Page 129 of Bitter Heat

“I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” she said with a brilliant smile.

His eyes narrowed into slits. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Just let me—”

He grabbed her arm and forced it around. He ripped the letter from her grasp and held it aloft when she leaped for it.

“Roth! That isn’t for you!” she shouted.

“This is your father’s handwriting,” he said quietly.

“Give it to me!”

He turned away from her and began to scan the letter. She went cold with panic and saw Thea watching with her hands over her mouth. Jasmine tucked the disc into the back of her pants and started after Roth who paced toward the window as he read. She ran toward him and made a dive for the letter.

“Roth, give it to me!”

He grabbed her flailing wrist and twisted her arm, forcing her to drop to her knees or risk breaking it.

“Roth!” she screeched.

“Miss!” Thea cried and rushed toward them.

“Where the fuck is that disc?” he snarled.

She looked up through watery eyes. His mask was missing. Whatever her father had written in the letter had shoved him into a black rage. The grip on her arm wasn’t a threat, it was a promise. The man she tempted and teased throughout the night was gone. She was looking at a stranger capable of anything.

He released her as Thea reached them. She cradled her throbbing shoulder as tears of pain streamed down her face. She saw him stop in front of the fire and make a flicking motion.

“No!”

She stumbled toward the fireplace and dropped to her knees in front of it. The letter perched on a log. When she reached into the flames, he hauled her back.

“Let me go! That’s the last thing I have from him!” she screamed.

She watched with horrified eyes as the flames licked the corner of the letter. Orange ripped through the thin pages. She saw the ink bleed a moment before black scorched them, her father’s words disappearing forever in the blink of an eye. When he released her, she knelt on her hands and knees, staring at the last message from her father turned to ash. She couldn’t breathe.

She felt her sweater ride up, and a moment later, the disc was pulled from the back of her pants. She whirled as Roth strode to her father’s desk. She lurched to her feet as he grabbed a gold statue and brought it down on the disc.

“Roth,stop!”

She raced across the office as he brought the statue down three more times. By the time she wrenched the damaged statue from his hands, the disc was shattered. Roth grabbed the pieces and went back to the fireplace and threw the shards in before he turned back to her.

“Where the fuck did that letter come from?” he asked softly.

Her mouth dried up, and she opened her mouth, but no lie came to mind. He turned toward Thea who had her hands over her mouth. He started toward the older woman with a purposeful stride. The housekeeper backed away, hands raised to protect herself from a blow.

“Roth, no!”

He grabbed Thea by the throat. Even across the distance, she saw Thea’s eyes bulge with terror as she wrapped her hands around his wrist.

“Is there more evidence?” He shook her like a rag doll. “Answer me!”

Jasmine slammed into him. “Roth, let her go!”

He ignored her and tipped Thea’s head at an angle that made her freeze.

“Holy shit, Roth, you’re going to kill her!”

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