Page 66 of Bared Betrayal

“I don’t think she’s looking for something in my warehouses.”

“Then what does she want?”

“I’m pretty sure she just wants my cock.” I shrug. “There is no other reason for her to still be around. She doesn’t even pretend to look at shipments anymore. She just harasses my staff and throws herself at me like a bitch in heat.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Me either,” I admit. “She should have been gone ages ago.”

“No, I don’t understand why you haven’t just fucked her already and be rid of her.”

“She’s not my type.”

“Look, Gabriel—” he leans over his desk “—I know you’re a man with specific tastes, but if fucking this woman is all it’s going to take to get her off our asses, I’d say it’s an easy problem to resolve.”

I shift in my seat. The thought of fucking Victoria makes my dick want to shrivel up and die. “I had dinner scheduled with her and was going to let her down hard. Publicly shame her into fucking off, but I didn’t make it there.”

“Last night?” He looks at me, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. Last night.”

“Last night, when you put on a very public show at the club?”

Fuck.

A smug grin tugs at the corner of his lips. “I might not be around the club as often as I used to, but I still know every little thing that goes on there.”

“There is more to this than you—”

“You and I have worked together for a very long time. I respect you, but if you jeopardize this shipment, our relationship will be strained. Neither of us wants that to happen.” The old Alexius is back. Getting married may have made him more agreeable, but that doesn’t mean he is weak or will tolerate anything less than perfection.

“The shipment will be safe,” I say, getting to my feet and meeting his eye. “I had something to handle last night. It was important, more important than some entitled little bitch with a badge. I will handle her, and the shipment will get to its destination safe and sound. In the twenty years we have been working together, I have never had a shipment not get delivered without a hitch.”

Most men who stood up to Alexius like this would be dead before they left the building. I am not most men. I have a relationship with the Dark Sovereign, and as one of the Elite, I need to be a boss in my own right.

“There he is.” Alexius grins. “The fucking beast I know and trust. Now,” he takes a sip of his bourbon, “about that favor you asked for. It’s done, but I believe you have another request regarding her?” He reaches into his desk and pulls out a cigar cutter.

“The girl I told you about—”

“Your future daughter-in-law?”

I bite my lip. “Yes.”

“I’m not even going to ask why you’re fucking your son’s fiancée at a sex club. Jesus.”

“Let’s not lose focus here,” I say, trying to avoid that conversation with him. “I think someone is threatening her, and I need to know who and why.”

“Usually, blackmail comes from those closest to someone. Does she have any ideas about who it could be?” He pulls a cigar from the wooden box on his desk and offers me one. I hold up my hand, passing on the offer. It’s not the cigars I object to. It’s his antique gold cutter. I have seen that cut more than just a cigar, and I have no intention of smoking aged tobacco with a hint of finger.

“I don’t think so. She’s not speaking to me.” I sit back in the chair, staring out his office window. “For some reason, I think my son’s grandmother might have something to do with it.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because I don’t trust her.”

“Why would your son’s grandmother blackmail his fiancée?”

“She is an evil, vindictive cunt who hates anyone she deems lower than herself, and only uses those she deems better to pull herself up the social ladder.”