Page 17 of Bound By Her

But most of all, Adria worried she wouldn’t be enough to save her.

Callen leaned back, taking a slow sip of brandy. “For thirty years, this deal sat in my cabinet, gathering dust.” His smile twisted. “But recently, I saw its…value.”

Adria gritted her teeth.

It did have value.

The Venezuelan smugglers’ port had been shut down two years ago. From raids she and X had orchestrated. Since then, trade route times had doubled, making that landpriceless.

If she controlled that port, she would control everything.

There was no way she could leave here without it.

She kept her voice even. “This offer is over thirty years old.”

Callen smirked. “And yet, still binding.”

His arrogance was unbearable. He thought he had won.

But Adria read the fine print again. Slowly.

And found her way out.

“It says here that I am to be provided with Mircea,” she said.

Mircea. A smuggler who had been dead for over a decade.

Callen lit a cigar. “An unforeseen complication,” he admitted. “But my substitute severance package is more than fair.”

Drugs. Girls. Power. The same disgusting offer.

Adria noticed Bryson’s eyes were trained on her. It seemed he was suddenly interested in today’s meeting. Grabbing a grape, she chewed it slowly, feeling herself circling in for the kill.

She just needed to give Callen enough rope. “I disagree, this substitution deals in girls, something the Triune are well aware I do not use.”

“Dealers that work with boys are not as readily available,” Callen was quick to reply.

“That may be so, but find me a suitable alternative, or I will have no choice but to dispute this agreement with the Triune.”

Callen puffed on his cigar, his smile gone; this was going more in her favor now. What did he have that she wanted?

Adria reached for a strawberry. This time making eye contact with Bryson, watching him while she ate it. Younger than her, he had inexperience written all over his face. His calculating eyes seemed to tally her every move. Adria could feel the arrogance pouring off him like some kind of electric charge.

Despite his pompous opulence, he resembled one of her stable boys. However, her boys had never looked at her the way Bryson looked at her now. That smug, I have this handled attitude.

Idiot.

The minute his father had mentioned the deal, his interest was piqued. By his posture change, Adria would wager he was hungry for it. Thewhywas something to be analyzed later as Adria had bigger things to focus on.

“What would a suitable alternative be?” Callen interrupted her musings.

“It’s not my job to put together deals for you,” she spoke to Callen, but kept her focus on Bryson. She wasstarting to feel like he had something to gain from this deal.

“No, but it is your responsibility to see this agreement through, and that isn’t going to happen with you being difficult,” Callen said.

Difficult. Adria hated the word. It was a term men liked to use when they felt the women around them weren’t playing their game, but he did have a point. She turned down the substitution; the ball was in her court to counter. She could not leave this room without this property. Looking back at Bryson, she parted her painted red lips and ran a strawberry along them. It didn’t take long for him to look away. No, not like her stable boys.

Visions of him in her home, pressed against her leather spanki?—

---