,” he argued. “Even as a criminal, you’re noble.”
He then turned his eyes on the girl. “You see, honey,” he told her, pulling his hand out of her robe and brushing her hair behind her ear. “Kai Mori is a self-righteous little fucker, and I want you to go over there and suck him dry right now.”
Anger instantly heated my body. The girl locked eyes with me, cocking her head playfully, and then she walked around the table toward me.
That motherfucker. He knew how to work people, didn’t he? If I left now, the conversation was over. No deal. Which is probably exactly what he had in mind. He might want Damon back, but he didn’t want to deal with me. He expected me to jump ship and run.
Now if I let the girl blow me, that would surprise him, wouldn’t it?
She stopped in front of me, and I held her eyes as she knelt down, her merlot-colored finger nails slowly scaling up my thighs. She grasped my belt, and I grabbed her hands, shoving her off.
No.
Gabriel wasn’t pushing me down the gutter with him.
I rose, straightening my belt and smoothing my hand down my jacket.
“Always predictable.” Gabriel laughed.
The girl looked to him, probably scared she’d done something wrong, and he jerked his chin at her, speaking Russian. She immediately stood and headed back into the house.
“You should try her, though,” he told me, picking up his drink. “A throat a mile deep on that one.”
“Everything okay?”
I jerked my head, seeing Michael and Will standing in the doorway to the house, watching us. I let out a breath, not realizing I’d been holding it. I wasn’t sure if they’d seen what had just happened, but I didn’t really care.
“Hanson,” Gabriel called his man over, setting his drink back down and putting his arm around the waist of a brunette who had come up. “Take these gentlemen into the dining room.” He glanced at the three of us. “My assistant will meet you in there to discuss terms and The Pope. I’ll be in touch.”
And off he went, taking the young woman with him into the house.
The flat expression that I’d been forcing faltered, and I glared at his back as he left.
Damon’s father was nearly identical to Michael’s in personality. I hated them both. And I completely understood why my father rarely spoke to either of them at parties or sporting events growing up. It was the one area where Katsu Mori and I agreed.
“Gentlemen.” Hanson stepped forward, holding out his arm and gesturing for us to follow him into the house.
Michael pinched his eyebrows together, questioning me with his eyes, but I shook my head, following the servant.
The dogs. The girl. The crowd of people he didn’t give a shit about seeing his filthy deeds. He wanted me to know he was stronger.
But I was going to be smarter.
Hanson led us back through the house, hands locked behind his back until we came to a set of double doors, and he opened them, inviting us into a dining room. He stopped and turned, letting us enter.
“Please, sit wherever you like,” he instructed. “Refreshments will be served shortly.”
He backed out of the room, closing the black double doors, and as soon as I heard the gold knobs click shut, I released a breath and closed my eyes.
“What happened?” Michael asked, sounding concerned.
I just shook my head, turning away and staring off out the windows to the terrace we’d just left. “I almost forgot,” I mumbled to myself. “I almost forgot there was a reason Damon was so fucked up.”
I kicked the leg of a chair, seething. Goddamn him. He called me a fucking criminal. “Even as a criminal, you’re noble,” Gabriel had said. He could go fuck himself. His cruelty, his diabolical nature, his pleasure in others’ pain…every inch of that guy was filth. I wasn’t the criminal. I was nothing like him.
Michael stepped up. “What’s going on?”
I gripped the back of a chair, seeing Will standing on the other side of the table. “I don’t know yet,” I said through clenched teeth.