Page 12 of Entangled
“Must be,” Maverick grumbled, causing Lilah to whip her head towards him and pin him with a death stare.
“The land is ours. There’s no room for compromise, adjustments, or argument. You’ve wasted your time coming here tonight, Matthias. And you will be the one who leaves here a fool.”
“We’re done here,” my father hollered to us all, giving us our cue to leave.
He stopped short, turning once more to face Lilah, and spoke in a low and menacing tone.
“But be warned Lilah: you’ve made a grave mistake thinking you can cross me and my family.” With that, he turned and made his way out the front door, followed by my brothers and his men.
I should have known better that coming here tonight wouldn’t result in anything. My father and Lilah both craved power so badly that there was no way in Hell either of them would give something up so easily.
No, I had a feeling this war was just getting started.
And although I was already screwed, knowing I’d get a mouthful from my father tonight about keeping my focus on the task at hand, I couldn’t help but spare one more glance at the beautiful girl who had eyes filled with hopelessness.
With a wink in her direction, I sealed my fate and felt no fear about the potential consequences coming my way.
On the drive home,I pondered ideas in my mind of how to prevent a massacre during this war—because that’s exactly what would happen.
A massacre.
Blood would be shed, and neither side would stop until they won. It wasn’t just about the turf; it was about showing who had the biggest balls and wasn’t afraid to make everyone around them aware of it.
It was almost two in the morning, and I desperately craved my bed. But my father had sent out a message to me individually that he wanted to see me again, which was strange.
Strange that he’d texted me individually and not in a group with all of my brothers, and strange because this couldn’t wait until morning.
I pulled up to his mansion, wiping the tired from my eyes and pretending I couldn’t fall over at any moment and sleep into oblivion.
This was the longest I’d kept going in a while, having gotten used to my bedtime at midnight.
I needed to mentally prepare myself because, with this war coming our way, this would be the first of many sleepless nights.
When I made my way inside, my father was sitting on his black leather couch in the living room in front of the fireplace, holding a glass of brandy.
“Sit down, son,” he commanded, a deathly calm tone to his voice. I knew I was in trouble, but this badly? So bad it couldn’t wait until later and my father was drinking at two in the morning?
Maybe ithadbeen incredibly stupid to throw that wink at Jude’s wife on the way out, but seeing how red his face got with anger was too good of a sight to pass up.
I just hoped Soren didn’t catch any of the repercussions because of my actions.
My father stared at me for a long moment as I made my way to the couch opposite of him, pinning me down with his dark cold eyes and intending to make me squirm before he realized it was useless and began to speak.
“Lilah Canella is a royal pain in my ass,” he muttered. “I’ve been sitting and thinking about how to get us out of this situation ever since that mobster died and the land became available. It should have never gone to him in the first place, but your grandfather was a soft damn idiot.” He sat for a moment, swirling his drink around as if lost in thought. “It wasn’t until tonight that I finally realized what needed to be done.”
I had a bad feeling about what he was going to say next, and before he even began speaking, I knew I wasn’t going to like it.
“I noticed you eyeing Jude’s wife tonight.”
Yup. I’m really not going to like this.
“I figure, why not kill two birds with one stone?”
For fuck sakes, this cannot be happening.
“In order to win this turf war, you’re going to steal away Lilah and Jude’s precious princess.”
Oh yeah. I’m definitely in some deep shit now.
