Page 4 of Tyrant (The Villetti Chronicles)

“You.”

Three

Zayn

Ari blinked at my single word as if she couldn’t believe it had left my mouth. What she was asking me for was beyond anything I’d ever done for anyone who wasn’t family. Why I even felt the need to help her was a question I wasn’t going to look too hard at right now.

The moment I saw her blood-covered t-shirt, I made up my mind. I wanted to see where this would lead. It was like a sickness in my blood, calling out to relieve me of the monotony of my life, wanting to have something forbidden. If I took Arianna Michaelson and hid her away from her father, away from everyone she knew, I could bring trouble to my doorstep. And what I didn’t need was trouble.

You want it. You crave the challenge.

As I wasn’t what anyone would call a good man, more like twisted, I was going to take her regardless of the warning bells going off in my head.

“Me?” she spluttered. “What about me could you possibly want?”

I almost laughed as she stared up at me with those rather defiant chestnut eyes of hers. My fingers left her chin, flipping down the hood hiding her hair from sight. Her ash-brown curls had been tied back into a ponytail.

“You don’t have anything else to offer me in exchange for what you’re asking for… do you?”

We both knew she didn’t. I respected her for not looking away, even if it made me want to wrap my hand around her neck. Defiance was like a drug, calling out the darkest side of me I rarely let come to the surface. And right now, Ari was exuding it in spades.

“No, but I’m not going to…”

I gripped her chin.

“Not going to what?”

“Sleep with you.”

I almost smiled, but instead, I dropped her chin and paced away, puffing on my cigarillo. That was far from what I had in mind. I ran my free fingers along my desk, wondering what to say to make it clear this wasn’t about sex. If I wanted to fuck, I had plenty of women I could call upon. I just hadn’t wanted to in a long time. It didn’t interest me. But Arianna? She interested me for reasons I wasn’t entirely sure of myself. I had the urge to keep her. A little pet who would do my bidding. Not sexually, but whatever else took my fancy. After all, she would owe me if I made her uncle’s body disappear.

“I have no interest in fucking you, Tink. You’re not my type.”You tell yourself that.“If I make your problems go away, you’d be indebted to me. You will do as I wish, and I will keep you safe.”

The very fact I kept calling her by the nickname I’d bestowed upon her when she was four years old told me this was a terrible fucking idea. I was letting recklessness take the lead. If I had Bennett’s daughter, I could use it to my advantage. Gang wars were bad for business. Ever since Frank Russo’s death, the underworld had gone to absolute shit. The power struggle was making everyone sloppy. Judging by the fact Ari had been assaulted by her own fucking uncle, a man I would have killed myself for the act if he wasn’t already dead, things were escalating. Taking her off the board would be doing them a favour. That was the reason. There was no other. There could benoother reason for me to want Arianna Michaelson.

“Do as you wish? What exactly does that mean?”

“When I say jump, you ask how high.”

“That’s not an answer, Zayn.”

The way she said my name made me tense. She was more well-spoken than her father had ever been, given he was from South London. He had shipped her off to a private school funded by his drug money. She’d lost some of her native accent since the last time I saw her.

“I didn’t give you permission to use my given name.”

“I don’t remember asking for it and besides, it’s a little late for formalities. Let’s not act like you haven’t known me since I was a kid.”

Without me immediately realising, my hand clenched into a fist. If she wasmine, I’d make her get on her damn knees and kiss my shoe for her insolent tone. I’d make her apologise to her…don’t you fucking dare think about it.

I flattened my palm on the desk and sucked in a breath. Calm and control were needed. She wasn’t mine… yet.

“If you want my help, you will call me what I tell you to and nothing else.”

“Okaaay, so what are we going with?”

Ari couldn’t keep the amusement out of her voice. She wouldn’t be laughing if she knew what would happen when she disobeyed me. That would come after she agreed to my terms.

“You will address me as either ‘sir’ or ‘Mr Villetti.’ I don’t do informalities, Arianna.”

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