Chapter 4

Four

Bastian

I rest my forehead on the door a moment and let the soul-crushing power of her words filet my insides with their razor-sharp edges. I'm not locking the door to keep her in. I'm locking it to keep myself from ruining her. But I can't keep her locked up forever. Accandis will be here at noon to take his bride and I might never see her again. What the fuck have I done?

James stands off to the side silently waiting with his hands linked in front of him and his eyes cast to the floor.

"Take this key. Don't use it until noon tomorrow."

"Yes, sir." There's no judgment in his voice. But there is a hint of sadness.

I turn and head toward my office. I've hurt her and now I almost took her virginity. I couldn't keep my hands off her soft skin or from tasting her lips with mine.

And all it took was her daring me.

I've never wanted someone so deeply before in my life. I couldn't keep from tasting her forbidden fruit at Christmas and months later, I've done it again. Only this time I had every intention of sinking my cock into her virgin pussy.

I'm still not sure how I found the strength to walk away.

I scrape a hand down my face.

I trusted you, Bastian.

"FUCK!" I roar into the emptiness of my home office. I rub at the pain drilling into my heart, but the hole in my chest widens and deepens from the pain in her voice.

I head to the bar and pour a double shot of vodka. Gripping the neck, I move to a chair positioned looking out over the city skyline. Lightning flashes and thunder rattles the enormous expanse of windows in front of me.

Unable to sit for long, I pace from one side to the other.

I need to have her in my arms again. I could go to her and take her from this place. I could hide her away and tell the Accandis she ran away. I could find them another bride to fulfill our contract. Someone more willing.

I can't stop the fierce rage of jealousy from tearing through me. This time tomorrow that Accandis prick will have the sweetness of Lili in his mouth and on his cock when she could belong to me.

When she should belong to me.

I could be done with all this and have her in my bed tonight if I was any other man.

I don't know how long I stare out the window when a loud knock comes at my office door. Lili would break it down, so I know it's James.

It's about damn time. "Come in."

"Sir."

"James. Where are your brothers? Have they done as I ordered?" My last hope at righting my wrong here lies in Accandis fucking up tonight in a way that voids our contract. Every hour that passes closes the window on any chance of that happening. Before long I'll lose Lili to those monsters, and I can't have that happen.

"That's just it, sir. I lost communication with Arthur and Con nearly an hour ago."

"And you're just now telling me?"

I've never seen my enforcer scared before, but the scrunch of worry creases his forehead, and his mouth pulls into a tight, white line. "You said every hour. The last time they checked in was two hours ago. I waited another hour and still nothing."

I grab my suit jacket and strap on my guns. "Where were they the last time you texted with them?"

"A warehouse but I don't know which one. They followed the Accandis men there."

This doesn't bode well. The ink on the contract isn't dry yet and they are already doing deals in my territory without my knowledge? If so, good. All I need is the proof.

"Stay with Lili. Make sure she gets that dress and is ready by noon." I don't say it out loud, but she'll be wearing it tomorrow to marry me and one way or another I'll void this fucking contract. I regret the second those fuckers put their pen to paper.

I head for the elevator with James behind me. I step inside and punch the button for the basement level. "You were right, James. I had no right to play God in her life."

"Don't tell me, sir. Tell her." The doors close on my enforcer's grim expression, and I don't blame him for looking like he wants to kick my ass when I want to do the same. I'm a fool for wanting peace with men who rather fight until the last man is standing than forge a peaceful union.

Liam could have heaven at his side with Lili, but he would rather be an asshole.

I spend hours driving the streets of Chicago looking for any signs of my enforcers. Turning up empty-handed all I can do is wait for bodies to show up or for them to walk through my door. If it's the latter, they better have an excellent reason for not being dead and not answering my calls. I have to get back to Lili. There's no way in hell I'll let the Accandis put a ring on her finger.

The elevator doors open up to water running over my shoes. Smoke burns my nostrils. Lili. What the fuck has she done?

My pulse ratchets up. "James!"

I don't need the explanation coming off his lips when he sprints out of the hallway to my left, heaving for air. This is one hundred percent Lili's doing.

"Key!" He tosses it to me, and I point toward the control panel on the far wall. "Get the damn sprinklers turned off!"

James is shaking his head before I finish. "It's jammed. The water fried the circuits or something."

For fuck's sake. Can this day get any shittier?

