Chapter 79 I will kill you right here

Chapter 79 I will kill you right here


The waitress froze. Her eyes got huge. So did Sienna’s. He could not be serious. Not with her father’s business between them. He was just trying to scare her.

The waitress hesitated, her hands trembling. The woman he was pointing at was his fiancée. This had to be some kind of cruel joke. “I… I beg your pardon?”

Caspian’s patience vanished. His face went hard. “Never mind. You cannot do it.” He looked past her, ready to call for someone else.

Another waitress stepped forward. She was older, her eyes tired. “Sir, I will do it. I need the money. My rent is due. My mother is sick, and the bills…” She trailed off, her meaning clear.

Caspian looked at her. He liked her resolve. “A thousand dollars. For one slap.”

The woman did not hesitate. She put her tray down on a table, stepped forward, and brought her hand across Sienna’s face with a crack that echoed in the quiet room. Sienna’s head snapped to the side and she fell right out of her chair.

She pushed herself up, tears already streaking her reddening cheek. Caspian leaned down, his voice low. “Are you ready to tell the truth now?”

The humiliation was almost worse than the sting. She got back into her chair, trying to find her pride. “Caspian, you will regret this. I already..”

Caspian just glanced at the waitress. The woman hit her again. This slap was harder, fiercer. She did not want to miss her chance. A sharp cry ripped from Sienna’s throat.

“Again,” Caspian said.

“No!” Sienna wailed, sobbing now. “Stop! I will tell you. I will tell you everything, I am sorry!”

Caspian nodded to the waitress. “You have two thousand. There may be more. Sit down.” The waitress pulled a chair over and sat, keeping her distance. She watched Caspian with new fear. What kind of man did this?

The first waitress watched, her own eyes filling with frustrated tears. She needed that money, too.

“Now,” Caspian said, turning back to Sienna. “The night I sent the jet. The pilot said you never answered your phone. Your mother was not sick. What happened?”

He sounded like a stranger. Sienna wiped at her face with a trembling hand. “Caspian, how could you let her do this? What about my father?” She saw his eyes flick toward the waitress and immediately changed her tune. “I was with Sebastian! He showed up without telling me. I did not want him to see my family, so I went to meet him and… he turned my phone off.”

Caspian’s gaze found Michelle’s for just a second. The pain and shame there was so deep it turned his eyes red. “So you were with your boyfriend,” he said, the words dripping with venom, “and you made me think I had wronged you. Now tell me. What about the drinks?”

Sienna went very still. She stared at the floor, silent.

Without a word from Caspian, the waitress got up and delivered another stinging slap. Sienna’s face felt like it was on fire.

She looked up at Caspian through her tears, begging him with her eyes to stop this, to be the man she remembered. He just stared back, empty.

“You are wasting my time,” he snarled.

Sienna wiped her nose, still saying nothing.

Caspian looked at the waitress. The next slap sent Sienna sprawling to the floor. “Kick her, too,” he said.

Sienna scrambled up before the woman could move, her face burning. The Caspian she knew was gone. This was someone else, something monstrous. “I paid someone!” she screamed, the words tearing out of her. “I paid someone to put something in our drinks! I do not know how that bitch ended up in your bed!”

A man’s hand, not a waitress’s, connected with her face this time. It was a hard, brutal sound. Sienna crumpled to the floor and did not move.

“Oh shit,” Lake muttered from his table. “He hit her himself. She called Michelle a bitch. That is what did it.” He looked around at the shocked faces. “I guess the show is over. Someone call for help.”

Michelle’s hands curled into tight fists. This was not right. If Sienna went to a hospital, she might slip away. She had not confessed to the most important thing. “No,” Michelle said, the word quiet but clear. “This is not finished. She has not said how she caused my accident.”

Caspian heard her. He reached for a bottle of wine, poured it all out into an ice bucket, and swirled the cold water around. Before anyone could ask what he was doing, he dumped the entire bucket over Sienna’s head.

She came awake with a gasp, shivering violently from the shock of the cold. But the cold in Caspian’s eyes was worse.

“If you waste one more second,” he said, his voice deadly quiet, “I will kill you right here.”