Page 114 of Merciless Prince

He shoved me down on a chair by the table and held my arms. “Calm down. Killian isn’t coming. You never have to see him again.”

“Why the hell are you doing this, then?”

As I spoke, I tried to get up, but Cooper pushed me back down, pinning me against the tufted chair with one hand. He used his free hand to reach for the table, where a thick length of rope was coiled.

My eyes bulged. “Where did you get that rope?”

“From the car. I had a feeling you’d freak out tonight.”

I kept thrashing around, but he was much stronger than me. Within seconds, he had the rope wrapped around my chest and upper arms, tightly lashing me to the chair.

“Please don’t do this,” I said, tears brimming in my eyes. “I can’t go back there.”

“I told you, that’s not happening. You’re never going back to that castle,” Cooper replied, crouching by my right knee. He looked up at me and smiled, eyes filled with veneration. “I promise, Shay. You’re safe now. You never, ever have to see Killian again.”

“Why the hell are you restraining me, then?” I spat out. “Just tell me the truth. He’s on his way, isn’t he?”

Cooper sighed. “Shay, please listen to me. Killian isn’t coming. I have nothing to do with him.”

I stared down at him, heart hammering painfully in my chest. “Who are you?” I asked, voice scarcely above a whisper.

He put his hand on my knee and squeezed. “It’sme. Cooper. Your friend.”

“I know that’s not your real name. Cooper Mickelberg doesn’t exist.”

He stood and let out another sigh, one hand rubbing at his jaw. “I only lied to you about my last name. Cooper is my real first name.”

“Why did you lie to me?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “Who are you?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “You’ll find out if you settle down and stop trying to fight your way out of that chair. Got it?”

I gritted my teeth. “Fine.”

He tapped on his chin and narrowed his eyes with concentration, like he was trying to figure out where to begin. “I’m going to tell you a story,” he finally said. “It’s about two families. The Vandenbergs and the Riordans. Are either of those names familiar to you?”

I frowned. The name ‘Vandenberg’ sounded familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then it hit me. Killian had mentioned them to me before.

“I’ve heard of the Vandenbergs. They’re a crime family,” I said.

“That’s right.”

“Are you one of them?”

Cooper shook his head. “No. I’m a Riordan. The Vandenbergs are our historical rivals.”

“So your family runs some sort of syndicate too?”

“Yes. There’s been bad blood between the families for decades. Disagreements over territory, clashes over control of certain markets, poaching allies and clients, tit-for-tat murders, and so on. In the mid-to-late nineties, it got so bad that the patriarchs of the families decided that something had to be done to end the war once and for all. So Ari Vandenberg sat down with my grandfather Glenn, and they figured out a solution.”

“What was it?” I asked, voice quavering.

“The agreement they came to was that our families would be joined by marriage. Our business dealings would follow, and everyone would fall in line.”

“How very seventeenth-century of them,” I mumbled.

Cooper ignored my jab and continued. “There weren’t any suitable candidates for marriage at the time. All the Vandenberg and Riordan heirs were either married already or promised to someone else from another family. So it was decided that the next-born Riordan heir would be betrothed to the next-born Vandenberg heir of the opposite sex.”

Something clicked in my head. “You were one of them?”