The King(139)

“Not the way it goes and you know it.” She glanced up at him. “Might be true if you’re a lawyer, but you’re not.”
“Yet you consider leaving me a better option?”
Funny, a part of her perked up that he was talking like they were a couple. But reality stomped that little wink of sunshine out. “You think you’ll start another career?”
The silence that followed answered that one the way she thought it would.
His voice was annoyed. “I fail to understand the abrupt turnaround.”
“I was kidnapped from my home, held against my will, and nearly raped.” As he recoiled as if she’d slapped him, she cursed. “It’s just … it’s about time I go legit and stay that way. I have enough money so that I won’t have to work right away, and I have another place.”
“Where.”
She ducked her eyes. “Not here.”
“You’re not even going to tell me where you’re going.”
“I think you’d come after me. And I’m too weak right now to say no.”
A sudden scent spiked in the air and she looked around, thinking of those cologne inserts that came in magazines. But nothing had changed—it was just the two of them alone in the house, no Glade PlugIns in sight.
He came across the cheap carpet and loomed over her. “I do not wish you to go.”
“Maybe it makes me demented, but I’m glad.” She brought his handkerchief up to her mouth and rubbed it back and forth over her lips. “I don’t want to be alone in feeling like this.”
“I can keep you separate from the business. You won’t have to know anything about the operations, distribution, cash positions.”
“Except that for however long I’m your girlfriend, or whatever, I’m a target. And if my grandmother lives with you, too, she’s a target. Benloise has family—not here in the States, but in South America. Sooner or later his body is going to show up, or his absence is going to be noted, and maybe they don’t find you out. But maybe they do.”
“Do you think I cannot protect you?” he demanded haughtily.
“I thought I could take care of myself. And that house of yours? I’ve checked it out, as you know, and it’s a fortress, I’ll give you that. But things happen. People get inside. People get … hurt.”
“I do not want you to go.”
She lifted her eyes back to his, and knew that she was never, ever going to forget the way he looked standing in the center of her little bedroom, hands on his hips, frown on his face, an air of confusion surrounding him.
As if he were so very used to getting his way in all aspects of life that he couldn’t comprehend what was happening.
“I’m going to miss you,” she said with a cracked voice. “Every day, every night.”
But she needed to be smart. The attraction had been there from the very beginning—and him coming to save her had added another dimension to all that, an emotional connection forged in the kiln of her terror and pain. The problem? None of that was the basis for a solid relationship.
Hell, she’d met him while spying on him for a drug importer. He’d hunted her for trespassing. They’d both tracked the other through the night—until she’d watched him having sex with another woman for godsakes. Then came her near-tragedy and some mind-blowing sex that had been a double-edged sword in her recovery.
Sola cleared her throat. “I just need to get out. And as much as this hurts … that’s what I’m going to do.”

FORTY
Down here was better for the announcement, Wrath thought as he strode into the dining room with George at his side.
Taking his place at the head of the thirty-foot-long table, he waited for everyone to arrive. No way he was having this kind of a meeting while his ass was in his father’s throne. Not going to happen. And there was no reason to exclude anyone in the household. This was going to affect everyone.
And no premeeting, also. He didn’t need some private conclave with Rehv and Saxton where he learned the particulars and then had to sit around while they were regurgitated for everybody else. He didn’t have a thing to hide in front of his family and nothing was going to make this any easier to hear.
Removing his wraparounds, he rubbed his eyes and thought of another reason he was glad he wasn’t upstairs … too close to Beth. Fritz had assured him she was in bed and eating, but one thing he knew about his shellan? She was fully capable, even after the rigors of her needing, of heading down to see him and reconnect with the outside world.
If this was about her? She didn’t need to hear it right now. Shit knew there was going to be plenty of time to tell her—