Page 1 of Cruel Possession

Chapter One

ZOE

“If you keep botheringme about the fucking cocaine and what I’m going to do with it, I’m going to light it on fire and watch your little addiction empire burn.” I throw the knife I’ve been spinning, burying it to the hilt in the wall beside Logan Vitale’s head.

He winces and looks at the knife before turning back to me. Those beady little eyes stare at me like he’s about to whip out his little cop badge and tell me what to do. Maybe try to lord the fact that he works for the DEA over my head.

That might’ve worked on his brother and the Lynde bitch, but I’ll kill him before I allow him to have any power over me.

I’ve worked too fucking hard, sacrificed too fucking much, to get to where I am to let some idiot with a badge think he wields the power here.

Logan scowls and crosses his arms. “Sure, you’re going to burn billions of dollars of profit. You know, you may be an idiot, but I didn’t think you were that stupid. You’re sitting on a fortune.”

“I know what I have.” I take another knife from the table beside me, spinning it between my fingers. “The question is why are you standing in front of me, thinking you can tell me what to do?”

“You told me we were going to be partners. If I helped you get to my brother and the Lyndes, then you were going to hand over the drugs to me. That was our deal.”

“I know what our deal was.”

The knife stills, and I grip it, ready to throw again.

Clipping his ear might be fun. A little blood has always been good for teaching people lessons.

He glances out the window at the shop and all the cars in the bays. “And what about the chop work you’re doing here at night?”

Without a second thought, the knife flies from my fingers, clipping his ear before plunging into the wall.

He swallows hard, putting his fingers to the little cut. He looks horrified when they come away bloody, but he had it coming.

“What the hell.”

I get up from my seat and stalk over to him. “You’re alive right now because I haven’t decided what to do with you. You are alive because ofme,because I allow it. And it seems like you’ve been forgetting that lately.”

Logan scowls. “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are.”

My eyebrow arches.

I don’t understand how Joshua has allowed his brother to live this long. If any of my siblings spoke to me like that—threatened everything I worked for—they would be taught a lesson quick.

Without a word, I slam my fist into his stomach, forcing him to double over.

When he does, I grab the back of his head, holding it in place, and drive my knee into his nose.

He groans as I shove him to the ground.

I rip the knives from the wall.

He scrambles backward, glaring at me. “You’re a crazy bitch.”

Of course, I am. I have to be if I want to survive this world where kill or die is law. And I’ll be damned if I let anyone one-up me.

The fairy tale shit is not for me, I’m no princess. At most, I’m the wicked witch, the villain, and I’m fine with that.

My sister can be the princess, though. She deserves it. Her and the little ones.

As for me, I’ll be the dragon that sets the world on fire to keep her safe, though since she decided to marry this idiot’s brother, it’s getting harder and harder to protect her.

I crouch down beside his head with a smile. “Tell me something I don’t know.”