Wed to the Bad Boy(45)

“I want to know what the fuck you think you’re playing at.” I stepped into the room. I was probably a head taller than him, my muscles much more pronounced, but I knew how dangerous he was. He could kill me anytime anyplace. There would be consequences, but he could still do it! I knew that and so did he.

But I would take him down if he ever messed with the family. With Joanna. Even if it meant certain death. Because she deserved to be protected. It was a promise I made to myself. It was a promise I made to her.

“What are you talking about?”

“Jordy, that little piece of shit you were trying to turn over.” I wasn’t about to play games with him. He was a very powerful man, but so was I. Our families were equally matched, it was what made confrontation between them so difficult. We were playing a dangerous game, a race of arms, and we both knew it. Except now the stakes were higher. They didn’t just include some lower level street fights, no. Joanna was all tangled up in it now.

“What?”

“Don’t bullshit me, I just slit his stupid ass throat for lying to me.” My hand itched. I wanted to get my fingers on that belt. I wanted to feel that dagger slice into his flesh. It was sick and twisted, but when I let that part of me out to play I had a hard time getting it back in.

“Just a little bit of recruitment. You think daddy-dearest doesn’t pull the same shit?” He asked as he turned away from me. “Nadine is in the bedroom, hiding. She doesn’t like ‘our type’ whatever that means. Would you like I drink? I had a wet-bar installed.”

“Know how to make a Gin Ricky?” I asked.

“What?” he asked.

“Just a bourbon, then,” I said. I watched as he poured the drink.

“Might as well make it a double,” Dennis said as he poured a bigger drink and handed it to me. “It’s just business, Greyson. And it happened before our new… arrangement.”

“You mean the one where you blackmail your niece into marrying me? Because you get a merger, or because you get a messenger?” I asked. The thought had crossed my mind more than once. She was smart, she saw everything. I didn’t dare bring up the issue with my father, but I thought about it.

“Does it matter to you?” he asked as he stared me down. “Would you turn her away if she was?”

“I don’t know what you are insinuating.”

“You know exactly what I am trying to communicate. I see the way you look at her. The way you lust after her. You think I’m not watching you when you talk to her, when you drive her around in that car of yours?” He glared at me. “You don’t even know her. You didn’t watch her grow up, you weren’t her friend.”

“Does it matter?” I asked.

“Does it?” He countered. “If I told you that you could walk away right now, right this instance.”

I glared at him. He knew my answer before I could say it. “I want her.”

A slow grin traversed his face. That was exactly what he was looking for. The confession of my guilt. My love for her.

“And now I know your weakness. You will have her, but you will work with us.”

“What are you proposing?”

“That you support this merger with your father. That you protect my niece. That you do not get in my way.” I ground my teeth. “As long as you don’t fucking betray my father, I think I can do that.”

“Then we’ll have a deal.”





Joanna



I sat there on that couch running my hands through my hair over and over again. He should’ve been home by now, right? It had been hours.

Wait for me, he said. And I did. I sat there and waited for him, my ass glued there until he got home. It felt like half my life was me there, waiting for him.

And getting knocks on our fucking door. Like the one banging on my door this time.

I stood up and looked through the peephole. David.

God. Fucking. Dammit.

It’s like he knew I was there alone. I hesitated.

“Come on, Jo. I’m not going away until you let me in,” David said. He smiled. “I just want to talk.”

“I, I don’t know.” I couldn’t help but want to grab that door handle and pull. I wanted to be able to give him a chance. To talk to him. Anything.

But it wasn’t safe. He wasn’t safe. I knew that much.

“I can’t,” I said as I leaned against the door. “I don’t even know why I should.”

“Because I want to let you have your own life. Because I don’t want to betray you.”

“You don’t know me.”

“No, but I know my brother. I know my father. You might believe what he tells you. That I’m a bigger monster, but I’m not. I’m a man who wants to help.” I could hear the growl at the edge of his voice. He was every bit the monster I thought he was.