She threw crystal bowl right beside my head and it shattered, cold chunks of ice-cream splattering on my face. Reaching up, I wiped some off my cheek with my thumb and tasted it. “There you are, love. I was beginning to worry the water had short-circuited your rage,” I said, my grin wide as I looked into the fire within her eyes.
“You are dead-set on pissing me off!”
“Only because I prefer that to your fake Stepford-wife smile,” I snapped back. She froze, as if that wasn’t what she expected to hear. “You have a temper, a tendency to break things due to that temper, and you are not above physical violence. I’m well aware, Donatella. I’ve seen it up close and personal for days now. But guess what? I’m neither shocked by it nor am I afraid of it. I. Am. Not. Afraid. Of. You. Or. Your. Bloody. Brothers! If I need to throw you back into the pool and hold you down until you calm down, I will. Though I might have to find a method which you won’t use to your advantage to harm yourself first.”
“Why in the fuck would you—”
“Because I want you,” I told her truthfully. She looked a mixture of confused and scared. Why, I didn’t know. “I want to marry you. I have my reasons. I’ll use you at times. But I’ll be honest about it. Just like you can use me to avoid becoming a prisoner in this mansion, to escape your fate if you remain here forever, single and with only a fraction of the power you crave.”
“You really are insane—”
“Marry me, and you’ll have everything you want. Power, respect, public acknowledgement…and affection. You’ll be the most important person to me, my family, and millions of people.”
She paused. “And how is that?”
“You’d like me to explain how affection works?” I teased, knowing full well she didn’t care about that.
She crossed her arms, waiting.
“Do you really think your parents would marry you off to someone who they didn’t think was worthy—”
“My father would never have thought you were worthy.”
“Like most fathers. However, even he must have known you’d be safer with me.”
She chuckled at that. “Safe with you? You’re chained to a bed at the mercy of my family.”
“Wrong.” I shook my head, taking the chain off my ankle. Her eyebrow rose as I stood on my feet. “The Callahan family is at the mercy of me. Ethan wants to know who I am and he wants me out of his house, yet here I am. Wyatt wishes to kill me, but he can’t. You want me to break the agreement, but I won’t. You all are waiting for me to give you information…waiting to see if killing me will cause unforeseen damage to you all. The same question is going through all of your minds… Why me?”
“We’ll find out who you are—”
“Or you could agree and I could just tell you,” I said, stepping up to her. “I could tell you, and once you know, you’ll regret fighting so hard.”
“Take another step, and you’ll regret not dying.”
I paused and then took another step, and her nose flared. Smiling, I stopped, not pushing my luck any further. “If you won’t agree yet, at least stop fighting long enough for me to show you…”
“You started the fight.”
“All I did was tell you the truth.” Boldly, I stepped forward, and she pulled a gun from some hiding spot, I didn’t know where, and held it in front of me.
This damn family and bullets.
I didn’t say anything; I just stared her down.
“Winning me over will be harder than trying to stop my brothers from killing you.”
She put the gun down and left, slamming the door behind her.
“The sweetest honey is always at the top of the tallest tree,” I whispered to myself before gripping on to my shoulder. “Bloody fucking Jesus…” It burned like fire.
Grumpily, I moved over to the side of my bed, taking out my cell from the drawer and dialing. She answered on the first ring…
“Have you lost your damn mind?”
“I’m the victim here, Evelyn. I was shot.” I pouted.
“I couldn’t care less! And good for them for shooting you! Going around talking about Liam getting shot, you earned yourself a damn bullet,” she snapped and I rolled my eyes, laying on the bed.