Page 182 of Cheaters: A Dark Romance Anthology

His gaze looks wildly around the table, a gesture of urgency swimming into his expression, and I savour another swig of liquor while I wait.

“Er,” he starts. “N-no. Not that I can think of.”

Pressing my body upright, I twist to face him, one arm hooked over the back of the chair, while the other holds the crystal glass. Slowly, my vision rolls over Samuel, and I abandon the drink and take another method.

My reaction isn’t courteous, but it is graceful as I slam the prongs of a discarded fork into his thigh, piercing skin and muscle with force. I’d replaced glass for metal so quickly he didn’t even see it coming until his pain receptors screamed to life. My knuckles are white from the grip I apply on the handle, and my body stiffens in the pose I took to make this happen. My eyes burn into Samuel’s.

“What is it about you men who think you have some God-given birthright to think you know everything?”

I twist the fork a few millimetres clockwise. The muscles on his thigh fight, and his jaw clenches down harder.

“Ma’am,” he grounds out, his face reddening.

“You have questioned my every move since you took this position and I let it go. I allowed you to feel like you could do your job, but now you’ll let me do mine. You don’t question a single of my moves unless I ask you to do so. Am I clear?”

With a stoic look, Samuel nods.

“Just because you have testicles does not make you superior to me.” I laugh, not out of actual humour, but for his misguided innocence. “Different utensil and you’d be holding them, got it?”

Chapter Six

BECKETT

“Do you know how bad this looks for me?”

Bad doesn’t even come close to covering it.

The issue is, now I have to keep my emotions in check and make sure I look unfazed by anything that happens.

A feat I thought was easy until this very moment in time.

When I left the house an hour early, Sebastian and I were merely meant to go to a bar, kick back, and celebrate this new promotion.

Not how the head of The Company is meant to behave, but I’m a rule breaker, and I’m restless already.

I vowed never to follow in the shoes of Nicolas Abernathy or Alistair Knight, purely because their ways were archaic, and it’s time The Company benefits from fresh blood.

My father—surprisingly—didn’t object. I questioned it, but he merely waved me off, telling me it’s time for new ways to modernise the entire system. I’m not about to forget the basics of how the Abernathys ran the game, but if we are to match whatever new blood hits the streets of London, I want to be at the forefront of it, waging war on anyone who threatens to take even a sliver of our turf.

“Technically, wasn’t done while you were boss.”

Sebastian drags me back to reality with a thud, and the stench in the room infiltrates my senses.

“Sebastian.” I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “There is a room of dead bodies two days into me taking the job.”

“I don’t care.”

I know what he’s doing, and while I appreciate it, another part of me wants to punch him.

Dead bodies never worried me, but dents in my reputation do. More so now than ever before.

“You don’t care?”

“I mean, I could try, but I never lied to you before. I’m not going to start now, boss.” He smirks with that toss of a name, his eyes narrowing. “Look… these have been here more than a day or two.” Sebastian kicks Shaun’s foot. It moves with force, but not much, springing back instantly. “The rigor on him is enough to prove this happened when there wasn’t a boss.”

“You think that makes it better?”

“No, but what do you want me to say? You couldn’t step up immediately. We all knew that. We had to have that resting period to allow Natalia a chance to show her face.”

---