Page 37 of Beast

Because that’s when I see my uncle asleep in the ginormous four-poster bed in the middle of the room.

My breath hitches in my throat, and I rush to him.

“Careful, child,” Annie warns. “He is very unwell. He suffered a terrible beating. The doctor said he has a skull fracture and several small fractures in his face. He's heavily medicated, but he's going to be okay.”

I drop to my knees with a sob and reach for his hand, pulling his bandaged fingers to my face. I’ll bet a million dollars they were broken when he tried to defend himself against Gaston and his brutes.

My hate for Gaston is quickly lost to the relief flooding me.

“You're alive.” My face cracks with emotion, and I’m suddenly overwhelmed. I wasn't sure what I was expecting. In the darkest moments of not knowing, I thought he was dead. Other times, I was afraid he was still tied to the chair in our little kitchen on Le Prince Street. Cold and bleeding.

Despite Beast ensuring me he was receiving the care he needed.

It turns out he wasn’t lying.

“How is any of this possible?” I whisper, lifting my face to look at him. “We don't have any insurance.”

“It’s all been taken care of,” he says gruffly.

“By you?”

“Does it matter?”

“It does, to me.”

“Your uncle needs ongoing medical treatment. And he is in the best place he can be.”

And that’s when the final piece slides into place.

“As long as I marry you, right?”

“Yes, your uncle will receive all the treatment he needs.”

I stare at him, hating him for backing me into this corner but also grateful for him at the same time. The two opposing emotions clash violently inside me and leave me feeling weak.

Beast has me over a barrel and I hate him for it.

But he is providing comfort and care for my uncle, and for that I am very grateful.

I raise my uncle's bandaged knuckles to my lips and press a kiss into the gauze. He is safe and in good hands.

And I know without a doubt that I will do anything I need to ensure that doesn't change.

CHAPTER 14

BEAST

We arrive backat the clubhouse, and Belle is giving me the silent treatment. She’s pissed at me for forcing her hand. But it is what it is. Both of us are backed into a corner.

During the ride back, she was tense. Her arms were wrapped around my waist, but it was a stark contrast to the ride there when she’d rested her head against my shoulders and made my stomach tighten and my desire to tell her the truth surge forward, fucking with my good sense.

But on the ride home, I could feel the tension in her body pressed against mine. She hates me. I saw it in the wild storms of her eyes back at the mansion when she realized her fate and how there was no way out for her. Her expression had rippled with frustration and anger. I was close enough to see the rapid pounding of her pulse in her throat, and her breasts rising and falling with her quickened breath. And in that moment I knew I had won.

She thinks she knows why I am doing this. But she only knows the tip of the iceberg.

In the underground garage, we climb off my bike and she silently follows me up the ramp towards the stairwell leading into the clubhouse.

I feel her eyes burning holes into the back of my cut as we walk. But she stays silent, probably thinking of a million ways she’d like to make me suffer for what I am doing.If only she knew.

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