Page 13 of His Dangerous Secret

“I told you, Michael. I need to be ready. Do you really want me lying beneath you like a doll? Frozen and unhappy?”

Nice try. She’s attempting to appeal to my father’s humanity, but she hasn’t fully realized the truth yet: he doesn’t have any.

“As long as I’m getting the pussy I paid for,” he replies. “I’ve held out for long enough now, Ava. I’m giving you two days. Two more days to give me what I want or I’m going back to your father and showing him what I usually do with men who owe me money.”

“Michael—”

“Oh, and maybe I’ll go pay a visit to your mother too.” Ava’s body tenses up, as does mine. Michael grins, exposing his yellow teeth, and chortles like a hog. “As I recall, you got your looks from her, didn’t you? I bet she could bring in some good money as one of my girls.”

I’m fuming. I can’t even imagine what Ava’s feeling. When he leans in and drags his fat finger across her throat, I lose it. I’m a second away from leaping out and slamming his face into the counter when Ava raises a hand behind her back.

No.

She must know how I’m feeling, and she’s telling me silently to stop. And thank God she did, because it’s the only thing keeping me back.

“Okay, Michael,” she says, her

voice defeated. “I’ll come to you tomorrow.”

“Atta girl,” my father replies. He goes in for a kiss again, and again she deflects his lips to her cheek. He turns to leave, but before he does, he claps her ass with a fat hand.

Helplessness is the worst feeling in the world – especially for a man. All I want to do is defend her, protect her, and keep her close to me. But what the fuck am I supposed to do when the odds are stacked against me?

Once he’s gone, I come out of hiding and sweep Ava into my arms and comfort her. I say all the right things, but my mind is elsewhere – thinking, calculating, trying to come up with a way to bring down my father.

There’s a spark of an idea. It’s doable, but beyond risky, and if I fail, it could be the end of me.

But when I look at Ava and see her tears sliding down her trembling cheeks, I know I have to go for it. It’s worth it. She’s worth it.

Every king has his reign, and my father’s reign is about to come to an end.

8

Ava

It’s been an entire day since the lake house, and from time to time, I can still feel Riggs’ seed dripping out of me, reminding me of just how unbelievable my first time was. As I shift in my dinner chair and look at him, a few drops slip out and add to the growing moisture between my thighs.

My God. I’m so in love with him.

Michael is a terrible, terrible man, and I was in quite a state after he gave me his ultimatum. What kind of man would go after a girl’s parents just to get in her pants?

A cruel man like Michael.

I was praying the entire time that Riggs would stay put. An attack on his father at that time would have been catastrophic. I know a man wants to protect what’s his, and I am definitely his now, but a man should also know when to attack and when to wait. And Riggs obviously does.

He comforted me after his father left. Took me into his arms and brought me to bed with him where we made love again before he had to sneak out the back, undetected by his father’s men.

Now we’re all back at the penthouse for another one of Michael’s “family dinners.”

I don’t know if he’s deluding himself into thinking Riggs or I want to be there, or whether he simply just doesn’t care and needs to put up this façade about having a perfect family. Either way, every minute that ticks by feels like torture, especially when Riggs is so close to me but so completely far away.

“That’s Maine lobster, sweetie,” Michael grunts from beside me. “It ain’t cheap. Finish your plate.”

Michael has a way of making me feel like a little girl, and not in a good way.

“Of course, dear.”

I finish the lobster claw and flash him a phony smile. Lobster used to be one of my favorite meals, but it’s lost its appeal as of late.

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