Captivated - Jordan Silver Page 0,19

her into the master bathroom to run her a bath; she must feel dirty having been in that place. I didn’t say anything to her; I couldn’t, my throat was closed with anger.

I methodically ran the water, tested it, added bath salts, and undressed her without a word. “Get in; I’ll make you some tea.”

“Damien, are you mad at me?” Fuck!

“No baby; never! But later, we’re gonna talk about why you didn’t tell me what was going on.” I kissed her forehead and walked away before she got a glimpse of the ugly side of me.

I’d gored holes in my palms with my nails by the time I reached the home gym on the other side of the penthouse. While she soaked, I punched and kicked the shit out of it, but I don’t see where it helped assuage my anger much. Nothing was going to do that, not until I destroyed the two of them.

Damien

I didn’t touch her after taking her out of the tub, not because I didn’t want to, I always want her. But because there was still too much anger and I was afraid I’d hurt her. I put her to bed, pulling the covers up to her chin and sat by her side silently.

She was too emotionally drained, which was evident by the tear tracks on her cheeks, so when she opened her mouth to question me, I shushed her. “Shh, it’ll keep, we’ll talk later, get some sleep you must be tired.”

As soon as she fell asleep and her breathing evened out, I left her. I wasn’t surprised when I heard the bell for the elevator down the hall and opened the door as the old man came strolling up with his two shadows flanking him. “I see you’ve made it back in one piece.”

He looked me over, shaking his head with a tsk when he saw the condition my hands were in. “Is the young man still alive?” He walked past me and entered the room, heading for the bar. “Have a seat.” He offered me a seat in my own house, which I took without question and accepted the snifter of cognac he held out to me before taking a seat at the head of my table.

“Dami, do you know why I never let you harm him in the past?” I didn’t answer just looked at him as I took my first sip. “When your poor sister met her unfortunate end, and we both believed him responsible, I wanted to seek vengeance right away like you did, but I had to look at the big picture.”

“It had nothing to do with the heat, or at least that wasn’t the leading factor. I’ve always taught you to look beneath the surface of things. It would be an easy thing to shed his blood, and in the old days, that’s just what I would’ve done. But as I get older and the world began to change around me, I’ve learned to look at things a bit different.”

“Do you know why he’s been able to be what he is and escape the law all this time?” That one got my attention. I’ll admit that I never looked beyond wanting to kill that fuck, so I don’t know shit about him other than the fact that he’d caused my sister’s death.

I never had any real interest in learning anything more than that since I’d made up my mind to kill him at some point, so who gave a fuck.

“It’s because of his father’s wealth and influence in the city. That wealth has allowed him to skirt the law and get away with a lot more than you know. I could’ve done something a long time ago, but I knew you needed to be the one, so I held off.” That got my interest real quick.

“What do you mean?”

He leaned forward in his seat, his hand still holding fast to the gold and black walking stick he never went anywhere without. “Why do you think I never fought you on making the business legal? Why I pushed you so hard to succeed at university. Because always in the back of my mind was this plan.”

“I thought we had more time, but now….how is the young lady? When do I get to meet her? Drake tells me she’s a good girl, fit to be by your side.” I’m sure he did, bitch snitch.

“She’s fine; I put her to bed not long ago. What’s this plan you mentioned?”

“When you