
I study him, hating his answer. I see the confidence in his eyes. He truly thinks I’ll agree to marry him.
“Fine,” I stomp past him to my chair and take a seat before he or his guards can slide out the chair for me. “Then I want to negotiate now, alone.”
My gaze scans across the four guards standing in each corner of the room, and I wait to see what Titus will do.
“Leave us. You all have the rest of the night off,” Titus says as he takes a seat across the circular table from me. Now we sit alone, not more than five feet away, staring each other down. We’re each confident in a looming victory, but one of us will be sorely disappointed.
He smiles at me.
I glare back.
“I love that you don’t smile often. You make me earn it,” he says.
“I don’t recall ever having smiled because of something you did.”
“No, but you will. Once you mend your heart.” He sighs as he lifts his red wine to his lips and sinks deeper into his chair. “I made a mistake by sending Hayes. He’s too good at his job, and it’s going to take longer for you to get over him than I first thought.”
“I’m over him,” I snap back.
“Of course.” Titus smiles slyly. “I only meant that the betrayal must have stung. And it is, after all, a reflection on me, since I was the one who gave him the mission.”
“It would only be a betrayal if I fell for him, and I regretted it. But as you said, the sex was good, so I have no regrets.”
“Good.”
“What I don’t understand is how you’re not bothered by one of your men fucking me if you truly want to marry me?”
“It was unfortunate. But then again, fucking a virgin isn’t really my thing. You deserved to have lived before being tied down to me.”
Titus is charming and good-looking. If he wasn’t the current leader of the Retribution Kings, and if I weren’t hung up on a man who betrayed me, I would give him a chance.
A daring look crosses his face. “So tell me, where should we start the negotiations?”
I take a deep breath. It’s now or never. I hike my dress up under the table until I have a grip on two of my knives.
In and out.
On the next exhale, I strike, throwing a blade hard at Titus’s shoulder. As soon as the blade leaves my hand, I’m out of my chair, knocking it backward as I slide across the table. With the second knife in my hand, I land on Titus, who is pinned to his chair by my first knife.
We fall back with the chair, and I press the knife to his throat as I straddle him. I expect him to grab his own weapon or to call a guard to help him. I don’t believe he truly dismissed all the guards, or we’re not being surveilled.
A wicked grin crosses his lips as his eyes light up. It’s not the expression I was expecting from a man trapped and threatened with knives. I could slice his carotid at any moment, and yet he smiles.
