“I don’t accept anything.” My anger didn’t come across like I’d hoped it would. Because I was playing a part. Doing it poorly too. Going through the motions of fighting this when I’d already lost.
Or won, depending on your viewpoint.
“So be it,” Cristian murmured.
It was then I saw something glint in the dim light. Metal.
A gun.
Cristian had been sitting in the dark waiting for me with a gun.
Cristian
Sienna was afraid when she saw the gun.
She hid it quickly and well. If I wasn’t as attuned to her as I was, I would not have seen it. No one else would’ve seen it, even if they watched her carefully. And anyone who was in the same room as a creature like Sienna watched her fucking carefully.
I’d been ready to kill each and every one of my men for the way they’d looked at her as she walked into the room the day I took Lorenzo’s hand, so tight was the hold she had over me.
Her reaction to seeing Pete’s body had surprised me. Shocked me. I was not a man to be easily shocked. It was a test. It was an act of desperation. I’d told her too much about Isabella. Let her get under my skin. I wanted to prove to her how monstrous I was, show her how fucking despicable this world was.
But she wasn’t disgusted. I watched carefully for that. No, she was excited. Fucking captivated by it. She’d let me touch her while she stared at the carnage I’d created. She’d was soaking wet for me whenever I wanted her. And I wanted her all the fucking time. I could barely think straight.
It would’ve been smart of me to end it now. End her now. I was capable of it. Barely. It would follow me, she would follow me, with her lifeless eyes, with her blood covered corpse. But I would endure. And then there would be nothing left to hurt me in this world. I would have control. And for the first time since I sat down for lunch at Bella that day, I would have a clear fucking head.
“Though Felix has been training you, though you have been doing exceptionally well, it’s not enough,” I stated after letting her heart beat wildly for a handful of moments. I liked the taste of her fear, faint as it was.
“As efficient as he is at that, you need more than what he can teach you if you’re going to survive as my wife.” A flicker of annoyance rose as I considered Felix.
The man I trusted most in this world.
Training Sienna.
Touching her.
Marking her.
I knew he did that on purpose. His training did not require him to mark her as he did. He did it as a message. To Sienna. To me. She may be owned by me, may belong to me, but there was a small part of her that remained within Felix’s grasp.
Killing him would’ve been the smartest option. But I couldn’t. Because as it stood, he was the only person I trusted to protect Sienna with his life. Even if he corrupted her as he did so.
“This is not a world where you can rely on being saved by anyone,” I continued. “Even me.”
I outstretched my hand, extending the gun to her.
Sienna looked from me to the gun, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she understood that I was not going to kill her.
She moved quickly, without hesitation, taking the gun from me. It was reassuring. That she wasn’t timid at the sight of a weapon, didn’t pretend to be something frail, innocent and pure. Was ready to take her survival into her own hands.
I watched her grip the handle of the gun, considering the weapon. My cock hardened, seeing my woman handling the gun so naturally, with a glint in her eye that told me she liked the weight of it.
She was also considering using it. On me. I wouldn’t be so fucking enchanted by her if she wasn’t. If she didn’t have that cold thirst for blood and vengeance inside of her. I couldn’t be completely sure, not at this moment, that she wouldn’t kill me.
Moments ago, I’d been seriously considering ending her life.
I wasn’t afraid of death. Merely interested in whether I’d meet it today or if I’d live out the rest of my days with Sienna by my side.
She’d thought I was really going to kill her. For a split second, at least. She expected it because she thought I’d found out about Detective Harris. She thought I’d kill her for that. I would’ve if she didn’t have such a hold over me. But she did. And instead of enraging me, it endeared me to her even more. She was fearless. Not willing to surrender to me, even if it cost her her life.