Page 106 of Deviant Knight (Knight's Ridge Empire 4)

“Damn it, Cirillo,” I mutter to myself.

Emmie: We’ll see.

I put my phone down, ready to get up to see what the day will hold, but it lights up once more as I stand.

His Lordship: We will.

I don’t open the message to show that I’ve read it just to wind him up, because I know his controlling, obsessive arse will hate it.

With a smug grin playing on my lips, I head for the bathroom, although the second I’m in the doorway, all I see is him pushing me up against the wall, trying to kiss my sadness away.

Fuck. I was pathetic last night.

Mentally, I pull up my big girl knickers and shove all my hurt and dejection over my mum down back inside the steel vault it belongs in.

I tell myself that it was just because it was Christmas. It made me all sentimental and shit. Today, in the harsh light of day, I know I’m better off without her brand of fucked-up toxic in my life. I’m better without the Lovell Estate and the jerks I was surrounded by tainting my existence.

But even knowing all that, there’s still a little girl deep inside me who just wants her mum. And I fear that’s never going to go away.

Or maybe I just need the closure of knowing she no longer wants me. Or that she’s dead.

If I got the chance to say goodbye, in whatever form that needed to take, maybe all of this would have been easier.

Shaking my head, I strip Theo’s shirt from my body and step into the shower once more, but it’s nowhere near as enjoyable as when his eyes were laser-focused on my body.

* * *

“Holy fucking shit, Titch. What the hell are you doing?” I screech, clutching the towel tighter around my body. “What if I walked out there naked?”

He pales slightly but his narrowed, angry eyes never leave mine.

“I think we need to have a little chat,” he states coldly.

My heart plummets, my blood running cold.

There are a couple of things that he could want to talk to me about that might put that look in his eyes, and none of them are good.

“Any chance I could be dressed for it?” I snark.

“I’ll wait,” he says, resting back in the chair that usually holds another, younger, sexier, bad boy.

With a huff, I grab some clothes from my case that I never bothered unpacking and stomp back into my bathroom.

My hands tremble as I dress and I chastise myself for being such a pussy.

But if Titch knows about Theo, Mickey’s, the club…

My stomach churns.

Shit. He definitely knows something.

I thought I was safe at Mickey’s. Titch might have spent many years training there and fighting in the Circuit, but he’s left all that behind now. He’s about to be a fucking father, there’s no way he should be anywhere near underground MMA fights.

I just hoped that would mean that I’d be safe there.

I am safe there.The guys in there know who I am and wouldn’t dream of laying a finger on me.

But Titch is the only one who’d snitch back to my dad.