Page 63 of Vicious King

“Your men,” Julian repeats. “You mean my fucking men.”

“No, we were never yours. We worked for your father. He would have been proud of what we’ve done.”

“Wait,” Mateo says when I reach for this motherfucker’s throat. “What else have you done?”

Leonidas grins but doesn’t say anything at all.

“String him up, naked,” I tell Spider and my men. “And let him hang for two days. I’ll be back to take more of his skin.”

“Just fucking kill me!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I reply as I walk away, and Leonidas starts to scream.

“Motherfucker put a tracker in her,” I growl as I stride down the hallway, my brothers flanking me. “He had to.”

“Probably before she married you,” Rome agrees, “but the battery probably would have died.”

“Doesn’t matter because, by then, he already knew where she fucking was,” Julian adds.

“We don’t know that the battery’s dead, and anything that piece of shit put in her doesn’t stay. I need to get home and get that out of her.”

Twenty

RINA

When the doorbell rings, Mildred and I stare at each other in the kitchen. Carson’s been gone for about an hour, and I know that there are plenty of men patrolling the compound, but it’s just the three of us in the house.

“Am I supposed to answer that?” I ask Mildred.

“It’s your house, so I assume so.”

I blink at her, and then, with a shrug, I walk through this stupidly huge house—that I kind of love—to the front door and peek out the side window before opening it.

A woman, who appears to be in her fifties, holding a large satchel, smiles back at me.

“May I help you?” I ask as I open the door.

“I’m Dr. Asgood,” she says. “I’m an employee of Carson’s, and I was told to come here right away. Is someone hurt?”

My stomach clenches. “No, but could he be hurt? Oh God, did something horrible happen and he’s on his way here to meet you?”

Not bothering to invite her in, or worry about the door at all, I spin and run for the kitchen, where my phone is sitting, and dial his number with trembling fingers, frustrated when I hit the wrong button twice.

“What’s wrong?” Mildred demands.

“I don’t know.” I’m shaking my head as Dr. Asgood strides our way. “She’s a doctor, and Carson told her to come here.”

The phone rings and rings and then just cuts off. No option for voicemail.

Of course my husband doesn’t like voicemail.

So, I dial it again. And again.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Dr. Asgood says, but I shake my head, and then the front door opens, and I run back there to see who it is. When I see Carson, I sprint and launch myself in his arms, wrap my legs around his waist and cling.

“Whoa, what’s wrong?”

“Don’t you ever do that to me again.” My face is in his neck, and I don’t want to let go. “If I call you, fucking answer your phone, damn it. You sent a doctor here, and I didn’t know⁠—”