Page 105 of Bad Medicine

“It’s okay, little man,” I soothed, holding up my hands and trying for a smile. “Everything’s okay.”

His chin wobbled, making my heart clench, but he didn’t try to get away again.

Casting his eyes around, Greg moved as far back into the exhibit as he could, the other families and tourists staying more to the front of the whole place, where the majority of the white tigers were currently lazing in the sunshine.

It meant we were alone, tucked behind the thick trunk of a squat palm tree, and the thought made me even more nervous.

“Isn’t this nice?” Greg asked sarcastically. “All of us together for the first time. One happy little family.”

I didn’t speak, but my face must have said exactly what I thought of that idea, because Greg curled his lip at me in a sneer.

“Right to business, then? Fine.” Jerking his head at the backpack I carried, Greg lowered his voice. “I assume you have my property there?”

“Yes,” I said simply, sliding the bag off and letting it fall to the floor with a thud. “Give me my son.”

“Ourson, Mia. I won’t be letting you or him forget that. Starting today, things are going to be very different.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that my empire will need an heir, someone to train and mold into the perfect successor.” Looking down at Jasper with a possessiveness I found revolting, Greg smiled thinly. “Jasper will make the perfectPakhanin training.”

“Greg, no!” I gasped, horrified. “He’s a child.”

“I’m aware of that,” Greg replied with an air of exasperation. “What better time to begin molding him into my own image. After all, I made my first kill by the time I was eleven.” He shrugged like that statement was completely normal and not at all a reason to seek extensive hours of therapy. “I see no reason why my son should be any different.”

I was disgusted.

Absolutely and completely appalled by my son even being exposed to the idea of that, but I couldn’t say a word. I didn’t want to antagonize Greg, not until I had Jasper in my arms.

“Now,” he continued, clearly happy to hear the sound of his own voice. “Bring me my property, and we can both be on our way. I have a press conference in an hour, and I would hate to be late.”

Looking around surreptitiously, I noticed we were still relatively isolated in the back corner with no one paying any attention to us at all. There was a woman standing on the other side of the palm tree, her hair in braids under a knit hat, and another man in a staff polo shirt, idly sweeping fallen leaves from the edges of the walking paths, but neither of them seemed to be at all aware of our presence.

Feeling better about not being witnessed, I placed one foot against the heavy backpack and gave it a shove across the concrete between Greg and me. Keeping a tight grip on Jasper, Greg hooked the strap of the backpack with his foot and hauled it to him, dipping down low to scoop it up, eyes on me the whole time.

“You got what you wanted,” I said, my heart in my throat. “Let Jasper go.”

With a smile as evil as I knew him to be on the inside, Greg looked down at my son and replied, “No. I don’t think I will.”

Chapter forty-nine

Rocco

Thatmotherfucker.

Standing behind a large, fat palm tree, my eyes hidden behind my sunglasses, I watched as Mia kicked the bag over to Gregor, his slimy hands all over our boy like he had any right to touch him, to taint his sweet perfection with his filthy grip.

It was taking everything I had not to storm over there and physically remove his hands from Jasper’s arm, but I had promised Mia I’d let her do this her way.

To start with, anyway.

But then, when she’d upheld her end of the bargain, that stupid fuck had to go and renege on his promise to give Jasper back to his mother.

I mean, the guy was a selfish, immoral prick, so I should have known he’d be a liar as well.

Fuck, what I wouldn’t give to be able to kill him right now. To walk across the scant ten feet that separated us and wrap my hands around his pasty white throat, squeezing the life outta him. I wanted to look into his eyes and know that as he was gonna take his final breath, he’d do so with my face as the last thing he’d ever see.

But there was a fuck of a lot of people around to be committing a murder, so I fucking waited.