Page 20 of Tamed

“It’s fine, I guess,” she said, no doubt deliberately trying to aggravate me.

I’d already decided I wasn’t going to rise to any bait she set, however, so I merely shrugged. “Glad you approve, princess.”

She scowled. “Princess? What? Don’t call me that.”

“Then don’t look at my multi-million-dollar apartment like it’s something you wouldn’t be seen dead in. It’s privileged as fuck. You could be sleeping on the streets, which believe me, you don’t want to do.”

Her chin jutted, but I could see that tell-tale flush. Her pale skin, dotted with all those pretty little freckles, always betrayed her. She was in jeans tonight and a simple sweatshirt with a wide neck that kept slipping off one shoulder, exposing the thin line of a pale green bra strap and yet more creamy skin.

I wanted to tell her to get a fucking sweatshirt that fitted properly but I didn’t. I shouldn’t have been noticing in the first place, still less getting annoyed by it.

“Yeah, okay, but you know this is ridiculous though,” she said, as if repeating herself for the tenth time was going to make me change my mind. “Moving me out of my own home because of some stupid family stuff.”

I thrust my hands in my pockets. “Being the potential target for a powerful family’s enemies is ‘stupid family stuff’. Right. Got it.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

I did know what she meant. But she wasn’t listening to me, and she needed to. “Do you have any idea of the type of people who might see you as a ticket to easy money? And what they might do to you? They’re people like Old Nick, who once wiped out a family of five because the father who worked for him made the mistake of skimming off a bit of extra cash from a deal.”

Isabel’s jaw didn’t get any less stubborn. “What’s this got to do with me?”

“Be quiet and listen. The father found out that Old Nick knew what he’d done, and he knew that his family was dead since Old Nick was merciless when it came to people stealing from him. So, the father took matters into his own hands.”

She paled. She hadn’t heard this story before, because I hadn’t told her the darker details of my past. That it was myfather who’d once worked for Old Nick. My father who’d killed his entire family. All except me.

“What do you mean ‘he took matters into his own hands’?” she asked.

“He turned on the gas and everyone died of carbon-monoxide poisoning.” I lifted a shoulder. “A much easier and peaceful way for everyone to go than the hail of bullets Old Nick usually used.”

She went even paler and glanced away. I didn’t know what expression was on my face, but clearly, she didn’t like it. So she shouldn’t. I didn’t talk about my family and what my father had done to my mother and my sister, still less to her. But sometimes it was a useful example.

“Is that a lesson?” she asked, staring out the window. “Or an autobiography?”

Little idiot. Did she think I was telling her this for fun? Shit, she had no idea.

“Fine,” I said flatly. “You can stay here for the rest of your fucking life, I don’t care.”

She let out a breath. “Okay, okay, I get it. There are evil monsters out there.”

“Then maybe do what the fuck you’re told and stop acting like a sulky teenager.”

“I’m not going to—”

“Do you fucking understand?”

There was a moment’s tense silence.

She stood there, back straight, chin at that angle I remembered from way back that indicated pure mule. Clearly readying herself for an argument. Then, like the tide going out, all the tension bled out of her, and she turned to face me. Her expression was so determinedly neutral I almost laughed. She couldn’t hide her true feelings, not from me. She’d never been able to.

“Okay fine,” she said carefully. “So how is all this bullshit going to work?”

“This bullshit being staying in a luxury penthouse apartment looking over Central Park?”

This time her blush was a flare of deep, lovely pink. “Look, I’m sorry. I know I’m privileged to be staying here, but…it still feels like I’m being punished. Like this is a prison. Surely you can understand that?”

“Don’t be so dramatic. Do you see any bars?”

“Caleb—”

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