Page 5 of Blood and Thorns

Ignoring the slight pain in my arm at this angle, I stretched further until my fingers brushed against the box I kept hidden for emergencies. With a thump it fell, and the contents scattered on the carpet.

“Shit.” I scooped up the money and watch, taking my time to count every single note twice. It was everything I had, all my tips saved over the last three years. It was my emergency stash, for when I finally got the courage to create a new life somewhere else.

Somewhere I could start again.

Be whoever I wanted to be without guilt haunting me every step of the way.

With shaking hands I placed the money Dad owed on the side, but it wasn’t enough. Which meant I was going tohave to sell Gabriel’s stupid watch, and that left me with nothing. No backup. No emergency fund.

Three years of saving, of dreaming about another life far away, gone to a man who didn’t care that I was his only child.

Chapter 3

Sebastian

I glowered down at the dead prick on the table, taking my time to study the way his skin had been burnt away to reveal the muscle and bone beneath. Even those were charred, the stench so thick it’ll take hours to clear it from the back of my throat.

Which was just fucking great.

I glanced over at Langdon, who was calmly flicking at his lighter as if he didn’t just torture someone to death.

Click. Snap. Click.

You’d think it was a nervous gesture, having to constantly fidget. But in twenty years I don’t think I’ve ever seen the bastard nervous. Burns scarred the strong column of his throat, darkening his golden skin. They were mostly hidden behind the tall collars he preferred, but there were too many to hide entirely.

I knew more scars twisted along his torso and thighs, thicker ones that over the years we’ve hunted down the best surgeons to help treat. They’d once restricted his movement, and now you wouldn’t even know the majority of his body had once upon a time danced with flames.

Pocketing his lighter, Langdon raised his hands. “Ididn’t think he’d die so quickly,” he signed, upper lip twitching into his signature smirk.

“No shit.” I tugged at the mask I wore when on official business. It covered my jaw all the way to my nose, leaving only my eyes free. It was a statement more than a way to cover my face. The mask didn’t hide all of my own scars, but it did represent power. Fear. Death.

Not many people were brave enough to risk my wrath, especially when I was known for striking without hesitation. Fear and respect held a symbiotic relationship, which was why this was the first incident to escalate to this point in the past five years.

There were some fools who tried their luck, dealers who thought they could steal, or business associates who believed they could undercut, but they were quickly dealt with. Tossed into the Thames, only to be forgotten. Insignificant lives lost because of greed, or a self-inflated sense of worth.

As you might have guessed, I didn’t get to my position by being forgiving.

Which was why I’d come with the full expectation of watching the light die from the prick’s eyes, because I could simply not allow someone who dared to fuck with me to live without consequences. I had a reputation to uphold, after all.

“You weren’t supposed to kill him until I got here.” I craved chaos and blood, but I thrived with control. And Langdon had gone against my orders. It made my skin feel tight, as if straining to contain my bones.

If anyone else had failed, I’d have killed them.

But Langdon had proven his loyalty, as had Caden.

“Do we know what he did with my money?” I asked once I’d calmed down, and the rage I so carefully containeddidn’t call for violence. Yet, anyway. “Or did you kill Mr Pritchard before he gave us what we wanted?”

Caden cleared his throat, and I turned to find him pouting. He always seemed to have a faint ticking sound, the watch he’d been gifted by his father, my uncle, so large it was a statement on his wrist. He held a sledgehammer, the blunt edge splattered with blood. Clearly, he was just as guilty as Lang for fucking up my plans.

“Mr Pritchard kept extensive records,” Caden answered, tilting his head and turning the hammer over in his hand. “A little black book of people he loaned the money to, Bas. He even wrote down all the interest rates and profits.” He kicked at the corpse, which made the blackened skin split further. “Honestly, I’m impressed with the balls on the guy.”

Langdon chuckled, the sound a deep gruff that barely perforated Caden’s fucking ticking. “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” he signed, eyes drifting back to his masterpiece.

“How long has he been skimming off me before anyone noticed?” My empire usually ran like a finely tuned machine, so the fact a rat like this managed to slip through the cracks only pissed me off.

“He was smart about it,” Caden said. “Apparently there’s been a few times where some money went missing, but it’s usually found on the next intake once Dad settled the accounts.”

My uncle, a man of little talent except counting money. He wasn’t too bad with the stock market either, and while he was a pretentious bastard who believed he was superior because of his aristocratic blood, in reality he was just as low and dirty as the rest of us.