Page 32 of To Curse A Knight

It was a good thing he was the one who trained me all those years ago; my senses were almost as honed as his, almost as thorough. He didn’t fully believe me, in the way that he was naturally suspicious of any breathing man, but my answer had satisfied him for now.

“I heard the news,” he responded in Spanish, his brow furrowing in irritation. “I wanted to send a message, not hand him an adoring funeral procession.”

“It is the best way,” I replied, also in Spanish, my tone even and confident. “The message has been sent to the people who needed to hear it. To the rest of the world, he is an unfortunate sap who lost everything for a joyride. We don’t need any more heat right now.”

My father’s frown deepened, the wrinkles on his forehead splitting his face in two. He didn’t like it when I spoke to him this way, but he couldn’t dispute the logic of my plan, and it annoyed him.

“Yes, well.” Antonio cleared his throat and beckoned to me to take a seat. “Now that this is over, we have other matters that need discussing.”

My heart sank to my stomach, but I sat down in the offered leather chair, its stubby legs creaking under my weight. Shifting to get comfortable, I settled in for the conversation I’d been dreading for months.

“January is a week away, and we had a bargain.” Antonio raised a carefully crafted brow in my direction, as if in challenge. “I am looking forward to you bringing a more lucrative market of girls back into the state.”

“Alvarez still has the market share,” I countered, attempting to look casually at my nails while my insides felt like lava. “It would be more effective to remove him from the picture first, then try to compete with him, yes?”

“You are stalling,hijo.” The sinister smile that stretched across the his face would give children nightmares. It gavemenightmares. “This transition is happening whether or not you embrace it. And youwilltake it.”

He stood from his chair and looked down at me, as if I were the terrified teenager he’d long since broken and remolded. “I have other plans for Alvarez. That is now in your brother's hands. You will start importing our goods and overseeing the trade routes immediately.”

“No.” I stood slowly and intentionally, swallowing the bile in my throat and the bitter anger in my stomach, maintaining the calm tone with every ounce of control in my body. “You gave me until January. I have some loose ends to wrap up with work before then. You know I won’t be able to work on both sides with this transition. Trish will never allow it.”

Antonio stared through me, his eyes hard and unyielding. A twitch of his left eye told me he was considering my words.

“We will put someone else in power—Trish has outlived her usefulness, anyway.”

Panic raced through my veins; Trish could handle her own, but not when the leading criminal lord in the country put a bullseye on her back—I couldn’t let that happen. I had to appeal to his sense of reason, not his lust for bloodshed.

Folding my arms across my chest, I matched his hard stare in an Alpha male standoff.

“Again, we don’t need any more heat. Let me handle my resignation. I’ll give them six months’ notice for some bullshit reason. Don’t tank the business before it’s even started.”

Unfiltered rage flitted across my father’s face before the well-practiced mask of neutrality fell back into place.

“Get it done,” he said, tone clipped, then he waved his hands toward the entrance alcove on the other side of the room. “Don’t come back until you’ve made progress.”

Spinning on my heel, I left without another word, stalking out of the exorbitant compound like a bat out of hell—ferocious and furious.

I wouldn’t be coming back ever again if I had a choice. What I would give to trade places with Aaron and fake my death, then cozy up with Hillary in her private bunker and fuck her until she toldmeshe loved me.

I’d hacked into her security feeds the day she’d set them up; monitoring her little terrorist operation and the private apartment she kept below ground. I checked in rarely—mostly to see how many bodies she was keeping in her dungeon, but I’d been compelled to check in more often since our resident fugitive had moved in.

Aaron fucking my killer on the couch was a vision I’d never be able to erase from my mind. The camera angle in the living room gave me the perfect view of the private show. Watching Hillary become submissive to another man, watching Aaron dominate her in a sweeter way than I would, but no less effective…

The swell of her breasts under his touch, his molded ass muscles tightening as he pounded into her hot pussy–the scene had forced me to jerk myself off to the sound of her panting and his grunts until I came just as hard.

But the words she’d said to him … I never realized how much I ached for her to say them to me, too.

Even if I could never say them back. Even if I could never let her get that close. Even if a future for us was damn impossible.

Once I had boarded the private plane to take me home, I sent off a message, determined to ease the ache in my heart and my balls. If she’d still see me. If I was still hers, even if she loved Aaron Rodriguez.

Kellan:I need you. Meet me at your hotel. Usual room.

It was selfish of me, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t care. The need to plunder and pillage was threaded into the fabric of my being. I would steal her if I couldn’t share her. I’d be reduced to a Neanderthal claiming his mate; as long as it worked, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.

My heart pounded in my throat as I waited for her response. If she rejected me tonight, I’d be reduced to the caveman hindbrain and would probably resort to killing someone.

I couldn’t afford to bury another body right now.

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