I leave James to do whatever he can. I throw open Lili's door to find a woman dripping wet. White cotton clings to her round breasts. Hard nipples press against the fabric and my cock is instantly hard for a woman that has murder glittering in her eyes. Black jeans stick to her shapely legs and that cute braid she's done has me wanting to pull every damn twist of hair loose just so I can get the full effect of her dripping-wet beauty.

"What the fuck have you done, woman?"

"Ding, ding, Daddy! Time for round two!"

Bright eyes blaze into mine. She lunges and my universe turns into a slow-motion reel. She doesn't see the danger she'll put herself in if she goes into fight mode. Every hard edge in this place has death written all over it. Warrior cries pierce my ears one second and then chaos takes over.

She flies. The edge of her elbow connects with my jaw. I take the hit. It's that or I let her get hurt. I do what I can to keep us both from getting killed and take the brunt force of her weight into my chest. I tuck her close and gravity does the rest.

It's not the fall that hurts. It's the fucking edge of the hallway table to the ribs that has the wind leaving my lungs. Glass cracks. Vases fall. Pink and orange lilies lay crushed all around us. Tiny little things my decorator put in all the flower vases scatter everywhere. And the insane amount of water my fire system is releasing nearly drowns us both.

I crash into the carpet, but Lili is the one sputtering in the indoor waterfall of her own creation.

She wiggles against me, and I lock my arms in place. "Stop fighting me, Lili. You have no chance of winning here."

She turns in my arms until she is facing me. Black mascara runs down her soft cheeks and I know she's crying. She always does when she's mad.

"I trusted you, you rat bastard. Let me go! I refuse to play your games. This ends today!"

I force us both to our feet. I keep my hand on her arm and level a hard look on her. Men have fallen to their knees under my punishing gaze. She just grows madder and shoots daggers into me. Given the chance, she'll make good on her last promise to me, so I stay between her and the jagged pieces of glass on the floor.

Her eyes drop to the guns in their holsters under either arm. They are both fully loaded and given her current state, the woman in front of me could do a lot of bodily damage.

I tip her chin up and grab her eyes off my weapons.

"Don't make this any worse. Give me time and I'll fix this. You need to trust me." I have no right to demand that of her, but what the hell.

"You had your chance!" She gets a wrist free and uses her newfound freedom to bury her fist in my face. I take the hit and force myself to remain calm. What I really want to do is fuck her up against the wall, the water be damned.

She jerks her arm away and runs into the living room.

"Lili!" I reach for her, but my footing slips and she gets away.

I can't stop her, but the gun to her head draws her up short.

"I see you're already causing chaos, my new bride."

My vision turns red at the sight of the Accandis in my penthouse looking like a drowned rat. "Liam," I say with disgust.

My mind flashes back to the darker times in my life when I killed men without questioning the full extent of the other man's crimes.

"What are you doing here?"

For every step I take toward him, the man-child retreats in the opposite direction. The arm anchored around her throat pulls Lili along with him.

"Bastian," she croaks, a look of fear in her eyes.

"It's ok, Lili. Stay calm," I reassure her.

I spy James' crumpled body by the control panel. Liam must have snuck up on him while he was trying to fix the sprinkler system.

I take another step that puts me close to the mouth of the hallway. "Take the gun from her head or I will see to it you spend your wedding night with your dick shot off."

"No, no, no. We have a contract signed, Irons. I'm here to take my bride and there's nothing you can do about it. You want the war to end? Then give me my prize. I'm not good at waiting."

I picture pulling the gun from my holster and burying a bullet between his eyes. I would before he got a shot off, but I'm not willing to gamble with Lili's life.

I nod like I'm agreeing to his words. "Have you seen my enforcers by chance?" The change of topic throws Liam off kilter. "I received a message last night about them seeing you pulling off a deal in my territory." I keep my tone deceptively casual like it's no big thing.

The scrawny man lifts a shoulder and has the balls to look innocent and then lie in my face. "Don't know what you are talking about. Besides, isn't your territory our territory now that I'm taking your blood as a bride?"

He wags the gun at Lili's head and my heart squeezes. Nothing in life has made me more nervous than seeing a loaded weapon at my stepdaughter's head.

Liam pulls her deeper into my living room and I follow.

"William. I see you've come prepared." Liam's father is leaning against the chair he sat in last night with a smug smirk on his face. He looks more annoyed by the water than what his son is doing.

A nervous-looking priest stands behind him. He's seen death before and he knows what is coming.

