Chapter Eleven
Silas listened to Elliot on the other side of the line.
“I’m still going to kill Massimo myself.”
Next to him the hauntingly beautiful woman, his wife, shrank away from him in the elevator he had just shoved her into. Perhaps it was the cold vehemence in his voice or the murderous intent in his eye. She looked at him with unbridled fear, shock, and curiosity.
His brother went on a while longer, but Silas hardly paid much attention. He knew what he had done, and he’d do it again if he were given another chance.
But that didn’t detract from the reality of the situation. Massimo had been a key source of their ongoing investigation into their attack on their family.
Yes, Arabelle’s father held key information but once he divulged the name, they had to have a reasonable enough amount of information on their own to collaborate his story, or at least connect dots that would make their suspect guilty without a doubt.
Taking on the Mexican or the Brazilian mafia, the two units they had narrowed it down to, without explicit corroborating evidence would be a reckless reaction on their part to start a war.
And they were running out of time. Parker wasn’t waiting any longer. He planned to declare war on both sides and vowed to raze to the ground both the Mexicans and the Brazilians despite the fact that they had discovered the name of the assassin himself.
In their world, a small victory but at least it had helped Parker vent out his energy. The sniper was most definitely not dead by now. Parker wouldn’t have made it that easy for the man. The thing was assassins only pulled the trigger. They had no idea who issued the hit or who paid them to do so.
Silas gritted his jaw against the sweet scent of the woman so beautifully incensed next to him in the elevator. She was making him do crazy things, like give Mickey instructions to fill the gardens with red roses all because he couldn’t sleep the night, he had driven them to Parker’s and Everleigh’s house.
The image that had haunted him? The silkiness of her legs, her sweet knees revealed when her dress had ridden up. The dress which she had worn, was white except for the display of red roses at the hem.
There was always a flower, always some sort of a red rose on her clothes, her jewelry. The absolutely tiny tattoo on the inside of her wrist of a red rose. He who hated color and preferred all things in black and muted gray in his surroundings and in his mind. She was a splash of color taking over his life.
He thought he was going madder when the sight of her wearing his ring for the first time, gave him a fucking erection. She was his. Whether she liked it or not.
The fact that she wasn’t in on her father’s scheme to extort them was made clear to Silas by the way she reacted to seeing Everleigh. She had been shocked and genuinely confused to find Everleigh that way. Not an ounce of discomfort had crossed her lovely features when she looked at Parker.
Silas hadn’t taken his eyes off her, the column of her sweet neck, her sexy throat, her lips when she smiled, her eyes when he knew Everleigh who had sensed that Arabelle had zero idea what had happened to her. He had kept all that information from her because he wanted to judge her reaction.
She had no clue about the deal her father had made with him. She still believed he’d sold her for money to get out of debt.
Silas didn’t know how he would have reacted if she had so much as smiled the wrong way and given herself away. She was innocent in that regard.
He had specifically ordered her to stay away from the guests at his business dinner but then he had seen her there, defying his orders. A young goddess in glimmering gold, the red lipstick on her lips had been torture to his cock and made his blood scorch his skin.
He wanted her to stain his shaft with that red from her mouth. He wanted her lips to swell, her eyes to tear as she gagged for him. She was sublime and splendid and seeing her in a room full of hardened criminals disguised as reputable businesspeople, him included had evoked such fierce protection for her, he wanted to kill any man who dared to look at her and place her in a tower where no harm could get to her.
The disturbing thought that he was beginning to understand how Parker felt about Everleigh slipped into his head and wreaked havoc with his mind.
Then he found her laughing and smiling with the worst of the lot, the sole reason he didn’t want her downstairs. He didn’t want Massimo’s slimy eyes on her body, because that’s what would have happened. He didn’t want Massimo to think what it would feel like to fuck her, fantasize about her. His wife. His property. It was the reason he had told her to stay upstairs. The only reason.
Massimo should have been glad he had only broken his wrist and not his neck. He would save doing that for when he didn’t have an audience in attendance and planned to break his dick off first so the man could suffer even more. But Massimo was as good as dead anyway, just as he had said to his youngest brother.
The entire guest list was made up of people who operated on the dark side of the law. Men and women who respected him and his brothers and who would never think of crossing them. Whether that loyalty was a result of honor or fear, the outcome was still the same. They each had a piece of information for him. Including Massimo. Except for the fucking bastard and he had touched her which set Silas’ blood to boiling all over again.
Elliot, still telling him he could have waited a day before he decided to break Massimo’s wrist because he had information that could be deemed vital to their investigation, broke into his thoughts.
Silas grunted into the phone. He wasn’t sorry.
Elliot sighed then asked him why he’d sent the man to the hospital in the first place.
“He touched her,” Silas said.
Elliot didn’t say a word more after that but Silas could see in his mind’s eye his brother nod. He disconnected the call and that seemed to give her the signal to continue where she had left off, this small little girl taking him on. Hadn’t she realized what he was capable of doing to her when she refused to obey him?
By the time he was done with her, she would have no doubt that when he said she was his, he meant it.