Page 88 of Claimed By the Villain

“Yeah, I’m fucking romantic, woman. Whatever you want, you’ll have.”

She stares at me in silence, her laughter fading. “Even your heart?”

“I don’t have one.”

She cups my face, locking our eyes. “You’re wrong, Lucifer. You do. And it’s mine.”

Hours later

“What exactly are you talking about?” I ask Beau over the phone.

“I know you don’t like loose ends, so I’ve got a surprise waiting for you in South America. It has to do with the redhead, Jackie’s friend. Actually, it has to do with your wife, too.”

“You waited until the last day of my honeymoon to tell me?”

“Yeah, for several reasons. The first is that I didn’t want your lady or mine—if Amber found out I fucked up your vacation—angry at me.”

“You could’ve waited until I got back.”

“Yeah, I could have. But you’re already halfway there. I’m sending a few men to join yours and protect Jackie while you’re gone. Given the current situation, that’s better than leaving her alone in the States. Unless you want to send her to us. Amber would love to have her over again.”

I think for a moment before deciding: “No, I think she’ll prefer staying here.”

“And one more thing. A contract in Egypt. I’ll send you the details encrypted on this phone.”

“I’m done for the year. I’m not taking anything else.”

“This one’s different. You’ll want to see it. It might have to do with your secret enemy.”

Chapter 46

Somewhere in South America

“I can pay you whatever you want!” my prisoner[11] screams, hanging from a hook, naked and about to meet his fate.

After two days of fun, unfortunately, I need to leave. I have a contract in Egypt in less than a week, one Beau believes is connected to the man trying to kill me.

“Don’t worry about that. You’ve already paid. If I didn’t have to take off these gloves, I’d show you the transfer I made from your account to mine in Mauritius. But I’m methodical. If I remove them now, I’ll have to wash my hands before grabbing my phone, and then I’d have to kill you tomorrow instead. Can’t do that. My wife is waiting for me. I plan tofinishour business today.”

He starts to cry, then curses and threatens me.

He begs forgiveness, then tells me to go fuck myself . . .

Christ, they’re never original when death closes in, but the ones born with a silver spoon are the worst.

The bastard and I almost became friends, we spent so many hours together.

During our littlebonding, I uncovered the missing pieces in Taylor’s story. Luckily for him, nothing too dramatic.

He really hadn’t touched Jackie’s friend when he kept her in a gilded cage. He actually believed the redhead would love him one day. But after taking her on a cruise and realizing he wasn’t making any progress with Taylor, he planned to start drugging her and eventually resort to rape.

Those are secrets I’ll take to the grave, anyway. No one needs to be haunted by this sick fuck’s twisted plans.

With a little persuasion, after only a few hours of torture, he confessed everything, including why she’d been kidnapped in the first place.[12]

What he did to Taylor was fucked up, but that wasn’t why I chose to torture him instead of putting a bullet between his eyes, my usual MO.

It was because I discovered he had decided to turn against my woman.