Tales of Darkness & Sin - Pepper Winters Page 0,56

they so worth it. Rich, old bastards like Silas Westwood think because they’re damn near double my thirty years in age, they’re wiser and more cunning.

They’re pathetic.

And I enjoy unraveling their perfectly constructed worlds one thread at a time. Westwood fucked my father over. In the worst possible way. Used Dad’s untimely death six years ago as an excuse to pretend money wasn’t owed to the Vitale name. As I slowly made my way through the list of people who took advantage of my father and me, I left the worst ones for last.

Westwood owes more than he could ever afford.

I will extract every dime from his name.

Catching him off-guard and taking her tonight rather than tomorrow was a subtle reminder of who truly calls the shots in our business relationship.

I’m stolen from my furious thoughts when the door to the Denali opens and Roscoe dumps my down payment onto the floorboard at my feet. He then rounds the vehicle and climbs up front with Hyde. Behind us, the rest of my security detail will follow in other black SUVs.

The men who protect me are just an image to portray for those who might view me as weak. Roscoe, Hyde, and the others don’t protect me. They assist me. I’m a cruel motherfucker who deals in blood and someone has to clean up after me.

I stare down at the mess of blonde waves covering the face of the Westwood girl. So small and innocent and young. Her fool of a father thought I negotiated in virgin pussy. In reality, I deal in pain. I wanted to hurt what he loves most. He clearly saw that vicious, predatory hunger inside me and delivered me a sweet morsel on a silver platter.

But this girl isn’t the one whom he loves most.

No, he loves himself more than money or expensive cars or women or his own fucking flesh and blood.

Because of this, I will find a way to shred every part of the thing he loves most. It begins with the child and it’ll end with everything. Finally having her in my possession is the first step in taking everything away from him.

Patience, Saint, you’re playing a long game.

The girl groans from the floor, gently rubbing her face and wincing when she does. It’s dark but her hair almost glows with the moonlight seeking her innocence through the windows like a perverted stalker wanting to catch a peek. It makes me wonder by what means they used to procure the girl once she ran from me at the carnival. My men aren’t gentle or the coddling type.

They’re killers.

As am I.

Accepting the girl—Melody—as payment had been the first move in the game Westwood and I are playing. The game I’ve strategized over for three years prior to our meeting as I analyzed his every move and watched him from afar. The motherfucker thought he pulled a fast one over me and I allowed him to think it too.

But the moment I showed up on his property three years ago, he knew he was in deep shit. The weasel attempted to play me with the whole, “Please don’t hurt my daughter,” nonsense. I’d been watching him for three fucking years before that meeting. It’s what he wanted. An easy way out. Take out the trash, Vitale.

If I had a heart in the cavernous, abyss inside my chest, I’d have felt bad for the fifteen-year-old girl the man was silently offering me. He knew what a bad man like me could do to a girl like her. And when I prowled through his estate to take a peek of the innocent thing, I almost felt bad for her.

Almost.

I, once again, allowed Westwood to think I was weak. Told him she was too young and that I’d come for her on her eighteenth birthday. It sounded so noble and I nearly smile at the thought of how easily I played the man. So, I waited him out, continued to watch his every move, and then came to collect my down payment.

She’s exactly that.

Nothing more than a token to be palmed inside my hand before I swoop in and wreck everything in the Westwood world. I will rob him of everything—his land, his assets, the suit off his back, his motherfucking dignity.

The girl moans again and tries to sit up. My cock reacts to the soft, feminine sound but I ignore it. If I end up fucking the girl, so be it, but that’s not what this is