She’s only halfway through the door when King launches himself across the room at me. “She’s not your fucking princess,” he bellows, landing a hard-as-fuck punch on my cheek.
Fuck.
I hit the wall with a heavy thud, only just managing not to go down. “When you asked me back then if I’d slept with her, I hadn’t.”
His hand squeezes around my throat. “But you did after I asked you?”
I shake my head because I can’t fucking get a word out. Hell, I can’t get a breath in either.
His fingers dig in as he squeezes harder. “I don’t fucking believe you.”
I try to pry his hand from me, but he does his fucking best to keep it tightly around me. He’s my president and I respect him, but this shit has to end. Zara’s not a teenager anymore; she’s a grown woman capable of making her own choices in life. And his inability to fucking listen to people is maddening.
My hands go to his torso and I shove him hard, trying to move him. When he hardly budges, I bring my hand up and punch his face, not as hard as I can, but enough to shift him.
He lets go of my throat and I suck air in fast because I know he’s got more for me.
And he does.
Another punch comes my way, but I duck and avoid his fist before I deliver a blow that causes him to stumble back. He comes at me again and we trade punch after punch. Each one becoming more brutal. The thing about King and me is that we both have a beast we feed with violence, and this shit is fuelling our demons in ways we may never recover from.
Every punch I deliver blurs the line I’ve drawn between us.
Every hit he inflicts erodes the respect I have for him.
Every second we continue down this path picks apart the threads of loyalty our relationship is built on.
“I brought you into this club when you were on the fucking street, when you had no one in your fucking corner, and this is how you repay me?” he demands as I slump to the floor after he strikes me hard enough to almost knock me out. “By going against what I say and fucking my daughter?”
I spit the blood in my mouth and draw air in as I stare up at him. I’m fucking spent, a combination of every hit and knife wound I’ve taken today along with his shit. My breathing is unsteady and he’s going in and out of focus as my vision turns fuzzy. “No,” I force out, my chest heavy as fuck. “By going against what you said and loving her, King.”
He crouches and grips my face, his eyes dark pits of anger. “Any fucking way you cut it, you lied to me. You betrayed my trust in you.”
I can barely see him, but I can feel every bit of his rage.
We’re not coming back from this.
He tears his hand from me and stands. “You can go to Melbourne. There’s no fucking way you’re staying here.”
The last thing I hear from him is the door slamming closed as he leaves.
Zara’s back after that, but I’m spiralling into the darkness.
She’s saying shit to me, but the only thing I’m fixed on is King and his dismissal of me.
We’re not coming back from this.
40
Fury
* * *
“Daddy has to go away for a while,” I say to Noah the day after King exiled me from Sydney.
“I don’t want you to.” He looks at me with all the confidence in the world that he can have what he wants. And while I want nothing more than to give it to him, I’ve made the decision to go to Melbourne.
Not forever.