Page 3 of Heart of Stone (Dark Billionaires)

A bald head came into view as she scrambled to her feet, closely followed by a pair of angry, glaring eyes.

“There’s a woman up here,” the bear told the others, raising his growly voice as the odd noises and bangs continued downstairs. A hairless bear, then. He took the last few steps, towering above her. “Is this your latest tart?” He inspected her from head to toe in a long, lingering look that made her skin crawl. “I thought your deal with Graves would have scratched this particular itch for you.”

Kate held her hands up, flinching as something shattered downstairs. “I don’t want any trouble.”

The bear snatched her unlocked phone out of her hands. “I’ll be having this.” He grabbed her arm in a punishing grip and began to yank her back towards the stairs. “Get down.”

An enormous hand landed in the middle of her back, propelling her down the first few steps until she came crashing into the metal railings. They dug deep into her ribs, but she kept her complaints silent. “I’m going, I’m going.”

Devastation met her eyes as she reached the ground floor. The television was smashed. Her neat pile of paper for the debt management people had been scattered on the ground. The curtains had been ripped from their poles. A man was even tearing the couch cushions to shreds, turfing white fluff onto the threadbare carpet.

She jumped. Another man was sweeping their porcelain tableware onto the floor. Dinner plates and cereal bowls hit the ground, exploding into razor sharp shards.

Kate yelped when the bear grabbed her by the hair, brandishing her like a weapon in front of her father. “Talk,” he hissed, whilst Kate scrambled to hang onto him, attempting to minimise the pain.

Dad’s eyes were on the man destroying the couch cushions. Blood dripped from his nose. “Please, there’s no need for this. Just tell me what you’re looking for.”

The redheaded man now emptying out their cutlery draw answered. “Ah,” he said. Talbot’s voice. He sauntered towards Kate. “I’m impressed, Paul. Or are you paying her?”

Too close. He was too close.

Kate attempted to move backwards, but the bear held her firm by the hair. Talbot’s hands trailed up to the curve in her hips, and he nodded appreciatively, even as Kate attempted to wiggle away.

“Fuck you,” she hissed, trying to kick at him.

Talbot’s sneer creased his nose. “Do you not like it when the shoe is on the other foot?”

Dad said nothing, refusing to meet her eyes.Like always.“What are you looking for?”

“What makes you think we’re looking for anything?” the bear said from behind her, his hand still knotted in her hair.

“Is that whatyour employerwants, whoever he is?” Dad spread his arms wide. “Has he not taken everything already? Even the house is his now.”

Talbot glared at her father, his eyes narrowed. “And whose fault is that?” he said softly. He bent to pick up the photograph of Aaron that her father had been standing in front of.

“No!” Dad attempted to snatch it back in a ferocious swipe, but Talbot shoved him away. Thrown off balance, Dad tripped over the pouffe, landing on his arse in an untidy heap.

“This is your boy, is it?” Talbot’s lips twisted in disgust. He stared down at her father with nothing less than utter revulsion. “His whole life ahead of him too. Aaron, wasn’t it?”

“Aaron,” Dad confirmed, his grief as sharply illustrated as it had been a decade ago.

“Well,” Talbot made himself comfortable on the leather pouffe, “we have a few questions for you, Charlton. And my friend here—” he pointed to the bear still holding Kate in his grasp “—is going to takehersomewhere safe. In the meantime, you and I are going to have a little chat.”

Kate spoke up, just about managing to hide the fear slinking its way into her veins. “And what exactly are you going to do with me?”

A cruel smile lit Talbot’s face. “That’s entirely up to Charlton here,” he nodded towards her father. “But know this, if he fails to comply with our instructions, you’ll suffer for it.” He threw Aaron’s photograph back onto the coffee table. The glass cracked over Aaron’s smile.

Kate’s eyes were wide with horror.

Dad got to his feet, his jaw clenching as the third man finished ripping the couch cushions to shreds. “What are your questions?”

Kate cried out in pain as Brax—the name of the bear-like, hair-pulling bastard—yanked the bag off her head, removing some of her hair in the process. For the first time in an hour, light flooded her vision. Too much light. She gave a pained squint, holding her hand up in front of her face to shield her gaze.

“This is where you’ll be staying,” Brax rumbled. In his fist, a few strands of brown hair fell from the bag to the floor.

The world’s worst hairdresser. Kate scowled at him, blinking away her sensitivity to the light to take her first glance of the room—the bedroom. Her lips parted. She had expected to be squirreled away to a dirty warehouse, or even taken to her father’s club to await a sharp questioning.

But this bedroom was…magnificent.

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