Vicious Minds (Children of Vice #4)(82)
“Let the record show that you are the one keeping her at my side.” He reached his hand out to me across the table. I took it and he held on tightly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you didn’t want to come home with me.”
“Good thing you know better.” I winked, relaxing into the horrid looking chair. “I want to come. Gigi needs to come. But I can’t help it. I know the future I want, so I have to—”
“Follow the best plan in your mind to get there or you cannot rest,” he finished for me, nodding his head because he understood.
“Exactly.”
“I understand, but I won’t wait another week. You and our daughter will be by my side by the end of the month. No more excuses, no more delays. I’m done with it,” he said sternly his green eyes never wavering from mine. I was sure the exhaustion I saw in them wasn’t just because of the bullet and most likely mimicked the exhaustion in my eyes.
“Yes, boss.” I whispered, squeezing his hand.
He exhaled, closing his eyes for a moment before he smiled. “What did you give me?”
“It feels really good, doesn’t it?” He grinned and nodded. He looked…cute. High and cute. “Call it a kiss of life.”
“Can we package it up and sell it?” His business side reared its cunning head. Callahans… they truly wanted to own the world. It was insane, and it was what drew me to their family in the first place, that hunger for more.
“We’ll talk about my rate later. There is so much I want to change and add to the family business.”
He opened his eyes and looked at me. “You’re holding out on me?”
“Absolutely. You’ve been taking enough credit for my ideas already. How else will I make grand entrance into your family?”
He snickered. “Your grand entrance? Will there be a coronation?”
“Are you not a king?” I challenged, looking him over again. “King Ethan of the bloody kingdom of Chicago. The wife of a king is a queen, so you’re damn right I’ll have a coronation. I expect a lot, the people on their knees, the respect, the fear…everything. Oh, and diamonds.”
“A wise king never says no to his queen.” He took my hand and kissed the back of it. “I look forward to it.”
As did I. “Let’s hope no more damn surprises get in our way.”
“Calliope. End of the month.” He reminded me, and I knew then he didn’t care what happened. It had to be done.
Thursday, September 21st
Chicago, Illinois
“One fucking thing after another,” he snapped over the phone as I cleaned inside the barrel of my sidearm. “After years, I’ve finally gotten the one I needed back home under the same damn roof, and all of sudden this Gabriel comes out motherfucking nowhere for Donatella.”
“He didn’t come out of nowhere, I’m pretty sure your parents sent him.”
“I don’t give fuck. I’m not giving him Donatella.”
My eyebrow rose, and I knew he couldn’t see, but I couldn’t help it. “What makes you think Donatella is yours to give?”
“She’s my sister—”
“Exactly. Your sister, not your watch. She is a twenty-six-year-old woman; she’s the same age as me. Did you ask for anyone’s permission before taking me?”
“That’s different—”
“That’s sexist.”
“Don’t even start—”
“Too late. I’m starting,” I said as I began to clean off the bullets. “She’s your sister, you love and want to protect her, but I doubt you love or want to protect her as much as your father. Think of Gigi. Don’t you want to her to be with someone you approve and trust?”
“No.” I stopped my cleaning to actually look at my phone. “Gigi is not aging past twelve so why would she need to be with anyone?”
I laughed. “If you can do that, I will wash your feet with my hair.”
“We don’t even know if it’s my parents who sent him,” he sighed, obviously lying to himself.
“Your grandmother wouldn’t be backing him if it wasn’t.” I was going to force-feed the truth to him.
“We don’t even know who he is yet,” he pressed, still fighting.
“No, you don’t know who he is.” I glanced at the database on my computer before picking up the knife to clean out the grooves in the bullet.
“Whoever he is, he is not good enough—”
“Prince Gabriel Honoré Déllacqua III, Hereditary Prince of Monaco, the Marquis of Baux…that is as good as it gets for her. And to be perfectly honest, he was my second choice if you ended up rejecting me.”
That was a lie. And his silence made me wish I could see his face. I could feel his annoyance and rage through the fucking phone.
“I’m going to kill them.”
“Dona and her Prince Charming?”
“No, the two people who can’t help but play fucking God.”
“You can hardly blame your parents for securing their daughter’s—”
“Whose side are you on?”
I sighed. He really was upset by this. “Yours, like always. Which is why I’m glad your sister’s ambition was what made her almost coup seem so believable. She needs her own crown, her own place of power or else your life will be very difficult because I sure as hell will not tolerate her bullshit as you do. Nor would she tolerate me besting her. You want me to care about your family? I will try. The only way that is remotely possible, the only way I don’t kill her is if I can treat her as an equal. The only way she can be my equal is if she isn’t in Chicago. Who knows, if she becomes the supreme princess maybe we could be friends. Unless you want to see me destroy her in a war she wouldn’t be able to help but start if she remained here. I already have one named bullet, should I make another?”