“Are you saying your sister is going to be a troublesome wife?”
“Not all of the rumors about her are true.” Tyler’s tone grew cool, telling me I’d pushed a button.
Meaning some were.
“Spell it out for me, Mykos.”
“At the end of the year, she better be in the same state she is now.”
Was he implying his sister was a virgin?
Were twenty-six-year-olds innocent nowadays? Maybe with the type of protection these guys probably had around her. But if she was the rebel everyone believed, I’d highly doubt it.
Though, I had no plans to find out otherwise. That road ensured these assholes remained a permanent part of my life.
“And what state is that?”
Phillip Mykos spoke this time. “Happy. If my baby girl sheds a tear because of you, I will make sure your world burns.”
The way he held my gaze told me he meant every word.
Well, well, well. Wasn’t that interesting.
The last thing anyone would ever believe of Phillip Mykos or his four sons was that they worried about the happiness of anyone else.
Then again, it had taken over one hundred years for a female to come from the Mykos line, and it would make sense for a woman to be their greatest weakness.
“I have no intention of making your daughter’s life hard. This is a business arrangement between us. As long as your daughter and I understand each other, we will have a pleasant future together.”
“That is where you’re wrong.”
The hell it was. We weren’t ever going to be some happy family.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning my sister is personal. You fuck with her, you fuck with us. Therefore, it’s personal until the engagement ends.”
“First of all, what is it you think I’ll do to her?” I leaned forward, ready to wipe the threat from the smug shit’s face. “And second of all, what makes you think I will end this engagement? The contract states she’s mine. You gain half the trust, except her portion of it, which will go into a new trust for our children. It’s a win-win for me.”
Tyler met my challenge, ready to push up from his seat. “Listen, asshole. You don’t want her any more than she wants you. Everyone knows about your perfectly chosen bride waiting in the wings.”
Before I could say anything, Phillip set a hand on Tyler’s arm and rose from his seat, taking a set of folders from one of his men before passing one to me.
“We have an offer that will make it worth your while to break things off with my daughter at the end of the engagement term stated in the original contract between our elders.”
Settling back in my chair, I glanced at Kasen Alexandros, my cousin and my second-in-command. He shrugged and then scanned the contents of the papers.
As I skimmed my own documents, I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
Were these fuckers for real?
This was the last thing I expected when I walked into this hotel suite.
For years, I’d been trying to purchase a long-haul cargo port in Cypress to no avail, only to find out later a conglomerate of Mykos Shipping owned it and would never sell to anyone with a Drakos name.
“You’re using the very port that you refused to sell me for the last five years as incentive to walk away from your daughter?”
“My empire is strong without it.” Phillip shrugged. “You, on the other hand, can benefit from it tenfold. We will sign over our port in Cypress the second the trust clears and the engagement officially ends.”