The Bad Boy Wants Me(163)

‘Believe what you want. As if I care either way. You’re not my sister. I hate you and I’ve always hated you. If anything this makes me even happier to get rid of you. How could Robert favor you over us? If we didn’t have to preserve your face, I would love to punch it in.’

‘Don’t even think about,’ Dr. Spencer interjected. ‘Keep the emotions out. Or we’ll all be rotting in prison.’

I concentrated all my attention on Rosalind. ‘The money was not for me. It is supposed to be used for the charity.’

She frowned. ‘That ridiculous turtle nonsense?’

‘Yes. It is not for me. I’m just supposed to administer it. Make sure the foundation carries on in the way Robert wanted.’ Then an idea occurred to me. ‘But I can sign it all over to you.’

She stiffened suddenly. ‘Thank you, but that won’t be necessary. I’ll just do it the old fashioned way. Murder.’

‘That’s just stupid. Why take such a big risk? Don’t you think the police would find it very suspicious that I came here for no reason at all and drowned in a shallow lake?’

‘Maybe, but if there is no proof of foul play… ’

‘Are you sure you covered all your tracks Rosalind. In this day and age there are many way to trip up a murderer? How did you get here? How many CCTV cameras caught your face, or Dorian’s, or Bianca’s?’

Then I saw a tiny glimpse of hope. A look crossed her face. Uncertainty.

I pressed home my point. ‘My marriage is not legal. You have the proof sitting in my solicitor’s safe. You can contest the will.’

‘You must think I was born yesterday. And while I’m doing all this, you’re not going to tell anyone that we kidnapped you and brought you here intending to kill you.’

‘Who would believe me?’

She shook her head. ‘Nope. I’ll take my chances with murder. It’s worked for millennia. It’s how all my ancestors got rid of their enemies.’

I could feel the adrenaline pumping in my blood. I could take her. Even bound up I could whoop her ass. She was not as clever as she thought. I stared at her fiercely. ‘You don’t get it. I’ve already transferred all my money into the trust. None, of you can touch it without me.’

Dorian and Bianca froze.

‘You’re lying,’ Rosalind shouted, but I could see that I had unsettled her for the first time. For the first time I had the upper-hand. I could do this.

‘How do you know?’ I challenged, my voice strong and sure.

‘Because you haven’t,’ Ivan’s voice reverberated around the room.

At the sound of his voice my body sagged. The betrayal was complete. He came into the room.

‘You made a phone call yesterday to his office and you have an appointment for tomorrow, but even so, without my say so you cannot make any such decision. So my darling, as it stands, the Maxwell fortune is still all in your name.’

He stood in front of me in his black leather jacket, a total stranger. Did I dance goofily with this man in a sex club called The Dirty Aristocrat?

‘Are you all right?’ he asked me, his eyes quickly and impersonally pouring over my body. Where had all the passion gone?

I wanted to spit in his face. I knew there was no point in trying to ask him for mercy. He knew I was in love with him and he could do this to me. I glared at him with murderous hatred, and he smiled. ‘That’s my girl,’ he whispered softly and turned away.

‘Are we all agreed that we do this?’

Without the silence of hesitation every single person in the room spoke up and offered their agreement.’

‘Right. Let’s get on with it, but first there’s something I’ve wanted to do for a very fucking long time. Faster than I could blink, he swung his fist out and crashed it slap bang into the middle of Dorian’s face. The thud was rather delightful. I thought I heard bone crunch.

‘Fuck,’ Dorian screamed in pain, clutching his nose with both his hands. Blood rushed out between his fingers like a bubbling brook. ‘What the fuck? You broke my fucking nose.’

Ivan grinned. ‘I did you a favor. Now you won’t be the prettiest bitch on your prison block.’

‘What?’ Rosalind screeched. ‘You asshole you.’ She went flying towards him in a fury.

‘We’re done,’ Ivan shouts and all of a sudden the place was crawling with policemen and other people. I was in such a state I couldn’t make sense of the scene before me. Men were grabbing Rosalind and she was screaming wild abuse at me and them. Bianca was sobbing and telling everyone that she was innocent. She had been forced to cooperate, and Dorian, with blood pouring down his face, looking stunned and stupid. Dr. Spencer was standing there looking at me with a gentle smile.