Page 99 of Convict's Game

“Genevieve never left the vehicle and is perfectly safe. As per my message, the womenfolk were interviewing people as part of their investigations. The mother of the deceased launched an attack as we were leaving a venue. There are no major injuries, and the attacker and blade are secured.”

A blade. The attacker had a blade. There were too many questions I needed answers to but I crushed it all under the knowledge that Mila was okay. My hands balled into fists.

“Get back to the warehouse,” Arran ordered Manny.

“Already moving. I’ll keep an open line until we’re there,” he replied.

We travelled on in silence, any chance of conversation over. After the explosion, and the realisation that Mila and Genevieve were out of the warehouse, we’d already turned tracks for home, giving us only a thirty-minute race to reach them.

While Arran drove, I watched the tracker on my screen return Mila to safety.

Outside the warehouse, Arran skidded into his parking space and stormed out of the car, snarling at the guard for taking too long to open the rear exit door. I was right there with him, my heart in my mouth, visions of the devastating future taking the place of my recollections of the past.

What if the attacker had hit her mark? What if Mila had bled out in some godforsaken part of the city?

We burst into the corridor and to the management office. Inside, Mila sat in a circle of chairs with Cassie, Genevieve, Everly, and Lovelyn. Without hesitation, Arran picked up his wife and carried her from the room. She didn’t argue, just banded her arms around him and held him close.

It was then that I saw the bandage on Mila’s arm. Red mist descended. I’d intended to treat her gently, but in a heartbeat, I was more animal than man.

Scooping her up, I threw her over my shoulder with an arm wrapped around her thighs. Then I stalked from the office.

“Talk later,” Cassie called after us with a cackle.

Mila didn’t say a word. She let me put her in the passenger seat of my car and strap her in. Then I drove to her apartment block and parked badly, scooping her up again to carry her upstairs.

“I can walk,” she complained.

“Let me do this.”

She didn’t argue any further. Inside her apartment, I carried her into the bedroom and locked the door. When I placed her on the bed, Mila peered up at me.

“Genevieve said Arran would do this so not to be surprised if you did, too. I’m fine.”

I paced the rug in front of her and dug my hands into my hair. “You’re hurt. Someone came at you with a knife.”

“She did. She threw it at me.”

I stilled and stared at the bandage. “I’m so fucking furious right now. The minute I’m away, someone tries to hurt you. I should never have left you alone.”

She gave a soft laugh. “I was never alone. We had a full complement of guards, and the cut is shallow. There was no harm done.”

I muttered her last three words like a madman.

Mila watched me. The hostility that had lingered in her gaze throughout the last week had gone. She’d been afraid. I didn’t know why, but that last realisation broke my final semblance of control.

I centred my gaze on her, showing her every bit of how I felt. “Listen up. I need you to know that I don’t blame you for this. It wasn’t your fault. But I’m going to punish you all the same. Lose the dress. Hands above your head.”

Her focus held mine, unreadable at first. But then her gaze flared. It wasn’t defiance. It was need, and lust, and high emotion I couldn’t identify but felt like a bullet to the chest.

Mila stripped her dress and bra then stretched out her stunning, mostly naked body, and lifted her arms. “Show me what it does to you. Show me how much I matter.”

Pride inflated my chest, and I collected the handcuffs then quickly restrained her wrists to the bedframe. Instinct led me, and my breathing spiked. Kneeling on the bed, I spread her legs to accommodate me. I tore away her underwear, revealing her pussy.

“You’ll take it, every bit of me, because I need to remind myself that you’re here. You’re alive. Mine.”

“You talking to me or my vagina?”

I curled my lip and switched my gaze to her face. “Run that mouth and see what better use I can make of it. In fact…”