Page 16 of Spark

“And where has that ever gotten you?”

I could have sworn I caught the sight of a few grays at his sides earlier. God knows they’d be on my account, and I enjoyed the thought of aging him prematurely. Maybe that was how I’d ultimately kill him. Stress him to death.

“I could ask you the same question, smartass,” Darren said with a growl.

I shrugged my shoulders. I was beyond over this.

“Just so you know, I don’t expect Holly’s first day to go very well.”

“Holly’s first day will go exactly as expected, without issue and one-hundred-percent successful. And should anything interrupt that, there will be severe consequences,” he snarled.

I snorted. “Like what? You’ve already killed my entire family. What more can you do to me?”

I watched him with a glare as his shoulders squared and his jaw clenched. Darren’s eyes darkened as we stared each other down while I waited for him to admit the truth.

“I’m waiting,” I snarled.

“Then you’ll keep waiting,” he finally said. “Because aside from your uncle, I’ve done nothing to them.”

I shot up from my chair, completely outraged with his obvious lie. “You fucking liar!” I shouted at him, my jaw now flaring in pain. “What did you do to the—”

Before I had understood what was happening, Darren had risen, grabbed my throat, and hauled me to his chest. My heart practically backflipped while my stomach nearly jumped to my mouth as my hands gripped his thick wrist. Darren’s grip wasn’t as tight as it usually was, but it was certainly possessive as I hid my eyes from him.

“Look at me, Jaden,” he said with that dark, steady voice; the same voice that advocated against arguing. My sass no longer entertained my villain.

Begrudgingly, I dragged my unwilling eyes from his chest to feel like I’d been punched in the gut when they finally settled on those deep dark blues of his.

“What is the one thing I told I would never do?”

“There are a lot of things you said you wouldn’t do. Like letting me go, for example,” I replied through gritted teeth.

“And that one will never change,” he said gripping me a little tighter for emphasis. “Think back to rule six.”

My eyes wavered off to the side as I tried to remember the stupid fucking rules he had recited for me months ago, but then it became too obvious.

“Lie,” I finally bit out.

“That’s right. So before you start accusing me of shit I didn’t do, I suggest you calm the fuck down and check your attitude before I correct it myself.”

I glared at him a moment longer, anger seething through my veins, but he was right; he had said he was a man of his word. So did that mean he was still planning to kill them?

“So what have you done with them?” I asked, checking my tone before pissing him off even more than he already was.

“Nothing,” he said seriously.

I raised my eyebrow in suspicion. “Not a thing?” I questioned, hope floating in my chest.

“Aside from keeping track of them, no harm has come to them. Yet,” he said with that final warning. My stomach dropped. It wasn’t over. They were back to being leverage. But why? I was very aware of his hand still firmly wrapped around my throat, and I didn’t want to give it cause to tighten, but I had to know.

“Why? You had them all in the palm of your hand. Especially at my funeral,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

Darren’s eyes darkened as an evil smirk formed across his lips. I felt my heart quicken.

“I attended your funeral, Jaden. It was actually quite touching; however, my initial targets were not in attendance,” Darren said with a menacing grin.

My eyes immediately lit up. He went to my funeral…

He went to my fucking funeral…

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