She knows I’m standing here, but doesn’t feel like looking at me. Without looking up from Marie as she strokes her, she speaks in a cooler tone I know is meant for me. “You’re a monster.”
“I told you not to go on the date,” I remind her. “I warned you.”
Her gaze snaps to me, her big blue eyes wide. “You didn’t tell me anyone would get hurt!”
In my mind, it seems she should have been able to puzzle that out, but I don’t want to insult her intelligence, so I don’t say that. Besides, it might be unfair. I know her mind doesn’t work the way mine does. “I told you what I wanted, and you know I’ll do whatever it takes to get what I want. He’s lucky that kiss didn’t land—that would’ve earned him a second bullet in the other leg.”
Glaring up at me, she asks crudely, “And what if I fucked him?”
Rage surges inside me at the notion. Reveling in a moment of malice in response to her fit of brattiness, I take pleasure in smiling faintly as I tell her, “Then he would be dead.”
She still glares at me, but I can tell by the way she swallows and flinches, she knows I mean it.
Looking back down at Marie and petting her, she asks woodenly, “So, what? I belong to you now?”
“You’ve belonged to me since the moment we met,” I assure her.
“I didn’t agree to that,” she says lowly.
“I don’t care.”
She shakes her head like she can’t believe me, but what weapon does the poor thing truly have to use against me? None.
“You’ll be staying here now,” I tell her. “We tried out living apart. I didn’t like it.”
“I did,” she mutters.
I ignore her and gesture to the corner where I set up her drawing table as close as I could to the one at her apartment with all the same brands of tools since I assume those are her preference, but a better quality desk and chair—and definitely a better view. “I set your work space up over there. You’ll still be allowed to do your work, but if you have to go in for a meeting, Hollis will escort you. Unfortunately, I can’t trust you to go out on your own yet. Once I know you don’t pose a flight risk, you’ll be allowed to move around as you please as long as you always come back here.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You will,” I tell her simply, since that’s not an option.
“Hollis can’t come to my work meetings. That would certainly raise alarms, and since you are technically holding me prisoner here…” She peeks up at me innocently. “I might be inclined to tell someone.”
“You won’t,” I assure her.
“You sound so confident.”
“I am.” Rather than waste time letting her think my confidence comes from the wrong place, I step into my office and grab a folder off the desk.
She’s still sitting on the ground, but she frowns when she sees what I’m carrying. “What is that?”
“My insurance policy.” I drop the folder on the table, then turn and offer her my hand so she can stand up for this part.
She eyes my hand warily, then decides to get up on her own rather than accept my help.
Such a brat. I’m going to enjoy punishing her tonight.
Anticipation and pleasure mingle together at the knowledge that she’s mine now, she’s here, and I can have her anytime I want starting tonight. Everything will be better now. I should have just done this from the start.
I open the folder which is labeled, “Charity.”
“Remember the night we met at Purgatory?”
Frowning as her gaze rakes over the contents, she says sourly, “How could I forget?”
“Your friend Charity had quite a bit to drink that night.” I lift the top page filled with printed out text messages she doesn’t have time to read so she can see a timestamped photo showing that while Hallie was at home in bed recovering from the pussy pounding I gave her, Charity was back at the club leaving with the bartender. I pull back another page of them outside his apartment, liplocked with their hands all over each other. The last one is a much lighter black and white photo that shows her leaving his apartment early the next morning—her wedding day, to be more precise.
“Now, I don’t have pictures of them in the act, but I believe these provide a pretty adequate sketch of what happened that night, and the text messages on the first page fill in the gaps.”
Hallie sinks back a step, stunned.
“I’m guessing your friend’s new husband wouldn’t be thrilled to find out she fucked someone else the night before they got married.”
She brings a hand to her forehead, reeling. “That can’t possibly be… There’s no way…”
“She did.” I flip to the very back of the folder where a thumb drive is taped down. “For a nominal fee, the bartender was even kind enough to describe their night together in explicit detail. That’s all right here.” I close the folder. “Now, should it ever cross your mind to tell on me or appeal to someone for help in one of the rare moments I allow you out into the world on your own, Arson has a duplicate of this file and orders to deliver it to Tyler should things here go awry.”