I take another step toward Lili, and Accandis Junior cocks back the hammer.

"You don't need to get any closer. Father thought we would have a little trouble with you. He told me you wouldn't take us barging in and claiming my bride. But I got bored and didn't want to wait. Sorry. Not sorry."

Lili clutches at Liam's arm around her throat, but stays quiet. She's got a lot of fight in her but it's a relief to see she knows when to play it cool. My respect for her grows.

I raise my hands. "Don't be stupid and get yourself killed before you can enjoy your wedding night. You have the upper hand here, for now." I let what comes after he lowers the gun hang in the air between us. If Lili wasn't the one caught in the middle of this dick-measuring contest, I wouldn't care who got shot. I'd end the little prick's life right here and right now.

His father raises both his hands, mimicking my move. I swing the full weight of my gaze to him, and I see the aging man's knees shake.

"Control your boy or I will, William."

"You can't control boys once they become their own man, Irons. You can just help control the chaos."

Lili snorts at that, and I shoot her a warning look.

Liam is too caught up in his own deranged head to realize she poses a threat to him. He turns to the priest and gestures with the gun for the man of faith to get ready. "Father Riley. Want to do the honors? Let's skip to the ‘I dos', got it?"

Lili strikes. Her foot comes down on the top of the asshole's foot and her elbow connects with his jaw.

She gets two feet from him, and I already have my gun pointed at his head when he grabs the tail end of her braid and yanks her back to him. "Naughty little bitch," he snarls into her ear. Liam keeps his head tucked behind Lili's.

"Missed your chance, old man," he calls out in an annoying sing-song voice. "Father. Let's hurry it up, yeah? I have a date with a feisty bride." He licks up the side of her face and I silently swear to cut his tongue out of his mouth the first chance I get.

"Ye…yes, sir," the priest rattles.

"I do," Liam blurts out, cutting off anything the priest would have said, and it feels like a kick in the balls. I let this happen, damn it. No, I made this happen. I put her in danger and all for some selfish reason of mine to see peace come to my city. I will burn this whole fucking place down and kill everyone in it to right the wrong I've done.

No one can have Lili. No one but me.

Liam takes out a gold band and forces it onto Lili's ring finger. She fights him, but the poor girl doesn't stand a chance against the boy and his father. Both of them have their arms locked around her until she can barely move.

"Get the hell off me," she bites out through the mass of her hair. It's come undone and hangs around her face in a wet mess. She thrashes but they only tighten their hold.

My guts roll into knots. "Lili, sweetheart. It's okay. It's all about to be over. Stop fighting." I keep my voice even. It does no one any good if I lose my cool. I watch and wait for the right opportunity to drop the little shit bag where he stands.

An elevator dings behind me and my two enforcers join our shit show.

Liam's face contorts with fear at seeing my bloody enforcers breathing despite the amount of blood on their clothes, I assume. Because before seeing them, he didn't look like a ghost crossed his path.

"Boss," they say in unison and then pull their guns. "He thinks a couple of bullets will put us in the grave." Con's laugh is diabolical.

Liam turns ghostly white and forgets he's holding a gun to my sweet Lili's head.

I take the opening.

But my bullet isn't for the son. It's the father I have to worry about. I know the sick fucker favors knives. His hand is already moving toward the blade on his side. I follow his line of sight to Lili's throat.

I aim.

His son is too slow, and he is already moving the barrel of his weapon toward my enforcers. He's not worried about shooting Lili. But his father has a wicked glint to his eye I recognize in a killer. He is out for her blood.

My gun goes off first, and for the second time today my world slows.

The Accandis kingpin falls.

Everything speeds up. Bullets whiz by my head but I don't stop moving toward Liam who cowers behind a large couch. He shoots around the edge, but his aim is off every time. Glass shatters and plaster rains down to mix with the water soaking our feet.

James moves in front of me, but I shove him toward Lili. "Protect Lili at all costs," I shout.

She scrambles across the floor trying to put something between her and the guns.

She doesn't see Liam taking aim with a second gun in her direction, but I do.

The gun goes off. Lili cries out and my heart stops beating. A part of me dies in that second. It is an alien feeling. Something I've never experienced before. I shove all the emotions creating chaos between my brain and heart into a compartment to unlock later. All I know is I can't lose her. I refuse to lose her.

My vision narrows and nothing else matters at that moment but stopping Liam from breathing.

I lunge for the man I want to beat to death with my bare hands.