Page 57 of Vicious Hearts

“I said I’ll fuckinghandle it.”

He glares at me. I glare right back. But I do let go of his shirt.

“Believe me,” I hiss. “I understand exactly how shitty a conversationthat’sgoing to be.”

“Yeah, well,” he mutters. “It’s not going to be half as shitty as the one where you tell Ares.”

No shit.

Telling the God of War that I’m about to marry the daughter of the man that he watched almost kill his wife?

Yeah, this should be barrels of fun.

13

UNA

I jolt,shivering as the rusty, wrenching sound of the cell door opening fills the room. The one small mercy is that while he was gone Cillian left the lights on, so at least I wasn’t going insane in utter darkness.

Having the lights on, though, also meant that I managed to talk to Apostle.

…And managed to reach out from the bolted-down chair I’m chained to and grasp one of the old tiled support pillars of the room. And managed to pry one of those old tiles off.

And managed to grind and shape that broken tile against the chair, and hone it into a makeshift blade.

Because I’m good like that.

As the door wrenches open, I scramble, shoving the weapon down beneath me and shifting to sit on it gingerly. My hand flies up to my necklace, making sure it’s back in place just as Cillian rolls in like a black tide.

“I hope you didn’t have too much fun at Hotel Kildare while I was gone.”

I glare at him. Cillian—devoid of his usual jacket, but still wearing the customary black dress shirt—starts to roll the sleeves up his muscled forearms, which for some reason fills me with dread.

Like it’s going to getmessy.

I swallow, my pulse thudding as he slowly approaches.

“Well?”

“I have some comments for the management.”

His teeth flash, like a shark’s. “I’ll have to take those under advisement.”

He inhales and exhales slowly, those piercing green eyes of his stabbing into me. Unblinking. Unflinching. Unmerciful. I shift, biting my lip as the sharp edge of the tile under my ass pricks my skin.

Slowly, Cillian begins to circle me, his hands behind his back.

“There’s been some developments. I—”

“Why the fuck were you in my apartment?”

He stops his pacing with a suddenness that actually startles me, turning to level that psycho green glare right into my eyes.

“Given your current situation, I would think that was obvious.”

My teeth chew at the inside of my lips, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling as he starts to circle me again, like a wolf. The uneasy feeling I’ve had off and on for the last few weeks…the shivering sensation that I’m being watched…

It all suddenly hits me like ice water being dumped over my head.

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