Chapter 8 Pretense
Chapter 8: Asher
As my hand descended on her, my wolf stopped me, only adding to my irritation.
I tried to force myself to go through with it, ignoring the innocence on her face and the way my heart was rejecting my action. I wanted to prove not just to her but to myself that I didn’t care about her. I was only concerned with the lands her family stole from me. That was what mattered but try as I may, my hand refused to land on her cheek.
I pushed my wolf aside and forced my willpower to take control. This time, my fingers moved, and I prepared myself to finally hit her…
“My king!” Luciano’s annoying voice suddenly filled the room, cutting off my newfound strength to hit Scarlett.
My hand instantly fisted and I turned all my rage to him. “What is it? Don’t you know how to knock? What do you want?”
He bowed his head, keeping his eyes away from me but didn’t back away as I had hoped. He stepped closer and raised his hand, his eyes shining with determination. Some of my anger reduced as I figured, that whatever couldn’t wait, had to be serious.
“My king, the mission… it wasn’t successful. We have a problem.”
My eyes narrowed at him and a deep thirst for blood filled me. The frustration I had towards Scarlett vanished as the situation swirled in my head causing fresh rage to join my already chaotic emotions. I wanted to blurt out my anger at Luciano, but I held myself back. I didn’t want Scarlett to listen to the details.
“Come with me.” I snarled instead, as I moved away from Scarlett.
My fists were already folded as we marched down to my study and the second the door opened, I stepped in, and I turned to him. “Now how the fuck did those fools mess up the mission?”
“Their old beta happened to be there, and they countered the attack. Some of the men got caught, that’s why I came to you, so we can think of an extraction plan.”
My eyes widened as the rage grew inside of me. “What?” I hissed. “An extraction? For those fools?” I growled moving my eyes over his body.
Luciano lowered his head again. “My king, it is true that we employed real rogues and some outsiders and insiders, who wished to earn some good cash…”
“What does this have to do with the current conversation?”
Luciano cleared his throat and began again. “My concern is with the insiders. They know a few details that might link back to us. If they torture them, they will speak. We can’t afford to have them talk.”
Fuck.
“Damn it,” I growled. “An extraction is out of question. What if there was no safe zone?”
“But what do we do then? We can’t just sit here and hope that no one questions them. That’s not true at all.”
I started pacing. This was bad. That old Greg was very thorough. He wasn’t going to stop until he got names from those fools. If they mentioned our names, the plan was done.
“You will have to go there,” I suddenly said, and Luciano’s eyes widened. “I need all of them dead before that old fool gets a chance to question them. Since there is no extraction, they will definitely be an execution.”
Luciano’s eyes hardened as he finally understood what I was trying to say. He slapped his fisted arm to his chest and bowed. “That will be done… but we just need to have a good reason to send me there—”
My fists landed on the table. Hard.
Shutting out his silly whines; “Do I need to do everything for you?”
“No, my king. I was just— I don’t want us to make any mistake.”
My eyes narrowed down at him and from the way he was fidgeting, he was going to fail. “Fine. I’ll go alone.” There were enough failures already, the last thing I needed was for him to also get caught trying to fucking kill the rogues. That would be sick.
“Prepare the vehicles, we leave immediately.” A plan on how I was going to slip my way into their palace and kill those men was already forming in my head and I just needed one person to help solidify it, Scarlett.
I walked out of my office and went back to her room. I kicked the door open and met her sitting on the vanity chair, watching her reflection. As I stepped in, I expected her to flinch, but she barely even moved.
Almost like she didn’t even notice my presence.
“Prepare yourself. We are going to your brother, and you need to make them believe that you have missed them,” I growled with a deep voice of authority.
I was certain my instructions had been heard by her and I was turning to leave when her voice tore through the air of silence that originally occupied the room.
“What if I don’t want to leave?”
My legs stopped, my skin began to crawl, and irritation built within me as I turned to her. “Are you daring to defile me, Scarlett?”
She turned away from the mirror in front of her and stared at me. “I asked a simple question—”
“Then the answer to that is no. There is no room for your overpampered opinion. We are leaving in thirty minutes and that’s final.” I didn’t wait for her to give another response, I walked out of the room, banging the door shut.
I packed a few changes of clothes for myself before heading to the parking lot, where Luciano had already spoken to the drivers, yet both he and them hung aimlessly around in groups, discussing in hushed tones when they should be checking the vehicles.
Even when they saw me approaching, they simply bowed and Luciano started coming towards me, the drivers did nothing to move to their cars.
“My king,” He began, and I glared at him. “The drivers think that it would be safe if we travel tomorrow instead. The winds are very strong on the highway in the evenings. We might meet up with a storm.”
“Luciano,” I growled, and he raised his eyes to meet mine. “Come here…”
He didn’t hesitate and that was his mistake. As soon as he got close enough, I grabbed him by the neck and slapped him against the back of the closest car to me.
“Do you think a damned storm will mean anything when they get the truth out of those rogues?” I hissed, baring my teeth at him. “Do you know how much we would be losing?”
He shook his head, unable to utter any meaningful word as I applied pressure on his windpipes.
“I am going there, and I am going there now. I don’t care if there is a bloody sandstorm. We are leaving now!”
I withdrew my hand, and he hurriedly went to pass the new information to the pale-stricken drivers. Surely, they must have known that if it were one of them, I wouldn’t have thought twice before breaking them into two like dried twigs. Luciano was only lucky that I still liked him, and his duties were still relevant.
The drivers instantly jumped into their respective vehicles and started the engines. I went down to mine and the door was instantly opened for me to step in.
I was about to get impatient when the door opened again, and Scarlett finally joined me.
“Let’s move out.” I growled to the driver and the vehicle came to life.
What I was about to do was risky, but it had to be done. I had to just make sure that Scarlett could be trusted enough to act her part well.
So, as we got closer, hours later, I took her hand, surprising her. Her wide eyes stared back at me, and I could almost read the questions that moved through them.
“Dear Scarlett, I wanted to remind you of something,” I whispered, bringing her hand to my lips. “Your brother’s army is weak. An attack, offensive or defensive, no matter the tactic your dear uncle Greg and his son apply, can never measure up to what I have…”
She made to pull her hand out of my hold as her initial surprise faded but I held it back forcefully.
“My trained soldiers are not as stupid as those rogues. We would have them annihilated in minutes. Maybe the battle will be fierce for I know the great house of silly Talon would not go down without a fight, but that fight will be futile, my love.” My free hand, caressed her cheeks, loving the rage that was slowly building on her face, slowly wiping away the confidence she carried through the journey.
I brought her hand to my lips once again and as they made contact; she threw a broken stare at me. I smiled. “Good. I believe we are now on the same page my love. Welcome back home…”