Page 26 of Emerald

“No!” I bark at him. “No one goes down there but me.”

The idea of any of my men even entering the room where Sloane is tied to that chair fills me a fury that I can’t understand.

All I know is that she belongs to me, and me alone.

She’s my prisoner.

“Well, it’s obviously Remizov who hired her, don’t you think?” Dom asks me.

“That seems most likely,” I agree.

I have plenty of enemies, but there’s only one person I’ve started a war with in the last twenty-four hours.

“Do you want to put out a hit on him in return?” Dom asks.

“That’s not how we work,” I say sharply. “If I want Remizov dead, I’ll kill him myself.”

“Alright,” Dominik says, holding up his hands.

I don’t know why I’m biting his head off. He hasn’t done anything wrong.

“He doesn’t know we’ve got his assassin,” I say. “He might even think I’m dead. So, here’s what we do: I’ll lay low. Let him think he’s been successful. You get our guns back. Then we hit back. We crush this little bastard once and for all.”

Dom nods. He turns as if he’s about to leave but hesitates a moment in the doorway.

“What about the girl?” he says.

“I said I’ll deal with her,” I snap at him.

He nods and leaves.

I will deal with Sloane.

But I have no idea how.

Dom knows that Sloane tried to kill me.

And Maks saw me carrying her down to the catacombs, which means that everyone else in the house is going to know about it by lunchtime.

She has to be punished, if only to maintain my standing in the eyes of my men. They can never perceive me as weak, or uncertain.

And the truth is, I want to punish her . . .

But not in the way my men would expect.

This girl has confused me, infuriated me, and tied me up in knots.

I want to take out that frustration on her.

I want to break her like I’d break a wild horse.

By dominating her. Taming her. Training her.

I look at my watch.

It’s 7:20 a.m. I can hear some of my men starting to stir around the house. But most will sleep until nine, or ten, or even noon. Most of our work is done in the evening or during the night.

Sloane hasn’t slept at all yet.