Page 16 of Tyrant (The Villetti Chronicles)

I stepped out of her hold, ignoring the way her face fell, and followed Arlo from the room. The moment we were out of earshot, he stopped in his tracks.

“She’s going to bring down trouble on us, Zayn.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

I didn’t respond, continuing on into my office. I took off my glasses and threw them down on my desk before rubbing my temples.

“Allowing her to go back to her father would only put her in danger. Derek will try to take her again and use her in his war against Bennett.”

“Still doesn’t explain why you’re getting involved. Why do you care about her safety?”

Yeah… why do you care, Zayn?

I cared because there was more at stake here than just Arianna. The criminal underworld was in fucking turmoil. Shit was going to hit the fan sooner rather than later. She was caught in the middle and, for some reason, I couldn’t abide it. I didn’t like innocents being in the crossfire of war, not when I could do something about it.

“She has blood on her hands. It shouldn’t be there, but it is. I’ve known the girl most of my life. I can’t let her be fed to the fucking wolves.”

I turned in time to see Arlo’s eyebrows raise.

“So she’s another Remi, is she?”

I scowled. Yes, I’d made a deal with Remi’s mother, but it wasn’t the same situation. I wasn’t interested in Remi. She was like my sister. And, of course, she’d attracted all the wrong attention from people she should stay the fuck away from. I swear her sense of self-preservation was entirely lacking. It’s why I protected her. Her mother was dead. She was estranged from her father. She needed someone to watch out for her.

“It’s not the same. Ari knows she’s indebted to me.”

“One day Remi’s going to find out what Roberta did and you’re going to have to deal with the consequences.”

“Don’t fucking remind me.”

If anyone else started calling me out on my shit, I would slit their throat. Arlo was the keeper of my secrets. He knew everything. Well, he didn’t know how much I wanted to pin Arianna down and show her who her daddy was.

Jesus, you know you can’t do that!

It didn’t stop me from wanting to. From craving it. Now I’d seen her in all her glory, it was difficult to view her as the girl I’d known her as for all these years.

“If you want your father to continue leaving you alone, this isn’t the way to go about it.”

“Fuck Gennaro. This has nothing to do with him.”

Arlo shook his head.

“What about Bennett? He won’t be happy either.”

“He doesn’t need to know.”

“She killed her own uncle, Zayn. Do you think this will—”

“Enough.”

His lips thinned as he closed his mouth. Everything he’d said was true, but he didn’t get to continue questioning my decisions. I wasn’t stupid. I knew getting involved with her would bring hell raining down on me. The bored part of me didn’t care. He wanted chaos. He needed it to feel alive. And the twisted part of me demanded she be the one I sacrificed to end the monotony.

“She stays and no one else finds out I have her. That’s the end of it.”

I turned away. Her phone sat on my desk. Penn had posted it early this morning. I wasn’t going to give it back to her quite yet. She needed to earn my trust first. Not to mention her contacting anyone outside of these four walls would put all of us at risk.

“Okay. Just wanted to make sure you’ve thought this through.”

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