be without me for even a moment, eh, Cora dear?” He paused. “What’s wrong, cupcake?”
She clung to him for a long moment before she managed to force herself to speak. “I think he’s going to put me in the tower.”
21
Simon saw red.
Well, all right, he usually saw half red all the time due to his sunglasses. But now, he saw red in rage. How dare Ringmaster! How dare that overbaked, overproved, maggot-infested, waste of space threaten his Cora.
It was ten steps before he realized he was dragging weight. And the weight was shouting at him and clinging to his arm. Oh. Yes. Right. Cora. He whirled to face her. She staggered back a step, afraid he might strike her. “What?”
She winced at his barked word. “Simon, stop. Don’t attack him. He hasn’t done anything.”
“Yet. He will. When he realizes you’re going to listen to reason and murder him, he’ll hurt you.” He grabbed her by the upper arms and yanked her back to him. “And no one will lay a hand on you without feeling my wrath. Do you understand? No one touches you but me.”
“Simon. Stop. Calm down. Please. You can’t attack Turk.”
“Oh?” He sneered. “Have you taken his side, then? Have you decided to let us all wither away and die?”
“No, but—”
“You have to make up your mind, Cora!” He shook her once. He didn’t mean to. He needed to do something. She went rigid in his grasp. She looked at him in such beautiful fear he wanted to drag her off to some dark corner and have his way with her. To spank her until she listened to reason.
Maybe he’d just spank her anyway.
He tried to focus as blood rushed from his anger to somewhere else. No, no. One thing at a time. Murder first, you fool. Bend her over your knee and teach her a lesson later. It was very hard to focus. Cora was still lecturing him, trying to convince him not to storm off and rip Ringmaster into tiny shreds.
Sadly, she was right. It wouldn’t stop anything. Ringmaster would just glue his fat ass back together and seek retribution. Simon needed a permanent solution.
More correctly, he needed his permanent solution to listen to reason and do her job.
He sighed heavily. He might as well let her feel as though she earned a win. Straightening his shoulders, he cracked his back and his neck audibly to one side then the other. “Very well. I will leave it alone for now. But if he threatens you again—if he raises a hand to you—I will find a way to make him suffer.”
It didn’t help cool his anger.
Cora sighed in relief and loosened a little in his grasp. “Thank you.”
“Are you really going to let him get away with this?” His shadow was cast up on the wall of the tent near them. “He’s going to hurt her! We love her. We can’t let that happen. If you’ve ever had a heart, any heart at all, we have to stop him. Put him in the bottom of the lake. Tie him up and dump him in a hole. Anything!”
Simon turned and glared at his shadow. “Shut up. For the last time, shut up.”
Cora glanced to his shadow, then back to him. “What’s he saying?”
“He agrees with me for once. That Turk is a danger that needs to be dealt with. But he is yammering on and making it hard to think.” Simon shot another vicious glare at his reflection. The dark blob sank lower on the wall, looking at them meekly.
“I’m trying to help.”
“The only way you can help is if you can convince Cora to do what must needs be done!” He pointed at the shadow angrily. “But you spend your time with her moping. Following her about like an abandoned dog and kissing her feet instead of being useful.”
Cora took a step away from him. “Stop it, Simon. Just stop it. You’re being cruel. Leave him be.”
He grimaced. “I am what I am, Cora dear.”
“I know.” She swallowed and took another step back. “I’ll talk to Elena alone. I have a lot of practicing to do before I can perform. I’ll see you later, Simon.”
He snatched her arm and pulled her back to him. That was not how he was going to end this. He caught her face in his grasp and lowered his lips to hers, stealing a kiss. She let out a quiet startled noise against him but didn’t struggle.
If anything, she surrendered to