Page 32 of Dark Prince

Cordelia throws something at me, catching my attention and my head snaps to her. “What the fuck?”

“You went all dopey eyed and wouldn’t answer me.” She shrugs and makes a face at me. “Where’d you go?”

“Nowhere, I’m still here.”

“Not what I mean fathead.” I watch as she drops into one of her black colored chairs and crosses her legs in the seat. Why does she have a comfy chair down here, it’s all surgically clean except that weird chair.

I shift in the metal chair and look at her, “Why do you have that chair in here?” I point to the one she’s sitting on. “It doesn’t match anything down here.”

“Being comfy doesn’t have to match.” She looks down at her nails, “Now, back to the reason you were staring off into space. What kind of shit have you pulled me into?”

“Me? Your entire family is so far into this shit that I’m having trouble keeping up with what’s actually happening.”

“That must be a first.”

“What?” I ask her, not understanding her meaning.

“Not being able to see the full board, you love games, and knowing what's happening and when it’ll happen. You like to predict what the person will do and you get some sort of fucking high off being right. So, therefore not knowing what’s going on must be driving you insane.”

She’s not wrong, my head feels like it’s spinning. Cordelia Lilith Crawford changed her last name, did she change it all? “Did you change your full name or just the last name?” I decided to ask.

“Just my last name. I wanted nothing to do with the Romano’s especially after they started dropping dead and were kicked out of their family home.” She cocks a brow at me.

“Do you know what happened?” I ask her.

“Nope, I was never told.”

“They put a hit out on my aunt, and some other bad shit happened after. There was a truce and an agreement in place and they broke it. My mother doesn’t believe in second changes, well not anymore. Once you fuck the family over, you forfeit the right to your life in her eyes.”

“You said not anymore, so she used to believe in second chances?”

“If not, my father wouldn't be with her. She gave them all a second chance, or seven over the years. But if it’s outside of our tight knit family, then you only get the one chance. Lincoln’s dad used to be the president of a motorcycle club, she had given him a second chance and he went over to the East Coast and fucked with some other clubs business. Pissed a lot of people off and when that other club wanted blood, she let them have it. Completely wiped out Lincoln’s dad’s crew, they’ve got a new crew now, but that was the end of that era.”

“Wait, your family has connections to MC clubs on the East Coast?” She leans back in her chair.

“We have connections everywhere. There’s a law firm in Chicago we use often, we have our hands in big pharma, drug cartel, weapons trade, and more. We have deals with different chapters of certain MC clubs to help run everything, for a cut of course.”

“Ha!” she laughs, “The Romano’s were just a simple stock of bad guys who thought the city would bow to them.”

“We tried to keep them under our wings, but their egos got the better of them when someone wanted my mom and they tried to get to her through her sister. The Jokers helped after some bad blood, then Mom gave them a second chance and they fucked up again. So when I tell you she no longer gives people a second chance, I’m telling you she’s learned her lesson. You get one chance and if you fuck that up, you get a bullet to the head and dropped in the Missouri River.”

“The Missouri River?”

“The water travels fast, it’s deep and usually full of shit, flows into the Mississippi and down to the Gulf. The Missouri River starts all the way up by Canada somewhere, so if a body is ever found, there’s no telling where it came from. And not to mention if they find the body, it's usually too hard to get any kind of identification from it.”

“Brutal.”

“Less brutal than chopping them up into soupy bits and flushing them down the drain?”

“Fair.” She nods.

We sit there in silence for a minute and I watch as she plays with the collar I gave her. I wonder if she knows the significance of having a collar placed on her? There are a few things her and I are going to have to get on the same page about if we’re going to move on with this shitstorm we’ve found ourselves in. My mother will make sure one of two things happen with Cordelia, she’s either going to agree to be mine, or she’ll be used to get to her grandfather. OR both, against her will. She’ll become mine and be used. Which I can’t let happen.

I’m going to have to figure out a way to find him without using her, there’s no way my family will be allowed to use her once she’s officially mine, especially if she does it of her own free will.

“Tell me what you know about the Dom/Sub lifestyle?”

“Like BDSM?” She shifts in her chair.

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