Chapter 22

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

EDMUND

Harper

I don’t think I can do this.

You can.

But you don’t have to.

That video will ruin my life.

Nikki’s. Yours.

Do NOT do this for me.

I’d play the video of me taking your ass in the middle of Times Square.

If you do this, you do it for you.

I’m working on making this all go away.

Liz will lose her shit, but I’ve enlisted Grant to try to hack into Detective Asshole’s devices to wipe the video in question from existence. He’s doing it under the guise of me not wanting to tarnish my real estate empire, but he’s doing it.

It's just sex.

It’s never JUST sex.

There are always feelings.

Just these ones are disgust and disdain.

Anger, hatred, and rage are more accurate. Coupled with constant thoughts of putting his body beneath one of my builds.

The need to protect her— protect what is mine —and keep his hands away from her has consumed my mind since I walked out of her apartment the other day. Planning full and well to make good on my promise to her. Enough so that when the opportunity to run him down on Main Street presented itself, I floored the accelerator and nearly took him out. Broad daylight and too many witnesses are the only reason he’s still vertical today.

Open the door.

What?

Don’t make me repeat myself, Harper.

You know what happens when you don’t listen.

She is at the door a moment later dressed in frumpy sweatpants, but her makeup and hair are fully done. She’s looking as beautiful as ever.

Too fucking beautiful for him.

Grabbing Harper’s wrist, I drag her through the main living area and down the hall to her bedroom. Pulling her inside, I shut the door, grip her throat, and tip her face up to mine.

“You don’t have to do this.” I place a rough kiss on her lips. “But you can. Nothing changes.”

I don’t even know what this is.

Slipping my hand into her pants, I cup her bare cunt. “This is mine, little rose. I’m not done with you yet.”

Nearly a week of her—spilling myself inside of her at least once daily—and I still can’t fucking get enough of her.

“You do what you need to do.” I pull my hand from the front of her sweats before kissing her hard and deep.

If she is doing this, she’s going to do it with the taste of me on her tongue.

“But if you tell me to make him go away, I’ll happily oblige. And you’ll never see him again.”

Neither will anyone else.

“I’m good,” she mumbles against my lips.

“If you change your mind?—”

“I know,” she interrupts me. “You’ll be my first call.”

Walking away from her, I hate the position that she’s in. If we’d have just fucking killed him, this wouldn’t be happening. But I know Will is right about the heat that will bring on all of us. Heat that will lead us all straight to the death chamber.

Opening the door, I nearly bump into Detective Asshole on my way out. “Hmph, Detective Michales. Funny running into you here. Are you related to Nikki?”

“Um, yeah,” he lies, assuming he isn’t blackmailing his niece to fuck her.

“I’d love to catch up,” I spread a fake grin across my face, “but I need to get back to Adelaide Cove.”

Where I’m going to figure out how to put your ass in the ground.