Page 172 of Tempting Little Thief

The.

Fuck.

“This is bullshit!” I jump from my chair, whipping around to glare at my sister, but she doesn’t even look my way as she shoots from her seat and hustles from the room without glancing back.

My eyes fly to my father, narrowing. “Why send her there just to do this? I don’t fucking get it.”

“He made the deal with her, so it only makes sense.”

Bastian’s words come back to me and I throw them at my father. “What if all he wants is to get her back?”

My father pours a small sip of liquor into a glass and brings it to his lips. “Don’t be a fool.” He lets the golden liquor coat his throat before facing me once more. “With Boston, he gains a wife and a tie to our name, nothing more.”

“Don’t talk about her as if she’s not worth more than a name on a contract.”

“She will be to someone, yes, but Enzo is not that someone. He is power, and when he realizes what he stands to gain with you at his side instead, he will have no quarrel. He will come, and once the agreement is made, he will end the Henshaws himself.”

I couldn’t possibly form a harsher expression than the one I’m wearing now.

My father shakes his head, his chin tipping. “I told you. I will not leave you in this world unprotected. He is your best chance at success.”

“I do not need a man to be strong and successful,” I force past clenched teeth.

“No, you need one to keep you in line so you don’t go sneaking around like a brainwashed, lovesick puppy who shacks up with scum who only sees an opportunity to gain something.”

I jerk back as if slapped, the hatred in his tone heavy and unmistakable. “You don’t even know him.”

“Neither do you,” he says coolly. “Tell me something, did he bring you into his world? Take you around his people? Did you meet his closest friends? Or did he only chase after yours?”

My throat runs dry, my mind trying to refuse the words he’s saying, but the truth of them has the embers in my gut returning to a flame. He didn’t bring me to his world. He did slip into mine. And he left it like it was nothing, like I was nothing, the moment I denied him the entrance he silently sought at the gala.

Regardless of the war waging in my head, I force myself to say, “You know nothing. Not everyone is out for blood and money.”

“Don’t forget power,” he says indifferently. “And yes, daughter, in this world, they are. Another man touched you and where is this brave boy, hmm? Not here, so as I said, you can trust no one. Maybe not even your closest friends. I will be the one to make this go away. You can only trust the word of your family.Blood. Before. All.”

“Says the man who swore he would never give his daughters away without their consent.”

He doesn’t even wince. “Decisions must be made and I will carry no regret.”

“If you think I will go along with this, you’re wrong.”

“If you think you or anyone else can stop this,” he says, his tone growing gentle. “Then you, daughter, are very, verywrong. I have said it a hundred times, so I will say it once more.” He steps closer, ignoring the water threatening to spill from my eyes. “I will not leave you in this world unprotected.”

“We’re not unprotected. We have you.”

A shadow falls over his eyes, and then he whispers his final words for the evening, “the way things are looking, you won’t have me for long.”

And then he walks out, leaving me alone with too many bombs to count and no idea how to keep them from blowing up in my fucking face.

Chapter 31

Rocklin

My eyes flash open, locking onto the hideous pink netting above my bed, my mind still frozen halfway in a nightmare state, last night’s conversation heavy in my head. I’m not even sure if I slept or not, but when a loud boom sounds once more, I realize it’s not a dream or the hundred scenarios playing out in my head while I lie here fighting for sleep.

I fly from the sheets, my bare feet no sooner hitting the plush carpet beneath them, when my door is thrown open, my dad’s wide and panicked eyes staring back at me. I quickly clap my hands and the light turns on, my panic flickering to life within me as I take him in.

Still wearing his clothes from last night, his suit jacket the only thing missing, but the white button-up is wrinkled and half-untucked, small blotches of red splattered across it.

---