Page 76 of Broken By A King

Thirty-Five

STONE

Ifight the urge to wrap my hands around her body.

"What is going on over there?" she asks with a purely professional tone to her voice.

"Nate and Bucky, I mean Silas, are hashing a few things out."

Her eyes widen.

"That's him?"

"Yes."

"Is he here for you?"

"Yes."

"Is he going to kill you?" her lip quivers for just a second.

"No, baby."

"How do you know that for sure?"

"Because I assured him that I broke you. It was his contingency plan just in case I couldn't find the money."

"Was I such an easy mark? Did I look that desperate to you both that you thought you could easily seduce me then hurt me?" she asks angrily.

"No, Ariana."

"I guess it was easy though, wasn't it? You completed yourmission,convict. You broke the virgin. Kudos to you."

Her words are caustic and hurt me with a marksman's precision.

"That wasn't my mission. Drug money was the mission. Falling in love with you was an unexpected fork in the road. I was never going to do what Bucky asked. Even if I hadn't found the money. I was never going to intentionally hurt you. Like you said, I didn't even know if I could."

She looks over at Bucky.

"He hates me and my father that much that he'd rather destroy me than get his seven million dollars back? That makes no sense."

"I think he knew that I'd never be able to get the money. He was counting on it. This was all about hurting the one thing Nate loves above all else and that was you."

"Then he should be satisfied, because you definitely did hurt me. I'm broken beyond repair. That's why I'm leaving. To put the pieces back together."

My chest fills with dread.

"Where are you going?"

"Rhode Island."

"What's in Rhode Island."

"Not you. Not my father. A new job. A fresh start. A man I can trust."

"What the fuck are you talking about, Ariana. What man?"

She smiles, but it's not a genuine smile, it's the kind you make right before you go in for a pleasurable kill.