me.
Thank fuck for that.
“Who the hell would describe me with a forehead that big, a wide nose and no chin?”
Lincoln laughs. “Only you would be worried that the sketch looks like an ugly motherfucker. Unfortunately, that’s just what he’s done out in the open. On non-official channels, Grant’s offered three million for your head. Adeline’s, too. It’s better for business if he can cry about a dead wife. Guess that also works out to keep her from telling the world what he did to her.”
And here I thought I couldn’t hate Grant more than I already did. The method of his death keeps getting worse and worse for him, the special fuck you I have planned a cherry on top.
My eyes snap to his, lip curling. “Are you here to kill me and collect?”
Laughter rumbles his chest. “If it had been ten million, I might have considered it.”
Cocking a brow, he glances around the penthouse, a low whistle blowing over his lips. “I take it you got her to fight.”
“I’m going to teach her to kill, too,” I mention as I log in to Grant’s security system to see what he’s doing at home. If I’m going to have people gunning to take me out, I need to know who to expect. Not that many people know me, and the ones that do aren’t stupid enough to attempt it.
“What the fuck are you up to now, Ari? She’s a kid. Not one of us.”
“She’s twenty-three years old.”
“Still a kid.”
Glancing at him, I admit, “I killed my first man at her age.”
Lincoln’s jaw ticks. “She’s not a heartless bastard like you. I have a feeling I already know what you plan to do, and it won’t work. She won’t do it.”
He pauses, eyeing me with far too much intelligence behind his gaze. “And even if she does, it won’t make her understand your life any better. Take Grant out. Torture the asshole for days, if you want. But leave Adeline out of it.”
Before I can answer, Adeline comes out of her room and stares at us from the doorway leading into the hall. Her hair is beginning to dry, but still damp, her face a mask of contempt aimed directly at me.
While I stare back at her, refusing to give ground on the newest battle we’re fighting, Lincoln fills the silence.
“Why do you never wear pants?”
Her blue eyes release the hate stare from my face to flick to Lincoln. “Because the jerk sitting beside you never gives me any.”
He turns to me. “I bought her some when you asked me to. Where are they?”
Adeline’s eyes are back to hate staring me while Lincoln continues glaring a hole in the side of my face. I focus on the computer in my lap and decide they’re never allowed to be in the same room together again. Fuck this teamwork bullshit.
Grant sits in his living room with three men I don’t recognize, a cognac in one hand, cigar dangling from another. Fucker doesn’t have sound, but I don’t need to hear them to know they’re enjoying whatever conversation they’re having, shit eating grins adorning each of their faces.
What interests me more is the woman lingering near where Grant sits. It’s not his sister, and judging by the silk robe she’s wearing that’s open enough to reveal the side of her breast, she isn’t there to discuss investing.
“There are shorts in the same dresser in Adeline’s room where the t-shirts and underwear are that I’ve been giving her. If she’d bothered to stop acting like a scared bunny and looked, she would have found them over a week ago.”
A few taps of the keys and I’m looking at Grant’s bedroom to see the bed linens are rumpled as if someone had been there recently.
I’m not surprised, but it still pisses me off to see him continue playing the grieving husband on television while he’s already replaced his wife.
Adeline makes a disgusted sound at what I said and storms off in search of proper clothes. Let her be mad. I’m not here to coddle her, I’m here to build her up again.
I take the opportunity to turn the computer in Lincoln’s direction for him to draw the same conclusion as me about Grant’s activities.
He curses under his breath. “Are you going to tell her?”
I glance up at the now empty doorway where she’d once stood. “Think it’ll be enough for her to stop being a kid and do something about her abuser for once? We can’t