Page 5 of Cruel Possession
I still don’t like the bastard, and that’s never going to change.
Royce chuckles. “Probably everyone within New York and beyond. Considering the business is starting to tank, I’m surethere’s more than one person who wants to kill us for the way things have been going.”
I sit down in the recliner, leaning forward and looking around the room. “None of you have a clue why this happened? Not a single one? Nobody has any thoughts about this entire mess?”
Jade glares at me. “Look, you’re the one who killed Noah. As deranged as he was, at least with him, we knew what beast we were dealing with.”
As if it were better to keep the psychopath trying to eradicate my family alive.
I inhale and let it out, trying to work on keeping calm. Nothing is going to be handled well if I lose my temper. It’s getting harder and harder to keep a hold on it, though.
And the more I think about the initials still on my skin, even though I’ve covered them with a tattoo, the more pissed off I get.
I should’ve killed the entire family when I had the chance.
Ellie disappears with the beer bottles into the other room.
Sean gets up and follows her, casting a long glance at me.
He’s supposed to be my second, but ever since he married my sister…
I’m going to need to have a conversation with him soon about getting his shit together whether Ellie likes it or not. Just because he is married to her doesn’t mean he can slack down.
There’s a war coming, and I need every available person I can get. What I don’t need is his head stuck up my sister’s ass.
Jade scowls and tosses a tissue box at me. “You’re not even paying attention to a damn thing I say. You keep telling us to pay attention to you when you’re speaking and demanding our respect because you’re the one in charge, and then when something happens, you don’t want to listen to any of us.”
Summer nods. “We don’t want to deal with any of this. We have parties to go to. Friendsgiving with some of our friends from school. You need to let us go. Nothing is going to get solved tonight, and we’re all just wasting time talking about it right now.”
I shoot to my feet, hands going up in the air. “You’renotgoing to a party right now! You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, all of you. This has to be a damn joke. There is no way that all of you are sitting around right now and completely fine with the fact that someone wants to kill our entire family.”
“Nobody isfinewith it.” Skyla leans back into the cushions as I pace back and forth.
She looks too comfortable, and maybe that’s because I allowed her to move to Vermont.
Getting her to come back even for a meeting was hard enough. I had to threaten to go there and drag her back here myself to get her to get in the car and drive back.
I’m losing control.
Of everything.
My family. My business. My sanity to some degree.
I’m slipping more and more every day.
If I don’t do something now, I’m going to lose everything I’ve worked for. It’ll all slip from between my fingers no matter how tight I grasp and try to hold on.
Jade gets up and steps into my path as I pace. “You’re not being reasonable at all. Nothing is going to happen if you let us go out and have some fun for once.”
“Fun?” I scoff and shake my head, glaring down at her.
She meets my gaze, her arms crossing against her chest in a clear act of defiance. “Aiden, nothing is going to be fixed tonight. You can’t just command us all here at a moment’s notice and act like we don’t have other plans.”
“Sit the fuck down.” It’s the only warning I’m going to give her.
The others seem to know that, shifting in their seats.
Skyla gets up, but Joshua puts a hand on her arm, holding her back.
